I've been covering TringMe since 2007, when they launched an Adobe Flash-based VoIP app. Later they added support for ChromeOS, VoiceXML, and even Silverlight. Today, TringMe's Founder and CEO Yusaf Motiwala informed me they've launched a WebRTC solution. WebRTC apps are a dime-a-dozen you say? Not so fast. The problem with WebRTC solutions is you must be in your browser, logged in, and on the WebRTC webpage. Who leaves a specific web page or tab open all the time, especially on their mobile phone? That's where TringMe's unique approach comes in. Yusaf Motiwala explained:
Traditionally, browser apps had their own limitations as the user had to visit a website, login to the account etc. to get online before he or she can start communicating, not as convenient as native application or mobile app. Fortunately, programmable browsers like Chrome and Firefox offer the flexibility to write extensions which are always running in the background requiring no effort from user and that’s the win-win approach we took. Today, we are releasing the first one for Google’s Chrome Browser. TringMe’s Chrome extension is one way to package and deploy an always ON application which can make and receive calls between TringMe users on Chrome extension, Mobile application or TringMe’s website.
To throw some more light on the extension market, as you may already know, there are a couple of Chrome VoIP extensions including Google’s own Google Voice that claim to offer VoIP service from extension. However, when you notice carefully, they redirect you to their website or provide only callback calls. In other words, no other Chrome extension provides real live peer-to-peer calls directly from within itself. With TringMe's Chrome extension, we would like to bring Chrome users an experience similar to a native desktop application (for e.g. Skype) where you are always online and ready to make/receive calls from the desktop on Windows, Linux or Mac OS.
Also, unlike other MobileVoIP solutions which only offer mobile-to-mobile p2p communication, TringMe also opens door to p2p communication between browsers and between browsers & mobile. Users can call TringMe's mobile app from browser and vice-versa. We have currently enabled this functionality for Android and hope to make it available on our Blackberry app soon too.
Very cool and I'm told it supports HD audio. The always on connectivity makes WebRTC a good alternative to traditional mobile VoIP apps you install from mobile app stores (or desktop VoIP apps like Skype for that matter). I'm about to test it, but feel free to download the TringMe extension from the Chrome Web Store and check it out as well.
Tags: android, browser, chrome, extension, firefox, mobile voip, tringme, voip, webrtc
Related tags: chrome extension, receive calls, yusaf motiwala, between browsers, tringme, chrome
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