
Show HN: Painless, free conference calls - dylanbfox
https://www.swiftcall.co/
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rahimnathwani
I like:

0) The use of a set of different phone numbers instead of different conference
rooms.

I don't like:

1) Why only a US number, when people are used to freeconferencecall.com, which
has access numbers in many countries?

2) Why make someone visit a web site to set up a call? Isn't the user's
calendar (e.g. on their mobile) the natural place for them to set up virtual
meetings?

3) Why do I have to enter the PIN manually? RFC2806 defined pause and wait
characters for URLs, back in the year 2000:
[https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2806.txt](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2806.txt)

Also:

4) The link on the bottom-right of the page leads to
[https://emerge.cisco.com/](https://emerge.cisco.com/) but that server is
refusing connections on port 443. I can connect with plain http.

~~~
dylanbfox
Thanks for your feedback!

Right now this is product is just in a pilot phase, but we are absolutely
looking into more international options in the future.

To your second point, what we think about a lot is an API developers could use
to build this functionality into their apps or websites. So while you're in
your calendar app, or in your task management app, you could easily accomplish
the same thing (quickly scheduling a call and having a number provisioned).
Would love your thoughts/feedback on this.

And thanks for catching that protocol mismatch!

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jbob2000
I really like services that make things simpler. Each company seems to have a
different process for managing conference calls, so anything to make it easier
is a win in my books.

That being said, the issue with conference calls has never been about the
interface or the cost; people will learn and companies will pay. The issue has
always been the network. Dropped calls, bad reception, bad internet, etc. I
don't see anything in SwiftCall that addresses that.

~~~
dylanbfox
That’s a really thoughtful point. Definitely agree that the simplicity is only
half of the problem.

What we think we’re seeing is a trend of more powerful networks becoming
available as platforms. For developers and companies to use through things
like APIs. And if that is the case, we were interested in experimenting with a
simple interface to those platforms.

Swiftcall, for example, is built on top of Tropo, which is a cloud
communications API that has features like multi-party conferences and add
advanced features including recording and SIP.

We’re definitely keeping track of feedback about the quality of the calls and
network performance, though. Because if that is poor, that’s a much more
impactful and memorable bad user experience then the scheduling of the call in
the first place. Agree with you there.

Thanks for taking the time to check the project out and for your thoughts!

~~~
jbob2000
Good point about more powerful networks becoming available, that never came to
mind when I wrote my critique. I guess the phrase "conference call" is a
little dirty to me, so I was quick to judge. Thanks for taking the time to
respond!

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katzz
Hey, we've been working on this as an experiment to see how frictionless we
could make phone conferences. Please give us feedback and comments here.
Thanks!

------
jjp
Does free mean no charge to set-up the call or does free mean a toll free
number for the call? Is the number that gets issued +1 only or do you offer a
choice of which country the call is hosted in? How do you cater for
participants from multiple nations?

~~~
dylanbfox
As of now, the number that's issued is a +1 number. And it's issued for free.
You have a really good idea, though. In the future we're thinking about
offering the option to select the country where the call is hosted. Or to also
allow people to join/call-in right from their browser. That would make it
easier for international participants to join as well.

~~~
webwanderings
So is it not available for anyone outside of US? Is Canada covered?

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JoeAltmaier
No matter how far we come, we can't escape the 'phone call' experience.

I've been working at Sococo for a few years. We designed a communications
platform for groups that takes it to the next plane - always connected,
frictionless collaboration. You don't have codes and conferences and
schedules. You click in and out of zones on a map. Folks are organized in
teams, in pre-authenticated groups so no passcodes ever to start talking.
Connection times are in milliseconds. You can tell who's communicating with
whom at a glance. You can bring someone into a meeting with a click.

Alexander Graham is long dead; lets please escape the 'phone call'
straightjacket!

------
pavornyoh
How do you make money if it is free?

~~~
katzz
We don't make money on this particular product.

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mariawatson44
Is it available in HongKong?

~~~
katzz
Unfortunately it's only available with US conference call numbers at the
moment - if we see enough interest in the product we will expand to more
countries.

~~~
mariawatson44
Many thanks :)

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shan2nell
Simplified call

