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Update on FireRTC Beta

January 30, 2015, 9:46 am
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We have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that the release of Firefox 35 introduced a bug that prevents the FireRTC add-on from working properly.

For those of you that are into that sort of thing, and want to help us out by upvoting it, here is a link to the bug report:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1122036

The good news is that we have been working hard to release a web version and are completing our Chrome extension, so you will still be able to use the service. Once the bug has been addressed by Mozilla, or a work around can be found, we will release on Firefox.

Thanks for your patience. In an attempt to make it up to you, here is a picture of a kitten.

Check our Twitter feed for updates. Talk to you soon!
 

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It's all About Real Estate

April 29, 2015, 1:34 pm
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The first question we inevitably get from potential investors is, ‘Why, when there are seemingly so many alternatives, did we decide to build a voice and video chat tool?’ 

To be clear, building a phone in the browser was not what we set out to do. We originally wanted to provide contextual data to the people making and receiving calls. We thought it odd, that with all the data now available, why do we still get just a phone number, and if we are lucky, a name when someone calls us?   

 

Oh, it's doggy daycare!

Oh, it's doggy daycare!

To address this problem, we started building a product we codenamed Scout.  The concept of Scout was us to pull data from multiple sources, and then use fuzzy logic to distill it down to provide users with accurate, useful information about their calls.  It worked beautifully.  We ran into issues however, while attempting to present this intelligence to users in real-time. There were no phones, soft or otherwise that can practically display the information to users, and allow them to speak on the phone at the same time.  There was simply no room to present the data.

After an unsuccessful search for a suitable platform to present the Scout data, we set about building our own. Our solution was the build the voice and video chat into the browser itself. The browser is the most logical choice to deliver both calls and the contextual data for the following reasons:

  • If the computer is on, the browser is most likely running

  • A browser allows data to be presented in an easy-to-use and visually pleasing manner

Once we started using it, we quickly realized how much more convenient it was to use our browser to make and receive calls.  Not only did it leave both our hands free to type or take notes, but as we do most of our work in the browser anyway, it just made sense to make and receive our calls there too.

So why did we build a FireRTC? FireRTC was built because no mobile phone, desk phone, or desktop app can come close to matching the rich presentation of the web browser while simultaneously allowing the user to easily voice or video chat.  

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How to push the boundaries of Pushbullet with FireRTC

May 12, 2015, 12:07 am
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We are huge fans of Pushbullet. It allows us to put our phone away while we are sitting at our computer, and still not miss a message. It's so much more convenient to read and reply to an SMS using my keyboard rather than a touch-screen.

That said, Pushbullet doesn't help much with actual phone calls.  Here are some experimental features we've added to FireRTC to help with that problem.

mobile-incoming-call.png  

While logged into FireRTC, if an incoming call hits your cellphone, it'll alert you in FireRTC.

 

The call notifications will even be enhanced using contextual information from FireRTC's intelligent caller-id capabilities.

 

There's even a way to configure your android phone to forward the call to FireRTC on your PC if you miss or reject the call.

    pushbullet-addon.png

FireRTC will even push back out enhanced notifications to all your devices.

mobile-pushbullet-push.png

As if that's not enough, FireRTC users can even return the call directly from their PC.

 

Some of this functionality is very early stage and has only been tested on the Nexus phones.  Request a beta account and help us streamline these features.  Thanks.

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We just added free calling to Puerto Rico

May 21, 2015, 6:48 am
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Due to popular demand, we have now added free calling to Puerto Rico. 

Our goal is to eventually open up the whole world. Let us know what country you would like to call next!

 

 

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How to forward calls on vanilla Android Lollipop

May 26, 2015, 1:32 pm
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Want to take mobile phone calls on an alternate number?  Android provides an easy and flexible solution to do so. Follow the directions in the screenshots below.

  Select the dialer
 Open the dialer menu
 Select 'Settings'
 Select 'Calls'
 Select 'Call forwarding'
 Choose when you want to forward a call
 Enter an alternative phone number you would like to forward your calls to*
 On incoming calls, dismiss and it will forward to your alternative number
  
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How to Change Your Caller ID

June 1, 2015, 2:44 pm
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Answering calls from unfamiliar or private numbers is a bit like clicking on random links on the Internet; sometimes it's a pleasant surprise, but more often than not, it leaves you with disappointment, regret, and occasionally, nightmares.

Luckily, FireRTC allows you to set your desired Caller ID so that friends, family and business associates will recognize who's calling.

Call From Google Hangouts

Call From FireRTC

To modify your Caller ID, click on the Menu button and select ‘Settings’.  Populate the ‘Edit Caller ID’ box with a North American number and click ‘Save’. 

Users of the app will need to log-out and login for the changes to take effect.  

As a friendly reminder, it is against our Terms of Service to use FireRTC for harassment, to commit fraud and/or otherwise engage in any illegal activity.

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Call U.S. Senators and Congressmen easily with FireRTC

June 16, 2015, 1:04 pm
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“...it is the people who control the Government, not the Government the 
people.” 
― Winston S. Churchill

Have you ever thought, "Man, I really want to give Congress a piece of my mind, but I am just too damned lazy to do anything about it."? We're lazy too, that's why to save everyone the effort, we uploaded every member of Congress' DC office number into FireRTC (special thanks to Contacting the Congress for the info). 

All you need to do is type in the name of your Congressman or Senator into the search box, and you'll be contributing to our great democracy. Don't forget to change your caller ID, so they know it's a call from within their district. 

Remember, members of Congress want to hear from you. Assuming you are respectful and succinct to the person answering the phone, you'll have an excellent chance of having an impact on the member's decision.

Our friends at the Majority Report used FireRTC to contact Congress on the air during the Trans-Pacific Partnership debate.   

  Call Congress
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Log your Phone Calls in Google Calendar with FireRTC

June 29, 2015, 11:39 am
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FireRTC has added Google Calendar integration to allow for more comprehensive tracking and searching of call records.

To enable Google Calendar integration, take the following steps:

  • Link your Google Account with FireRTC. (Keep in mind, you may have already done this when you imported your contacts) To do this visit Settings, and click “Connect” next to the Google icon.

  • In Settings, click 'Configure' next to the Google Icon.

  • Select the check box next to 'Log Calls to Google Calendar' and then click 'Save'.

Once you are properly configured, incoming and outgoing calls will be logged automatically to a calendar named “FireRTC” (Note - Android users may need to enable syncing for this calendar on their phones). 

As with all Google Calendars, you may share this calendar so others may view your call logs as well. You may also search for call logs using the caller name, phone number, or even address!

 
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FireRTC is now on Facebook

July 15, 2015, 3:53 pm
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Well, we figured that we may as well join the party!  We set up a Facebook page here.

We'll post all new updates and features there as well as here on the blog. 

The Facebook App will be soon to follow! In the meantime, you can get started making free telephone calls to the US, Canada and Puerto Rico in 30 seconds by signing up with FireRTC now.

 

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Free Conference Calling on FireRTC

July 20, 2015, 11:04 am
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We are rolling out an integrated, free conference call platform with FireRTC. Though it is still a beta-feature, it is open to all users immediately.

To host a conference call, simply type in 'conference' into the dialer. You will hear an announcement and then be prompted to enter a PIN. Choose a PIN for the call, and you are good to go. If others want to dial in from FireRTC, they can dial 'conference' and enter your secret PIN that you have set up.

If they want to use a regular phone, the dial-in number is 1-641-715-3363.

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Why the Chrome Web Store Sucks

July 28, 2015, 12:21 pm
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To be fair, the Chrome Web Store is not the world's worst app store. It's just almost the worst, ranking somewhere between the Blackberry App World and the Windows App Store. But, with some small improvements, it can be significantly better.

The Good

Quick, easy to publish - Publishing an app or extension for Chrome takes literally minutes. The automated review process lets developers know what will fly and what won't, almost immediately. That is more than we can say about some other popular browsers (looking at you Firefox).

Region and language options - Choosing where and in what languages to publish your app is also very easy and straight forward.

The Bad

This is not an app, it is a link to a website!

This is not an app, it is a link to a website!

Lots of “apps” that are merely links to websites -  Why does Soundcloud have a banner and why is Netflix an editors' pick? These apps are literally links to websites and don't deserve to be ranked over actual apps.

The relationship between apps and extensions is confusing - Developers are unable to package Apps and Extensions together, which creates a confusing experience for the end-user.

Apps are difficult to find when installed - Apps, unlike extensions, are very difficult for end-users to locate within Chrome after installing. Chromebook users have it slightly easier, but the vast majority of users do not run ChromeOS.

Poor analytics - Though you can and should connect your app to Google Analytics, the traffic analysis on the App Store itself is downright terrible. On the days when it actually updates (not every day), it provides impressions, but provides zero context. 

 
Does an "Impression"mean they viewed your app while browsing? "Users of this app have also used"? What about "related apps" when viewing another app? As our conversion rate varies quite a bit as compared to Impressions, it would be excellent information to have.

Stats and ratings update haphazardly - Why does it take several days or even longer for ratings to be updated? What's worse, the updates do not appear to happen on any regular schedule. Developers are left to question whether users are actually rating the app.

Recommendations make no sense - I have no idea why Google thinks I would be interested in any of these. 

Ironically, search sucks - Our app, FireRTC, cannot be found by searching for "Fire RTC".

Terrible browsing experience - Users cannot cross reference or rank searches. For example, try finding the most popular social app. 

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FireRTC Chrome Extension Released

August 4, 2015, 1:25 pm
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Good news everyone, we have released the FireRTC Chrome Extension! Here are the things it can do:

If you read our post about why we think the Chrome Web Store Sucks, you will know that one of our big gripes about Chrome Apps is how hard they are to find once you have installed them. The extension will go a long way towards fixing that by allowing you to launch the app by clicking the FireRTC button on the upper right-hand corner of your browser.

The extension will also allow you to highlight a phone number in your browser, right-click on it, and then call it with FireRTC.

It will pull all phone numbers out of a Gmail thread and turn them into clickable, FireRTC links.

Finally, extension users may initiate a call directly from the Chrome address bar. To use this, type 'call', then press the Tab key. You may then enter a name or phone number of the party you would like to speak with.

To get the extension, download it from the Chrome Web Store.

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Call Toll-Free Numbers from Outside the US

September 17, 2015, 8:20 am
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When traveling outside the US, even the mundane task of calling your bank can prove to be a challenge. For reasons I won't go into here, many times it's impossible to make toll-free calls from outside the US, even if you're willing to pay for the privilege to do so.

The good news is that with FireRTC you can make free calls to US and Canadian toll-free numbers from anywhere in the world.

Happy Travelling!


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Why I bought my parents a Chromebook

October 7, 2015, 10:22 am
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As someone who has made the mistake of buying his older parents a Windows machine several years ago, I quickly realized that being a 24x7x365 Support Desk was part of the deal.

Every holiday required several hours spent cleaning a machine that had been bogged down with ad-ware, browser extensions, and unnecessary programs.

"I didn't install anything."

"I didn't install anything."

It has been widely reported that Chromebooks are taking over the classroom, supplanting iPads, Macs and Windows systems. The price, form-factor, and ease of management are all very appealing to school districts.

Since I had many of the same problems, albeit on a much smaller scale, that schools face, I figured it was worth a shot. I surprised my parents with a Chromebook as a replacement for their Windows machine and after some initial instruction they were off and running.

In the past six months they have had no issues that they couldn't resolve on their own, and most importantly, the Support Desk is now closed for good.

 

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FireRTC Now Using FCC's Robocall Data to Block Unwanted Calls

October 22, 2015, 12:49 pm
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Who hasn't had this happen to them?

Jerry: This isn’t a good time.
Telemarketer: When would be a good time to call back, sir?
Jerry: I have an idea, why don’t you give me your home number and I’ll call you back later?
Telemarketer: Umm, we’re not allowed to do that.
Jerry: Oh, I guess because you don’t want strangers calling you at home.
Telemarketer: Umm, no.
Jerry: Well, now you know how I feel.

According to the FCC there were over 215,000 complaints for unwanted calls and texts lodged in 2014. It is “by far the largest complaint category to the agency.”

In an effort to combat this problem, the FCC is releasing consumer complaint data on a weekly basis and we will in turn use it to block these calls from FireRTC users.

Even when combining this data with FireRTC's enhanced Caller ID, we still won't be able to catch all phone spammers, but our data suggests that we will help to block the worst offenders.

 

 

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Call Recording is Here!

December 4, 2015, 7:41 am
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After months of planning, coding, frustration, testing, snacking, more coding, more frustration, a tremendous amount of profanity, and much more testing, we are ecstatic to announce that call recording will start going into production today.  We will continue rolling-out this feature over the next several weeks, so be on the lookout for it.

Both parties will hear an announcement that the call is being recorded. Make sure you have permission from the other party before you record the call. Though every state is different, you can get into trouble for recoding without consent in some places.

To retrieve your recording, navigate to call history and click on the 'i' next to the call. We will also send you an email with a link to the recording. If that is not enough, those users synced with their Google account can locate the recording from their calendar as well.

To record a call, wait until you are connected, then press the 'Record' button, which is here:

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

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Transfer Live Calls to Your Mobile Phone

December 15, 2015, 11:50 am
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You are on a conference call that's running long, but you need to leave the office. What do you do?

Well now with FireRTC you can seamlessly hand this call off to your mobile phone and nobody's the wiser.

How, you ask? Easy, just follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the dial pad view and select "Transfer Call” from the pull-down menu.
  2. Type your mobile phone number and press enter.
  3. In a few seconds your mobile will ring and as soon as you answer it the call will be transferred.
  4. The other party will not hear this happen.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

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FireRTC on Android

October 4, 2016, 12:13 pm
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You can now launch FireRTC directly from your Android device.

Start by visiting https://app.firertc.com from Google Chrome on your Android phone.

 

Click the menu button, and select ‘Add to Home screen’.

Note: Make sure that have already completed the setup process and are at https://app.firertc.com/phone before performing this action.

 

Confirm the name.

Make free calls from your Android phone!

Note: This may not work on all Android devices.

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FireRTC Adds Free Calling to the UK

September 1, 2017, 11:25 am
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Union Jack

You spoke and we listened. FireRTC now offers free calling to the United Kingdom.  To use, dial 011+44+number; example: 011448000988316.

Happy Calling!

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