Yoomba - Free Internet Voice Calling Via E-mail
I’d compare Yoomba to Skype, but without the registration part. I also also like to call it the Trillian, or the meebo of Internet voice calling.
Wouldn’t it be great if you can chat with your friends even if the network that their account belongs to is different from yours? Wouldn’t it be convenient to have a centralized communication platform where you can talk (or chat) with your friends from various e-mail networks such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL and Hotmail? For example, if you have a Yahoo! account and your friend only has a Google Account, how will you be able to communicate in real time? Chatting through e-mail will most likely be inconvenient. Thank goodness there’s Yoomba! Yoomba acts as a mediator between several e-mail networks so you can use your e-mail account to chat or make calls with your contacts. You simply have to type in an e-mal address in the Yoomba contacts field and you’re one step away to chatting or talking with that person. It’s that easy. No registration needed! I suggest you try it out.
Getting Started with Yoomba in 3 Easy Steps
- Download the Yoomba application and install it:
http://download.yoomba.com/YoombaSetup.exe
- Activate your existing e-mail address so that it can be used on the Yoomba software.
- Find a contact and begin talking (or chatting)!
Conditions/Reminders:
- Your contact needs to have Yoomba installed as well.
- Your contact should activate his/her e-mail address for Yoomba use.
- Voice calls require a microphone and a set of speakers, or a headset.
- When logging out for the first time, Yoomba will prompt you to change your password. Please do so and remember your password. (seems buggy at the moment)
- Yoomba is still in beta so expect a lot of bugs.
System Requirements
From the Yoomba FAQ page:
Yoomba works on Windows XP & Win2000. We support Outlook versions 2000 and higher, Internet explorer versions 5.5 and higher, and partially support Firefox. Mac and Linux are currently not supported, but Yoomba versions for these platforms are in the works.
Yoomba Help
Yoomba is the only open communications experience that allows you to talk through your email, for free, globally. Yoomba turns any email address into a phone and messenger. Yoomba has broken down the walls of communication between the existing closed group networks in the world of internet calling and messengers!
Yoomba allows email calling and email chat inside your Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, webmail and more! No searching or adding contacts, no registration, no need for a new email address, a new ID, or another phone number. No need to log in to multiple applications. All your contacts are immediately available for calling and chat.
To sum up: See an email address on your screen - call and chat with it - with a touch of a button.
July 14th, 2007 at 1:45
This is very interesting tool. I personally, use the following tools for my day to day call.
1. Yahoo voice: Outgoing call - It’s rate is cheap
2. AIM Phone Line: Incoming call - Free and Free local number
3. MSN: Video conference - Free
4. MeeBo: Online live chat
5. Skype: Live broadcast
If I can get all in one tool for all above tasks, I will be in heaven.
July 14th, 2007 at 6:57
Hi Terence,
Interesting indeed! But there seems to be a bug when changing the password in this beta version of Yoomba.
You have a lot of tools there. With Yoomba, at least anyone with an e-mail address can potentially chat or talk to you with the least effort possible.
July 14th, 2007 at 20:59
nice tool, nice revew, let’s hope it will evolve to giving all the services free
July 16th, 2007 at 3:23
Yeah, I hope so too. This tool will even be nicer if it has a web-based version.
July 1st, 2008 at 0:31
This is a great tool I love using it.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:34
This is nice, a lot of tools are coming out now a days.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:16
Sounds good
Let me know when I can use Apple Macbook Pro
September 25th, 2008 at 1:38
So, if i’m running Vista, Does that mean I just have to forget about it? any update for today?
September 27th, 2008 at 3:33
You could release many voice calling programs but nothing can beat yet Yahoo messenger.
October 8th, 2008 at 15:40
I’ve been using the Yahoo messenger for a long time. But it wouldn’t hurt if I give a shot on this Yoomba.
-M from Mexico
October 10th, 2008 at 0:50
Is it really better tha msn or yahoo? what about skype?
November 24th, 2008 at 10:47
For those of you thinking that if they implement this it will eliminate some of the waiting and lines…
February 14th, 2009 at 9:06
this looks like it will be super easy to follow, very user friendly, internet is the number one form of communication for overseas friends…actually for friends period, its just so easy! chats are definatley the way to go!
March 6th, 2009 at 1:28
Lately Yahoo messenger is having problems and I’m not sure if I will keep it as the main messenger. Good to know there are more options.
March 29th, 2009 at 14:59
Firstly i used rediff and then yahoo but on both of them there are hell lot of spammers..i think i should give out a try to this one..
April 12th, 2009 at 2:22
I don’t like Yahoo anymore. Gtalk is better!!
April 15th, 2009 at 21:29
Yahoo is crap now. Better to look for new options like this.
April 29th, 2009 at 14:15
I use only gtalk. It is very simple to work with gtalk. It looks so professional. Only difficulty is file transferring is not that easy here. Else, gtalk is very efficient and consumes very less space.
June 8th, 2009 at 19:30
This is a great site the article has been very very helpful and i would recommend it, and some good points have been made here, this what blogging should be about.
June 12th, 2009 at 7:45
nice tool thxxss
September 10th, 2009 at 17:50
Does anyone know when you will be able to port cell phone numbers over to Google voice?
September 11th, 2009 at 10:10
wow… this is a cool post. This will definitely put some competition on the telephone companies. They are complete rip offs with these crazy fees. I’m glad we have other companies like this out here.