Secrets of the Truphone ring...

There are subtle clues embedded in the Truphone ring that indicate whether the call is VoIP-rate or totally free...

Listen to this - how to tell it's a Truphone call

One thing that makes Truphone different (and better, we humbly suggest) is that your phone works as always. No separate application - dial as usual and save pots of cash.

And how do you know your call is going via Truphone? Easy - thanks to our spankingly-innovative 'Truphone Ring'.

Now when you're making a Truphone call, you simply hear a funkier ring.

That's it! Nothing to learn, nothing to set up - just make your call as normal, and if that call is going via Truphone, you'll hear a different ringing sound.

"A funky ring means it's a Truphone thing"

Presence not present

We introduced presence as part of our beta 3 last month and boy did it have an impact. You told us you loved it, and we got lots of great feedback, but meanwhile it was hammering the servers and becoming less reliable as more people upgraded and began to use it.

Our aim is to give you, first and foremost, a reliable VoIP service so in the interest of ensuring stability we've taken the decision to take it down for the time-being, wheel it back to the Truphone labs and polish it up Greased Lightning-style ready for Presence 2.

Forthcoming maintenance-release versions of Truphone will have the service disabled by default. Meanwhile, we advise existing users to disable presence manually. Run Truphone and choose these menu items: Options » Settings » Presence » Incoming presence

However, as we're offering free calls to 40 countries to the end of the year you can still make free calls to literally billions of numbers. Plus with the introduction of the new Truphone Ring (see today's other post) you can be sure that the call you're making is going via the Truphone service irrespective of whether someone's online or not.

Thanks for your feedback

Thanks for all your comments so far on version 3 of the Truphone beta. We're using all of it to shape the next release.

One area that we're actively working on is presence stability and reliability. This functionality on a mobile device is very complex and we know it could be improved. We've got Presence 2 in the laboratory, but meanwhile keep your thoughts coming. Presence lets you know when you can make a free call, but while we polish it up you can of course benefit from free Truphone calls to landlines (and many mobiles) in 40 countries around the world till the end of the year anyway

Thanks again.

Join the Truphone Group on Facebook

We've just set up a group for Truphone users on Facebook. Its brand new, so feel free to come and post a message!