VoIP

We live in very uncertain times and while it sounds revolting, there are always those who will take advantage of that fear and uncertainty to make a quick profit. Fraudulent calls, especially the automated ones called "robocalls", have always been a menace, especially in the US, costing Americans billions per year on both wasted time as well as fraudulent transactions. There have been many proposed solutions to this problem but now the FCC is putting its foot down and is making the STIR/SHAKEN a requirement by June next year.

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Google Voice users on iOS have a new privacy feature and it'll be arriving soon on Android, too. Called Anonymous Caller ID, the new setting gives users the option to hide their caller ID on all outgoing calls, eliminating the need to manually block caller ID with each phone call. The new option joins the recent VoIP call support and a couple of other changes.

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In January, Microsoft launched a new feature called Private Conversations that offers end-to-end encryption for helping keep data secure. That feature was only available to Insiders at the time, but Microsoft has now released an update that brings the encrypted chats to all users. The update is now live for desktop, Android, and iOS.

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Google Voice sometimes feels like the forgotten service in Google's portfolio, but a new app update has given the calling service a quick refresh. Launched on iOS with an update this week, the new app won't blow anybody away with its new functionality, but it does make using Google Voice a little easier if it's your primary voice call system.

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Apple has taken new action against app developers in order to comply with new cybersecurity laws in China. The company has begun warning iOS developers that any apps using Apple's CallKit will be pulled from the Chinese App Store unless they remove the framework's integration. This comes after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has started to enforce regulations that see CallKit as a way to help bypass censorship and surveillance.

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Google has no shortage of communication services and apps, each of them overlapping with one another in some way. Some of them haven’t been shown some love, sometimes even for years. Google Voice is perhaps the on that got the shortest end of the stick despite how useful it is. Now, however, Google seems to be preparing what might be the biggest update to the service in a long time. It is putting out a call for beta testers of its Wi-Fi and mobile data calling, a.k.a. VoIP that would, of course, overlap with other Google apps and services that offer the same functionality already.

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Google Voice, the company’s seldom mentioned VoIP service, is going to be on the receiving end of some updates soon. News of the updates first arrived via a link some users were seeing when they visited Google Voice. The link and notification encouraged users to click to see the new Google Voice, but the related web page isn’t live at this time. Having accidentally revealed its efforts, Google has since confirmed that yes, it is working on some new updates.

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T-Mobile has introduced DIGITS, a new voice over LTE feature that will allow customers to use their phone numbers on a variety of internet-connected devices. Just as well, DIGITS will allow its customers to use multiple phone numbers on a single device. At first blush, DIGITS may sound like some VOIP solutions that exist, and though there are some similarities, T-Mobile is trying to make the experience with DIGITS a little more fleshed out.

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Today Google announces the Fiber Phone, a service that uses your home internet connection to act as a landline (and your mobile device, too). Just like you had when you were a kid, but VoIP. A phone that stays at home. Or it can go with you - whatever you want. The Fiber Phone "lives in the cloud" says Google, and it'll ring at home when you're at home, or in your pocket when you're out of the house.

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The Web version of Skype has added support for calling landlines and mobile phones directly, making it a bit easier to make cheap calls from your browser. That’s not the extent of its update, though — the service has also added support for watching YouTube videos within Skype for Web, as well as adding anyone (including non-Skype users) to a Skype for Web conversation, and new notifications that appear in the browser.

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/whisper, /tell, /reply. These were the tools of communication during early online gaming. Sure you also had various channels to talk in with your guild-mates, and you still do. But these days if you want to be competitive in any way, typing is just out of the question. You've got plenty of choices for when you want to get on a headset and chat. But sometimes too many choices is a bad thing. If the game you're playing has their own built-in voice chat client, then it just makes everyone's life easier. Which is exactly why Blizzard is entering the voice chat game.

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Nucleus (the name of both the company and the product) is a new device that aims to combine the best of video calling and home intercoms with voice commands. The mini tablet can be mounted to wall or just placed on a counter or table, and be used to connect and communicate with others in just seconds, bypassing even the steps that FaceTime and Skype users must go through before getting into a call.

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