Zoom phone, google voice
this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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I use a SIP phone service now (zadarma.com). They have an app for Android, and it also works with the SIP clients on my Linux desktop. Can't give a longtime review of them yet, as i am a Skype "victim" too, but so far so good.
I think there is another messenger called Viber that can call landlines, but it looked a little sketchy to me.
Google voice works fine for me. Requires a payment but the rates are very cheap.
Yolla seems to have similar prices. I bought some credit with them. I haven't needed to use it yet, so I cannot vouch for the call quality. Unlike others, their credit doesn't expire after a certain period. You can also get a good deal by searching for discount codes before buying credit.
Skype for business is still supported
Check out Jmp.chat
It's not directly what you're looking for, but it does offer VOIP via XMPP. Voice calls are crazy cheap, like 0.1¢/min, or something (I forget, it's so silly cheap I just don't care).
You can use it stand-alone, or port your phone number in and now everything (calls/sms) go through XMPP. This is how I found them, as a solution to crappy SMS being tied to a physical device. Now my (crappy) SMS is on any XMPP client I use - phone, laptop, desktop, iPad, etc. And all calls are VOIP from any device, so long as the client supports it. I don't think there's a Windows client that yet supports voice (Gajim is the go-to for XMPP on Windows), but there's: Android (Cheogram), Linux (Gajim) and iOS (Snikket).
I hate Google but Google voice is how I used to make international calls
At least here in the US, lots of mobile phone plans have free or cheap international calls, depending on the countries involved. Example. Some home landline plans also have that. So far that has been enough for me on the few occasions when I've wanted to make an international call. If more frequent, I'd use a VOIP provider, maybe Twilio (I'm sure there are others too, but I know Twilio supports this and has a decent API).
VOIP providers will often also sell you inbound phone numbers in the destination country, if you want the other person to be able to call you from their landline without it getting rung up as an international call for them. Those aren't always so cheap, but there are obvious use cases.
I used to use an app called WeTalk ages ago when I was calling to countries that blocked Skype.
It was kinda janky and not free but dirt cheap(1.5-2¢/minute.
Haven’t used it in years though
Signal?
You can call land lines with Signal?
Nope
Could you call them with Skype?
Literally the whole premise of this post lol....
Yes
Not over here.
Yup!
Also, this is 2025. Who still has exclusively a land line?
The question isn't who exclusively has a landline, or why OP needs to call a landline. They've stated that they need to be able to call a landline: It's safe to assume that they are aware of the existence of smartphones and internet-based calling services, and have concluded that it doesn't serve their needs, which is why they're asking for help calling a landline. Responding that they don't need to call a landline reads like the classic stackoverflow response of "you don't need to do ".
The elderly
Europeans. Fibre Internet, phone runs on the WiFi. Using mobile data is fucking expensive.