Yallo — Make your phone calls smarter

@benln, great questions. Apologies in advance if this is going to be on the long side... Where it is coming from ----------------------------------- It started with our personal frustration with the fact that voice communication experience (aka 'the phone call') from a consumer stand point has barely changed since the phone was invented. We became wireless, and got caller id. But at the very fundamental level, what I can do as part of the phone call has not changed. I truly believe that voice communications is essential to us as human beings. It does not replace messaging, but there are many things in life, emotional situation, conflict resolution, complex decision making and many others where voice interaction is much more suitable, effective, and efficient than messaging. It struck us as absurd, that this is a mode of communication that has not been updated and as a result has become so out of sync with the way we work, live and communicate today. Enough personal pain, huge industry and an opportunity for disruption... seemed like a challenge worth tackling. How we built it: ---------------------- We started over 2.5 years ago. It was clear to us that we will have to develop an alternative telephony platform that is consumer focused and experience/function based rather than just switching and routing. And, that this will require non traditional approach (operators have been trying this for the last 15 years)... We also believed that we must build an open network (i.e. that people can talk from Yallo to anyone, regardless if the other person is on Yallo). So we started from the end objectives and imagined a new platform, with unique architecture that is at times orthogonal to the way tradition telephony is architected. We also imagined many lifestyle based experiences and functions that expand the boundaries of what is possible as part of the phone call today, to test them against this platform and prove to ourselves that the fit is there. As soon as we had a basic platform we released an early product that was functionality poor, but did the job in terms of basic telephony in an open network setting, and have been marketing and supporting it for the last 18 months. There was an immense amount of learning and growth in that, in many aspects from call quality, operations, consumer behaviour and marketing/messaging. All along we continued developing functionality and focusing on customer experience. Once we had an initial cluster of functionality - we released our current product. You can see on our website the currently available features and the ones that are coming real soon. Where is it going: ------------------------ We are planning to keep adding more functionality/experiences and keep pushing the boundaries of whats possible as part of a phone call. We are adding much more social features, and fun/play related features as well. We are also adding more platforms soon - iOS and Web at this point. We'd like to learn more through dialogue with our user community as it grows, on what they can imagine and would like to see next and leverage on these insights to build more relevant valuable voice communication experiences and applications.

@benln @elyashivtal awesome ;) any chance you're supporting 'one plus' devices soon? :)

Hi @milann , OnePlus is my main device - we do support it. Which country do you belong to on PlayStore? I'll be happy to forward you a link to the APK, shoot me an email to yosi@yallo.com .

@benln @elyashivtal so, when't it coming to IOS?

@benln @elyashivtal @lovethecool 8 weeks

Dear @bramk, In essence all player within the voice communication space compete with each other on consumer attention. So in that sense we are competing. However, we believe that most of the other players in this space will find it hard to impossible to implement most of our current and future features. The reason is that a lot of our IP (and the competitive advantage) lie in our platform architecture which is very different (and sometimes orthogonal) to traditional telephony architecture and operating principles. Our platform was built from scratch for functional flexibility and experience innovations. It is not impossible that other players will re-develop their platform from scratch, but it takes time (a lot), resources and commitment, and currently "pay for functionality" is not really at the core of their business model. The bottom line is that I am sure the market will be heading in this direction, but at this point in time it seems that we are leading the pack on this.

Hi @linkchef , When you're calling Yallo users it's free. We have plans or pay by the min. We're not making any profits on minutes so we serve it at the lowest prices possible. With some plans you have unlimited local calls in the US or we can build you a custom plan. Let me know what you're interested in. In any way if you register with this link http://m.onelink.me/9212224d - you will get 400 WW min. for 3 months plus all features for free.

Hi, @tkrunning . We're using state of the art codecs and network management to make it better all the time. It's an ongoing effort. Internally we track every second of every call, running different algorithms and trying to figure our what is the best strategy to deal with network conditions. This is a hard one and we have improved immensely. On your differentiation point, this is one of the most popular question we get. We are considering ourselves as an Over The Top OPEN network, it means that you don't need the other side to have Yallo in order to enjoy it. You are pretty advanced with the setting you've build and we would like to do the same thing for the average user. It should be super simple as a button press to get your calls to Yallo even when the other side doesn't have it. It should be cheap and beautiful. I would be very much happy to talk to you along with @nerez our VP Product.

@yosit Looking forward to the iOS version! The "call preview" functionality will come in handy when coworkers like @oassoulin call me after hours so I can screen to see if it's beer/work related ;)

@oassoulin @thepaulcurran Absolutely - BTW we can also assign you more than one phone number so if a friend calls you on the personal line you will get it through after hours.

@yosit Exciting to see the old phone call get some love. Really like #'s 3 and 4 for work applications. It would be cool to integrate "For the Record" with CRM/note-taking platforms and include speech-to-text.

@gentrybrown it would be pretty easy - behind the scene it's a platform, we've built plugins for transcribing, voice changing, mood detection and much more. Integrating CRM would be a matter of a few hours of work.

Dear @ghobs91 , You are absolutely right. Thank you for this feedback. We will make sure that pricing issues are clear and easily understood on the website.

@gregcohn first - we love Burner. It's inspiring to see what you guys have built. yes the user can bring their own number in with a press of a button from within the app or can get numbers from us if needed. There is a lot of work to be done on the website.

Dear @farbodsaraf, Thank you. I am listing below unique features that are different from existing OTT players, but before getting there it is important to say that our platform is very different, and part of our differentiation is our ability to easily add new features and experiences. Unique Yallo features in the current version: 1. Go Yallo: allows you to be available on your regular phone number even when there is no cell reception (via WiFi). Traveling abroad? Work on the 49th floor? Receive calls for free. 2. Flex: be able to make any phone “your phone”, and have your number move with you regardless of where your SIM card is. Somewhat like gmail allows you to be available with your email address on any device. 3. Call Caption: let the person you are calling know what the context of the call is before they pick up. The following feature is unique in the way it is implemented and the customer experience, but features that overlap may exist with some OTT players to some degree: For the Record: seamlessly record, replay and share your calls (soon you’ll be able to also search and retrieve recorded calls based phrases mentioned in the call.) The uniqueness here is that recording is done and stored in the cloud. Also, the upcoming feature providing the ability to search for recordings based on phrases mentioned in the call is unique. Hope it helps. Keep the Q coming...

Hi @andrewjb44 , Great! Happy to hear that. We are actually talking to some hotel chains in the east to have this for their guests so they can call home using WIFI, is that something that would be interesting for Hilton to have too?

@yosit i will email you at yosi@yallo.com. Keep up the work towards an iOS app!!!!

@jfeldstein Thanks for the ideas!

@digitalbase we've opened it in a select list of countries. I'll be happy to forward you a private link to the apk until we open this in Belgium, can you shoot me an email to yosi@yallo.com ?

Dear @hoomnizer , Thank you so much for the award! As to your questions: 1. The answer to this is complicated. As you know regulations vary by country and by state. Consumer preference as to whether we should police it or leave it to their discretion also varies... We are experimenting with this and trying to find the best middle ground. Right now we leave it to the user to notify the other side if they are recording, but we cover this issue and the user's responsibility in the terms of use and in the FAQ. 2. Incredible idea! We will certainly explore this direction. 3. Happy to explain how it works technically. You can contact me directly (tal@yallo.com) and I will explain.

@gpat_uk Will be happy to talk to you in person about your experience. can you shoot me an email to yosi@yallo.com ?

Dear @evanlaclark, Yes we are. It will be foolish on our part to ignore the incredible market share they already have. There is a lot of change in scenery, with Hello, with Whatsapp calling, with Google's FI... the scene is certainly warming up. However all it means is that the market is recognizing that voice is not dead and is a necessary part of human communication. At the end of the day, we believe we have significant edge when it comes to creating experiences, functionality, and personalization.

@evanlaclark To keep is short - Hello is a Caller ID app - just like callapp and truecaller. It's not a phone :)

Hi @hoomnapp, it will be soon, I will be happy to share the link to the apk with you, shoot me an email to yosi@yallo.com

@hoomnapp @yallo @yosit Thank you so much. I am looking forward to try this out. Will write you soon :)