Jun 02 2008

Fring Review

Jianjun
Published by Jianjun at 11:07 pm under Software, Web 2.0

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Fring is an integrated instant messaging/VoIP service that works on your mobile device. With Fring, you can log into your Skype, Twitter, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk, ICQ, AIM, Fring and SIP accounts simultaneously over wireless plans such as EDGE, GPRS and WIFI.

Fring Settings

Fring promises encrypted data transfer when you submit credentials of these services through the mobile interface, giving you peace of mind.

Once you are logged in, it automatically imports all your contacts. A green icon means the contact is online and available. Away, busy or unavailable buddies are marked orange. When a buddy is offline, the icon turns gray.

Fring Logged in screen

Fring’s intuitive interface makes you feel at home the first time you use it. As you see in the photo above, Chinese characters in my MSN buddy’s name are nicely displayed.

Fring client is currently localized into 6 languages, including Simplified Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish. As they are still in Beta, I expect to see more languages over time and more professional translations.

Now Chinese users may feel confused when they see ‘On/Off’ under the ‘Show Fring Signature’, etc. menus being translated as “连接/断开”(Connect/Disconnect). Some other problems also need to be addressed.

Fing free phone call menu

How much bandwidth does Fring use and how about the sound quality?

Fring Support says each 1M bandwidth equals to 15 minutes of Fring call (Fring to Fring). I tried it on my EDGE plan. The bandwidth usage of the one-minute Fring test call was around 90K, and the sound quality was amazingly good! SkypeOut and SIP (I use FWD) calls, however, were not as satisfactory - in other words, you can’t use them for any serious communication and they use too much bandwidth. 3G/WIFI connections should give much better quality.

You can set Fring to run in the background if instant mobile messaging is important to you. When you receive a message or a call via Fring, it’ll alert you with distinctive tones. But the software does eat your battery. When I had it in the background for about 20 minutes, the battery became hot too.

Overall, Fring is still useful when you are traveling but suddenly have something urgent to discuss with your friend on MSN or you simply want to catch up with the Twitterati while waiting for your plane at the airport.

Fring website


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    • 2 Responses to “Fring Review”

    1. # rheaon 06 Dec 2008 at 11:58 pm

      Hello,

      I’m just installed Fring on my htc mobile phone, since I use that fring, it seems my cell phone often got hang. Why is it? How to solve it? My cell phone OS is Windows Mobile 6. My friend use fring too on Windows Mobile 5 (Samsung Smart Phone) doesn’t found any trouble in it. Is it my phone or the fring I’ve download.

      Your response will be very helpful for me. Thank you very much before.

      Rgds,

      Rhea

      [Reply]

      Jianjun reply on December 7th, 2008 10:14 am:

      Hello Rhea,

      I don’t use Fring with Windows Mobile. It works fine with Symbian OS. It could be caused by your phone’s memory.

      Fring has a support forum on their site. You may want to get official support there.

      Good luck!
      Jianjun

      [Reply]

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