I’m having more and more issues with Skype and I think I’d switch if I had a good alternative.
• it needs to have its own registered URL schema. Somewthing whereby a character string such as whatever://12125551212 is interpreted by the OS as a link such that, when clicked on (or executed by any program that is set up to be able to open a URL) the URL-handler is the program in question and it dials the number as the response to clicking / executing the URL
• it needs to be able to make calls to, and receive calls from, the general world of telephony (in other words, not useful to me if it can only make “calls” to other folks who are using the same software)
• needs to be MacOS native, bonus points if it will run on old versions of MacOS such as 10.6.8
• needs to have its own independent Preferences or Settings which allow me to specify an audio input and output device separate from the overall input and output audio device used by the OS. (a headset in other words, without changing audio input/output to headset for all sound on the computer)
• needs to have voicemail as an option; voicemail needs to work independently of my computer being online / the software running to receive the call.
• bonus points if inbound calls and voicemails can be saved as soundfiles (AIF or WAV or MP3 or whatever) and downloaded to disk
• bonus points if it has a small footprint, where bringing it to the foreground doesn’t eat up lots of screen real estate and is instead a minimalistic floating window sort of thing, or better yet a menubar widget or equiv
• bonus points if no goddam advertising; don’t mind paying for the service + app
Google hangouts. I use it when traveling to make unlimited free calls to any North American phone number, from my tablet anywhere on earth that has wifi… But nobody can call me, it’s for outgoing only. And, I use it for long distance at home, because I don’t have an unlimited LD phone plan for my landline.
Not what the OP is looking for, but it’s an alternative that may be better than Skype for some usage.
I don’t know anything about URL dialing; but otherwise, you might look at Ring Central’s soft phone. It will do everything else on your list. Ad-free; native iOS app, plus the option for voicemails emailed to you as sound files. Does fax, too, for the rare occasion you might need that. It’ll cost you $10/month.
From what I’ve found so far it appears that what I want is an SIP provider plus a software application that does VoIP telephony using SIP. SIP is apparently an open standard unlike Skype where to use a Skype you’re stuck with Skype’s software.
What I have not found is “Information for the Complete and Utter Newbie” which would be me explaining which SIP providers from column A in conjunction with which software packages from column B will best address my laundry-list of needs. Many SIP services and many software packages are freeware, which is nice but free tends to go hand in hand with “absence of ReadME guides written for the complete and utter newbie”, and with “absence of someone you can call or email and ask questions”.
I just got off the phone with Vonage which was a combo of non-free and non-helpful people not understanding my questions.
I’m in midchat with someone from Ring Central now. I do not as of yet know whether their SW registers an URL type letting other software command it to dial as need be, or whether SW other than that supplied by Ring Central works with their services.
You can get a Google Voice number which does allow incoming calls. It’s kind of a pain to use for incoming: I use mine for some conference calls where the conferencing tool wants to phone you, and that works maybe 50% of the time mainly because it does not always play nice with touch tones.
To use it on the PC, you have to have your mail window open which is kind of annoying (though you can minimize that once the call connects).