fring, an application that lets users communicate and share web-based experiences from their mobile devices, has announced video calling.

“Right now iPhone and iPod touch users can receive and make fring and Skype video calls entirely over Internet connection (for free!) and see the person on the other end. When a front camera is placed on these, we’ll have two-way video calls available here too just as we do on all the supported Nokia devices.”

Video calling can be used over WiFi and is currently only one-way (due to the fact that the iPhone’s camera is on the back of the device). You are able to video call someone on Skype, using fring, but you will only be able to see the other person… they will not be able to see you. This feature is part of the newest version of fring so you will need to update fring in order to use it.

“Now iPhone and iPod touch users can also live video with their fring and Skype buddies, while on the go! The new fring version with video calls support is currently available to users with iPhone/ iPod touch OS 3.0 (only incoming video-stream available, due to the location of the camera on iPhone/iPod)”

Video Demo:

ScreenShots

Press Release:

World’s first Video Calls on the iPhone – only with fring!

fring brings the first ever internet video calls on the iPhone/iPod touch just in time for the holidays!
LONDON, December 01, 2009. fring, the multi-award winning mobile application that lets users communicate and share web-based experiences from their mobile devices, today announces the first ever mobile video calls over Internet for the iPhone.

These holidays, only iPhone and iPod touch users with fring can talk with and also see their family and friends on Skype or fring, from anywhere, for free, over Wi-Fi internet connection. This is the first video over internet service on the iPhone or iPod touch.

This video feature is embedded within the fring application that enables free voice calls from the iPhone and iPod Touch to other fring users, Skype and GTalk buddies as well as friends on regular phone lines via Skype-Out and hundreds of popular SIP services. fring users can live chat, update profiles, share files and talk with friends from several Instant Messaging services like MSN, AIM, GoogleTalk and Skype, in addition to interacting with popular online social networks like Twitter, all from one integrated fring contact list

Avi Shechter, Co-Founder & CEO of fring: “Leveraging excellent video capabilities on the iPhone and iPod touch together with our open internet and social environment, we’re bringing together families and friends these holidays, wherever they are…” Shechter continued, “We were the first to bring mobile voice over internet (VoIP) to mobile devices, the first to bring iPhone/ iPod touch users the choice to make free Internet calls, the first to enable cost-saving mobile twitter over internet, and now we’re proud to continue leading the field of rich mobile-internet communication by bringing users the world’s first fring video calls over internet for the iPhone and iPod touch.”

The new fring version with video calls support is currently available to users with iPhone/ iPod touch OS 3.0 (only incoming video-stream available, due to the location of the camera) and selected Nokia Symbian S60 devices (2-way video streaming is available) . In addition, fring supports thousands of handsets on multiple platforms including Symbian S60, Android, Windows Mobile, J2ME and Linux devices.

fring, a “mobile social hub. Talk, chat & tweet on fring and other favorite social services including Skype®, MSN® Messenger, GoogleTalk™, Twitter, Yahoo! ™, AIM®, ICQ, all through one central profile,” has been updated in the App Store to version 2.0.0.4. The new version adds a few new features including the implementation of the copy/paste and linking capabilities right in your chat. Below is more info about the update and a video demo.

fring has just released a slick, brand- new version (2.0.0.4) with lots of new features available, including a new look, more integration between social networks, improved voice and much more.

The new version includes a new user profile, which allows you to update your fring nickname, avatar and mood text, and broadcast it back to your IM friends. You can also see your friends’ avatars and mood texts from other networks – currently on Skype, others coming soon.

You can also now use SkypeOut & SIP to call your friends directly from the fring address book with a much clearer line thanks to our voice team’s big effort to improve voice quality.

If that’s not enough we added copy/paste & linking capabilities to save you time while chatting away with your friends and speakerphone support for all voice calls.

German users can also now enjoy fring on iPhone/ iPod touch in their native language.

Demo Video:

The API and fringAdd-on are all about adding more value to fringsters; by opening up the fring platform and enabling 3rd party developers to bring almost any web services to mobile phones, we help enriching fringsters internet experience and adding value to the fring community.

The first flavors of fringAdd-ons are around social networking, videos and email notifications. As you can see in the screen shots below and in the YouTube clip fring users can already get Gmail notifications, vTap videos, interact with Facebook and Orkut buddies, with more to come.

For more information, check out their blog Also check out the demo video and screenshots below.

Demo Video:

Important! in the coming weeks we will release several examples of fringAdd-ons for users to play with, the full catalog with all the new developed fringAdd-ons will become available around end of July (meaning any add-on you develop from today will be available for all the fring community for end of July).
Second, currently the fringAPI is available for fring client on the Symbian S60 9.2 only, more platform to come shortly.

Just like the original version created for the iPhone, this is the same special pre-release R&D version with some chat bugs fixed so now you can mobile internet chat & interact in fring-style on your iPod touch (I know I am stating the obvious… but as there is no Microphone the iPod touch…. it means no fring calls as well).

Doug and I also found that this version works a lot smoother for us. He was able to call Skype on my computer, I was able to call his iPhone from Skype on my computer and we were able to call from iPhone to iPhone using fring. Very, very cool! fring is vailable through the fring source.

Below is a video of the developer using fring on an iPod Touch.

I still think the app is a little sketchy. I am able to randomly make outgoing calls to Skype from my iPhone. I still am unable to make calls from Skype to my iPhone. Let me know if you have the same results. fring is available through the fring source.

You can also twitter from this app, ICQ, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo & AIM.

As I’m writing this I’m also getting updates from twitter into fring. When you close fring it warns you it’s running in the background, if you don’t want it to you need to hit the exit button instead of the home button when exiting.

Also sometimes it takes a while for your accounts to subsribe, especially if you have the wrong password, just be patient…

It’s seems that when you’re iPhone locks that the app logs you off. I’ve installed fring on Brooke’s iPhone to make a Skype call but since my iPhone is locked I’m not showing up in the buddy list. UPDATE: not sure why it wasn’t working but we are getting twitter updates when the iPhone is locked, even locked for 5+ minutes. This also effected battery to leave running in background.

I’ve tried to make calls through Skype from iPhone to iPhone but haven’t succeded yet

Downfalls:
when in skype call, screen does not turn off like in regular call
can’t use speakerphone
doesn’t stay connected when locked (insomnia?)
when making or receiving calls it doesn’t show who the other contact is
voice calls are not supported on edge