With traditional landline and cell phone systems becoming increasingly ill-equipped for high-intensity communication needs, business phone systems are turning to VoIP.

A mobile VoIP app essentially places a full business communications system into the palm of your hand. Not only does a mobile app ensure that you stay connected while on the go, but they can also give you access to all of your usual in-office communication features to ensure maximum productivity regardless of your physical location.

Employees don’t even have to purchase specialized devices—Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, and iOS devices all support VoIP. All they need is the specific desktop apps from VoIP providers.

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VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) allows you to make and receive calls using internet connections. As long as you have a device that can support VoIP and a fast internet connection, you can make high-quality calls from anywhere in the world.

A VoIP calling app is a software application that you can download onto smartphones or PCs to enable them to make VoIP phone calls. Many of them go beyond basic VoIP functionality, and also offer instant messaging and video conferencing services.

While some devices have native internet or wi-fi calling features, it’s more common to download a VoIP phone app to administer free calls and messages. Thankfully, it’s very easy to install these apps no matter what device you’re using.

Mobile phones and devices

• Download the app from your device’s app store (Google Play for an Android device, App Store for iPhones or iPads)

Desktop (Microsoft Windows or Mac operating systems)

• Download the app from the developer website or;
• Download from the official Microsoft or Mac App Store if available

Yes, technically. Most VoIP apps for personal use allow you to download the app and make app-to-app free calls. Many even offer free or cheap international calls. Of course, this comes with its limitations, most notably the lack of business-focused features such as advanced call management or auto attendants.

For business VoIP apps, you have to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee that varies in price depending on the number of lines you need and employees you have, as well as any additional features you want.

However, once you’re subscribed, you can usually make unlimited phone calls. This often works out to be incredibly cost-effective in comparison to traditional pay-per-minute calling rates and mobile calls.

Despite the long-term robustness of the traditional landline, legacy systems have been unable to keep up with advancements of technology. Both businesses and consumers are leaving traditional phone systems behind in favor of digital communications.

VoIP has quickly become the new standard, largely due to its myriad advantages, including:

1. Cost-effectiveness
2. Cheaper international calls
3. Accessibility
4. Business continuity
5. Increased mobility
6. Easy setup
7. Advanced features

Let’s explore each item in more detail below:

1) Cost-Effectiveness

Traditional phone systems require you to purchase expensive physical hardware such as an on-site private branch exchange (PBX), landline phones, wires, etc. On top of the initial purchase, the hardware also requires costly professional setup and regular maintenance.

This is where VoIP can revolutionize your business phone system. Downloading an app is free and, other than your subscription fee, there are rarely any other costs involved. Your VoIP provider is responsible for the maintenance of your app, and you get all of the updates completely free. Most VoIP providers also offer additional features like hosted PBX services, saving your even more money in the long run.

2) Cheaper International VoIP Calling

A huge drawback of traditional phone systems is that international calling charges are notoriously expensive. For a small business looking to expand, or an enterprise operating in multiple locations, a lot of money can be saved with VoIP.

Prices vary depending on the provider, but many offer different price plans to suit your individual needs. 8x8, for example, has service plans that offer unlimited, unmetered international calls to the countries of your choice.

3) Accessibility

Most VoIP apps support such a wide range of devices and operating systems (PC, Linux, Mac, Android, and Apple iOS) that you have the freedom to conduct business communications on whatever device you prefer. All you need to do is make sure that the apps you choose are cross–platform across your business’ systems and devices.

4) Business Continuity

Your office’s Wi-Fi is down? No problem. By connecting your softphone to a different network, heading to your nearest Wi-Fi hotspot, or using data on your cell phone, you can continue your business communications as normal.

5) Increased Mobility

Employees no longer have to be chained to the desk in order to stay productive. Whether an employee is travelling between locations, working from home, or simply switching from their computer to an iPad or mobile device, they can enjoy uninterrupted communication and collaboration.

You’ll also get a virtual phone number, which means you can use your business phone number or extension regardless of the device you’re using or your physical location.

6) Easy Setup

Once you’ve downloaded the app from the app store, that’s pretty much it. VoIP apps are simple to set up and usually have a short learning curve so that everyone can use them.

7) Advanced Features

Traditional phone systems only offer basic features like voicemail, call waiting, and call transfer. In contrast, VoIP apps often come with advanced features that make them capable of handling our modern business communication needs.

This doesn’t mean that all types of VoIP apps are suitable for business operations. Products in the consumer and business VoIP market have some considerable differences that we’ll get into later.

Consumer communication apps that also utilize VoIP, like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Viber, is useful for sending instant messages and holding group chats or video calls with our friends and family. business communications, however, require a more sophisticated set of features. .

Here are a few key differences between consumer and business VoIP apps, which we’ll explain further down below:

As you can see, these are pretty distinct differences.

Consumer apps are typically a cheaper option due to them being freemium while business VoIP apps require subscriptions.

But while it might be tempting to opt for the cheaper solution, consumer apps lack many of the functions that a successful business communications strategy depends on, such as auto attendants, advanced call management, toll-free numbers, and more. This is the main reason that consumer apps aren’t suitable for business communications.

Also, as mentioned in the table above, freemium consumer apps don’t offer service guarantees, meaning that if their service gets interrupted for a few hours, you won’t have a choice but to wait for the service providers to repair it. Of course, this unreliable service could spell lost business for you if you’re using these apps in a professional capacity.

On the other hand, business VoIP providers abide by a Service Level Agreement (SLA), which means that they strive to guarantee a certain level of quality. You’ll often see providers advertising an uptime of 99.999% availability. Business VoIP providers ensure that their service is 100% reliable to avoid affecting the operations of their clients. Even if quality issues do occur, dedicated customer service teams are on hand to help you fix the problem.

For a long-term VoIP solution, invest in a business VoIP app that comes equipped with all the business-focused features you need.

So, what are some of the features that you should be looking out for when choosing a business VoIP app?

1. Advanced call management
2. Auto attendant
3. Unified call and text messaging platform
4. Call analytics
5. Call handling features
6. Custom music on hold
7. Mobile VoIP prioritization
8. Third-part integration
9. Unlimited voice calls
10. Video calling
11. Visual voicemail features
12. HD audio and video quality

Let’s look at each feature in more detail:

1) Advanced call management

Advanced call management gives your more sophisticated controls for handling VoIP calls. With advanced call management, you’ll be able to distribute, transfer, or hold calls based on your customizable preferences.

2) Auto attendant

An auto attendant is essentially a virtual receptionist, assisting in answering and routing incoming calls. Not only do they reduce customer wait times, but they take some of the pressure off your customer service team.

3) Unified call and text messaging platform

Business text messages or business SMS don’t themselves rely on VoIP. However, many VoIP apps are really communication platforms that bring lots of diverse channels under one umbrella. With a VoIP app, you’ll be able to call and send SMS messages to others as long as you’re both connected to the internet.

4) Call Analytics

With call analytics, you can use data-driven insights to optimize your customer experience and improve your internal performance. In real-time, VoIP services collect and store all manner of call data across your different VoIP devices.

Some call-tracking metrics that you might observe are:

• Number of calls answered
• Number of missed calls
• Call duration
• Call conversions
• Average wait times
• Recurring keywords

Certain metrics like call duration or number of missed calls are available in any calling app. For more advanced call metrics like average wait times or recurring keywords, you might need to invest in dedicated cloud call center solutions that offer a VoIP app with it.

5) Call Handling Features

While you can get some of these features on a traditional phone system, they often cost more and don’t offer as much flexibility. Out of the many different features available, here are some of the most useful:

• Caller ID: VoIP apps show you the name of the caller, their phone number, and whether they’re stored in your business’ directory. This can help you prepare for and prioritize calls.
• Call recording: This standard feature records and stores calls in a centralized location for training, fact-checking, and compliance purposes.
• Call transfer: Allows you to transfer callers over to different departments with ease.
• Call waiting: A tone plays on the employee’s end of an ongoing call to notify them that another call is waiting.
• Do not disturb: A standard feature of many VoIP apps is DND (do not disturb), which enables employees to switch off their ringer. Any calls that come through are then automatically redirected to voicemail.

6) Custom Music on Hold

Nobody likes waiting on hold, but waiting on hold to the sound of a dialing tone can be rage-inducing. This feature lets you upload and play audio files to keep your callers entertained while they wait.

Mobile VoIP Prioritization

It used to be that VoIP calls could only be made on desk phones with the help of SIP trunking. While this option is fine for in-office workers, the very foundation of VoIP is built upon providing flexibility and reliability.

VoIP softphones make attending conference calls, communicating with customers, and liaising with partners easy to do from anywhere in the world, all without a dent to feature-accessibility and call quality.

Basically, employees can manage a virtual office right from their mobile phones.

7) Third-Party Integration

Many of the top providers of VoIP apps for business communications understand the importance of centralization. This is why many offer integrations with third-party software and applications to unify communications and optimize their customer experience.

8) Unlimited Voice Calls

For businesses with a high call volume, like customer contact centers or a call center, call limits can seriously hinder productivity, revenue potential, and growth capabilities. Most service providers recognize this and offer unlimited voice calls to users in the United States and Canada. Make sure that your provider supports unlimited calling features to the countries you’ll be doing business with, as some providers only offer metered calls to other countries.

9) Video Calling

As more and more companies are embracing hybrid working, video conference calling has skyrocketed to the top of business communication and collaboration priorities. Many VoIP apps allow you to make web-based video conferencing calls and come equipped with sophisticated conferencing features like screen sharing and file sharing.

This feature isn’t just useful for team collaboration either. You can use video conferencing to both enrich your marketing strategy with live product demos, and conduct client negotiations more efficiently.

10) Visual Voicemail Features

VoIP services offer more than just your basic voicemail. Solutions like 8x8’s Work App store your voicemails on a centralized, visual interface so that you can listen to and delete selected voicemails without having to cycle through them all.

Other voicemail features you might expect from VoIP apps include:

• Voicemail forwarding - Through a control panel, you can have voicemails sent to different devices or groups of people on your contacts list.
• Voicemail to email - Voicemails can be sent straight to a dedicated email address along with a downloadable audio file attachment.
• Voicemail-to-text transcription - This feature transcribes voicemails for your convenience, helping you keep track of important details.

11) HD audio and video

There’s nothing worse than trying to talk to someone over the phone or in a video call and having it be interrupted by lossy audio or jittery videos. Because VoIP apps depend on your internet connection, usually the quality of your audio or video is affected by how good your connection is.

But sometimes, the app itself does not support high-quality audio or video. Most free consumer apps have an as-is policy, meaning you can’t customize or ask for better audio or video quality. Some offer upgraded audio and video as freemium features. Business VoIP apps usually offer HD audio and video by default.

So, to ensure seamless voice or video calls, make sure you are connected to a high-speed internet connection and that you are using a VoIP app that offers HD audio and video.

Do I need a VoIP app?

WIth mobile carrier charges becoming more and more expensive recently, a VoIP app can help alleviate these expenses by allowing you to make unlimited calls using the internet. If you only need it for personal use, you can take advantage of the many free or freemium VoIP apps that will give you basic calling features.

However, if you have a business, it’s even more important to get a VoIP app. A VoIP app will ensure that your employees can communicate with each other even when they’re working remotely as long as they are connected to the internet.

Prioritizing unified communication and collaboration, VoIP apps come equipped with all the features your employees need to ensure that they stay connected regardless of their physical location. With so many different providers on the market, how are you meant to know which one is the best fit for your business needs?

The 8x8 Work App is built into an open cloud communications technology platform and can be fully integrated with third-party software and applications. For more information, chat with our friendly sales team or schedule a meeting, or request a demo today.