New way to test voice quality for free
November 20, 2007 on 9:31 am | In Voice |
In response to requests from our Yahoo! Voice users, we recently made some changes to the Yahoo! Voice website. Now it’s even easier to check rates and if you’re unfamiliar with Yahoo! Voice, you can even test the quality of a real PC-to-phone call for free.
Usually, seeing is believing. But when it comes to making phone calls over the internet, hearing the call quality is the true test. For awhile now, users have been able to call toll-free numbers from their PC for free using Messenger. With these recent changes, we also added a “Test a Free Call” feature to our website.
If you’re considering a Phone Out account, but don’t want to commit without first testing our sound quality, then you’re in luck! To test a free PC-to-phone call, visit http://voice.yahoo.com/ and click on the “Test a Free Call” link in the Phone Out section or on the lower right portion of the page. Or click here to try it now (you must be running Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9 for Windows).
We’ve also made it easier to check calling rates. Go to http://voice.yahoo.com/ and on the right side of the page you’ll see a box that says “Check low rates to anywhere in the world”. Select the country you’re interested in calling and our Phone Out rate calculator will instantly show you the rates for calls made from your home country (ex. U.S. to India).
And if the voice quality and rates are enough to make you want to start calling around the world, just click the Sign Up button to create your account. Phone Out services are available to users on the following versions of Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 and 9.0: U.S., Singapore, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
How about you bring back the audio setup wizzard and add an option for normal voice in pms ! your voip quality is BAD… 12 mins max it works lol.
Comment by James — November 21, 2007 #
Man, I thought I was the only one had that happen to me. Good to know, James. And of late I haven’t even been able to connect. What’s the dealio?
Comment by Rumoku — November 22, 2007 #
I have been using it for quite some time becoz of the cheap rates. But the yahoo voice quality really sucks and call aften disconnect automatically. I started using it to save money but it’s a sheer waste of time and money.
Comment by Sushma — November 23, 2007 #
“Test a free call” option was available since Phone out. No matter what, when you call a ‘free test’ the quality will always be good. HOWEVER, in reality the quality of calling in last few months have significantly been deteriorated. Especially in last few days. It’s virtually impossible to make a call and have a normal conversation either to computer or regular phone. The connection always drops and it will never last longer than 10 minutes. I was hoping with 9.0 things will change but they only got worse. Hopefully with messenger for Vista we’ll get better quality and improvements. Oh wait, it’s only 2007 and msgr for Vista will not come out until 2011. Silly me.
Comment by Mike — November 23, 2007 #
Sometimes I think Yahoo messenger users, including myself are masochist, since we still use it but we constantly get disappointed by it. They don’t want to come out and say Yahoo Messenger for Vista is canceled! In that case I would have more respect for Yahoo as oppose to dragging they are doing right now. Also the voice quality is horrible. Don’t mind the free test call option, the line we’ll always be clear. Not so if you call a friend of yours. I hope many people read this reality before my post gets deleted!
Comment by Behar — November 23, 2007 #
I have been using Yahoo to call Italy since they started the service. I was always terrific and cheap. In the last few weeks the quality has become horrible. It is at the point of not being able to use it at all. I wrote to them but they don’t answer me. Maybe the phone companies are messing up their connection because they are too cheap? Is it a conspiracy to ruin Yahoo? I am looking into Skype. This service has become unusable.
Comment by Gary — November 25, 2007 #
Runing Yahoo Messenger
well its off to Skype or something else
You had a pretty good product
7.5 was the best why not let us choose which version we want
Comment by smdic_capetown — November 26, 2007 #
Yahoo quality used to be better than Skype … however, Yahoo quality has significantly deteriorated and Skype quality has markedly improved. Yahoo’s Voice integration with Yahoo contacts is great, but it’s voice quality is so bad as to make it not unusable.
Comment by steve — November 27, 2007 #
Before subscribing for yahoo voice I felt it was worth while to test the link Test a Free Call.. but i was not able to actually access the link,
So now in a stalemate about the quality of the service if we purchase it.
Comment by padmaja — May 11, 2008 #
I was interested in purchasing the call-out service; however, I did want to test it before I purchased. Clicked “several” times on the test a free call and it would not let me make the call without signing up.
Comment by Chuck — May 26, 2008 #
So its YAHOO and not my ISP connection thats been messing voice-out… poor quality… and a waste of money….NEVER Recommend YAHOO VOICE to anyone.. Yahoo must ensure the quality of their service before putting it in the market.. its users money that is being wasted for their trial or BETA version… and YAHOO gets all the profit… we need to get a refund…
Comment by Marcelo — October 5, 2008 #