Call Your Facebook Friends for Free on your iOS Device with T-Mobile’s Bobsled
If you haven’t heard of Bobsled, it’s T-Mobile’s voice-calling service that was originally designed and released for use with Facebook and a browser earlier this year. As of today, you can use Bobsled on any of your mobile devices, with the new apps developed for iOS and Android.
Bobsled offers a way to call your Facebook friends from your desktop browser or your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The Bobsled app is a native iPhone/iPod Touch app, but it can also be downloaded for use on your iPad.
With Bobsled, you can call any (sort of) mobile or landline phone number in the U.S., Canada, or Puerto Rico for free. As a comparison, Skype charges 1.2 to 2.3 cents per minute for the same service. Of course, with Bobsled on iOS, you are only able to call people in your Facebook friends list, but the browser version of Bobsled is not quite as limited.
When Bobsled can’t connect to your friend directly (and it usually can’t, since it seems to require that your friends have the app on their phones or are at their computers/phones and signed into Facebook chat), it offers to post a public Facebook message on their wall. I couldn’t connect to any of my friends, and I’m not sure why I would post a voice message rather than a written message, when I do also have direct access to Facebook on all of my mobile devices.
Still, if you and your friends are frequent Facebook users, Bobsled is a great way to keep in touch no matter which device you’re using, from computer to iPhone/iPad. The benefit here is that if you don’t happen to have your phone (mine is pretty much glued to my hand) you can still make calls and contact your Facebook friends using a computer or an iPad with an internet connection.
Right now, with Bobsled for iOS limited to Facebook access only, it’s of limited use. But with the addition of open calling, it could be a great alternative to Skype.
Bobsled for iOS is currently available for free, and can be downloaded in the App Store.
