Skype for iPhone
While there are certainly drawbacks listed by the other reviewers with Skype I’ve found this app absolutely indispensible for travelling. Think about it. You’re in a foreign country and you want to make a phone call but don’t want to have to deal with a sim card, long distance charges or payphones. Wireless hotspots are everywhere (because in almost all places they are indeed everywhere) and so why not use that technology to save you money.
Personally I used this application regularly when travelling through Baja Mexico. Finding internet cafes was hard but wifi was everywhere and with a measly $10 credit I had more than enough time to make regular long calls to friends and family and even wound up with more than a $5 credit left when I got back.
Certainly this app isn’t all it could be as compared to the full Skype version we have on our computers, but for travelling alone (either in country in rural places or out of country), this app gets a great rating from me.
The only drawback that is significantly disappointing is that incoming calls even if not taken kill your mic causing you to be forced to leave the app and rejoin to be able to speak again. Not very convenient or useful for doing any sort of business.
Download
Yahoo Messenger – free SMS, video & voice calls
Much better now that it can run in the background. Works just as you’d expect it to if you’re already using yahoo messenger.
Many of your friends don’t use a messenger service outside of Facebook. There are apps to do just the chat function but the built in chat works just fine.
Windows Live Messenger
If you’re on messenger this app is for you. Like yahoo or any of these other apps it works the way you’d expect it to.
Download
