Unbeknownst to many people, there are a growing number of free stand-alone VoIP clients, some of which arent half bad. Today Im going to be doing an in-depth look at one of these free downloadable clients, Jitsi, which is described as an audio/video Internet phone and instant messenger that supports some of the most popular VoIP and instant messaging protocols such as SIP, Jabber, AIM/ICQ, MSN, etc
The list is extensive, but it had me at SIP and Jabber.
Jitsi, which is written mostly in Java, is a free and open source VoIP, and instant messaging application for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Its currently in alpha. Stable releases come out every so often while nightly builds are released several times a day. When appropriate, users are automatically prompted to download and install the latest build (or you can just tell it to do this all without asking).
What separates this application from others like it is the inclusion of enterprise VoIP features such as attended and blind call transfer, call recording, call encryption, conferencing, and video calls.
This version of the application looks and feels great. The main UI is simple and clean, the pop-up call handling screen is easy to use, and the instant messaging feature is handled nicely. Jitsi certainly aims to accomplish a lot. While you can almost expect a few glitches here and there, it is certainly worth trying out.
[ Relevant Sidenote: This review was conducted on a Macbook Pro. ]
As usual, I am going to do a quick walk through of how to setup OnSIP with Jitsi. A lot of these steps apply no matter which VoIP provider youre using so I noncustomers will also find this useful. Youre going to need your user credentials. They can be found in your OnSIP admin portal under users. Here is an example of the fields you will need:
Setting Up VoIP Calling
Open up Jitsi and select +Add New Account under File. You should see a screen pop up that looks like this:
Select SIP as your choice from the options provided in the Network dropdown menu, and then hit Advanced in the lower left corner.
Youll be taken to another menu with 3 parts: Account, Connection, and Presence. Account is pretty self-explanatory. Under SIP id, youll want to input your entire SIP address. Password is your SIP password, and display name can be anything you want.
Next, in Connection, input your Proxy/Domain in the field marked Registrar, and your Auth Username into the field marked Authorization name. Youll want to uncheck Configure proxy automatically if it isnt already, and type sip.onsip.com into the field labeled Proxy if you are an OnSIP customer (Port 5060). Make sure that preferred transport is UDP and that the Keep alive method is Register.
In Presence, simply check Enable presence (SIMPLE) and leave everything else unchecked.
Hit the Next button. Youll be taken to a summary page where you can go over your settings one last time before you sign in.
Go into the Jitsi preferences. You should see a screen that looks something like the image above, with a list of all your active and inactive accounts. Select Audio and make sure that the codecs (or encodings) enabled are G722, PCMU, PCMA, and telephone-event.
Setting Up XMPP
Setting up IM is even easier. Here Ill show you how to get your my.OnSIP contacts in Jitsi. Once again, select +Add New Account under File. This time, youll want to select Jabber in the Network dropdown menu, and hit Advanced in the lower left corner. Youll be taken to another menu with 3 parts: Account, Connection, and Advanced. In Account, input your my.OnSIP login credentials. Skip the Connection section since you dont need to change anything there and uncheck the three options you see in Advanced (Use ICE, Auto discover STUN/TURN servers, and Use Jitsis STUN server in case no other servers are available). Click Next at the bottom of the menu, and then Sign In on the summary page that follows.
At Junction Networks, we put each of the phones we use through a multi-step interoperability test in which we apply ~30 test cases. An example of a test case would be the following:
Test phone calls phone B
B picks up
B puts Test phone on hold
B calls phone C
C picks up
B transfers test phone to C
Call must be transferred correctly to C. B must be released correctly after the transfer. When C picks up, audio must work in both ways between test phone and C. When test phone is on hold, there is no audio between it and phone B.
Build 3132 passed our test cases with no issues.
When I first installed Jitsi a couple of months ago, there was so much static that having an intelligible conversation was impossible. Whatever the issue was, it has since been patched and resolved.
Jitsi supports G.711 as well as the G.722 wideband codec. Narrowband calls sound about as good as a regular landline call.
High definition calls with the Jitsi sound absolutely fantastic. You can get HD VoIP calls as long as the person youre on the call is also using an HD capable device. I heavily recommend using a USB headset when making calls with a soft phone on your computer to get the optimum experience. You can pick up a good headset for less than $30.
For something that costs the end user nothing, Jitsi is a surprisingly good attempt at a unified communications client. I like to think of it as a bare-bones version of Microsoft Lync that doesnt cost me $700+ to setup, and $100 per download.
The main user interface of Jitsi looks a lot like any other IM client, except that you can have a dedicated section for voice contacts in your consolidated buddy list. Clicking on what looks like a small watch face will take you to your call history. You can conveniently redial from this screen. Right next to the watch face button is a search field, which will draw from both your contacts list and your call history. This field will also act as your dialer. Start typing in any number or SIP address, and a small green handset will appear that you can click to initiate the call.
Every contact in your buddy list and call history menus can be dragged and dropped into an ongoing call. What do I mean by that? With Jitsi, every call gets its own pop up window. Its here that youll find all of your call handling options: dialpad, create a conference call, hold, mute, record, video, desktop share, transfer, etc. Dragging and dropping people from your buddy list or call history menu into an ongoing call automatically creates a conference call. This seems to work without a hitch, and youre not just limited to a 3-way conference.
The image above shows the popup window you see during each call. You can have several calls going at once (simply call another number or SIP address using the dialer field in the main Jitsi UI and any active calls you have at the time will automatically be put on hold), and each one opens up a new window. Ill very briefly go over some of the functions of interest.
Youll notice that almost everything you can do with Jitsi is laid out in a row at the bottom. At the very left is a button that looks like an old school rotary dialer. This will append a numpad to the bottom of the window so that you can interact with attendant menus, etc. Next is your conference button. This brings up a window that you can use to invite multiple people to the call at the same time.
The next three buttons are self-explanatory: hold, mute, record (you can designate which file you want to save your recordings in the Advanced section of the application preferences).
Next is the button to turn on the video. Supported video compression formats include H.263 and H.264. Ill admit that I havent spent too much time testing out video calls on Jitsi, but the few video calls I have done (on Wifi, with just the built-in iSight camera on my Macbook and H.264 selected) were better than I was expecting. No experience-ruining frame rate or picture resolution issues here. I did try doing a video call with a coworker on her Counterpath soft phone and we werent able to get it working, despite the fact that they were using the same codec. We will do more testing and Ill update this review with our findings. Also keep in mind that a lot of factors will affect the quality of your video calls, and many of the problems you or I experience may have very little to do with the application. We plan to include video calling cases as part of JN interoperability test in the near future for applicable user agents.
According to the Jitsi development roadmap, there are tentative plans to implement multi-party video conferencing in Q1 2011.
Finally, Jitsi users can easily conduct blind and attended transfers. If only one call is active, clicking on the transfer button brings up a window where you can quickly input the transfer destination and send the caller on his/her way. If you have multiple calls active, clicking on the transfer button will open up a dropdown menu that includes all your active calls so that you can quickly conduct an attended transfer. Of course you can also choose to transfer to another number as well.
Now lets talk about some of the stuff that doesnt work quite as well.
If youre a my.OnSIP user, then you might be used to having the ability to click-to-dial and IM the same contact. You dont really get the same experience with Jitsi. My.OnSIP uses XMMP for IM and OnSIP uses SIP for voice, which means that youll have to have two separate accounts, and two separate contact lists for the same group of people. It can get especially confusing if the two types of contacts for one person look exactly the same. Long story short: Remember to use your SIP account for calling and your Jabber (XMMP) account for IM.
Adding phone numbers to the voice contacts could be better streamlined. Here is what the add contact form looks like:
Youll notice that you only get to specify the contact name. It actually works fine if youre adding a SIP address. If I type jondoe@example.onsip.com into the contact name field, Jitsi will know to use that as the SIP address, and will even cut off the domain in my contact list so that only jondoe is displayed. Adding actual telephone numbers is a little annoying since the contact name field is really the what to dial field. Sure you can go back after the contact is added and rename the number to a persons name but this seems like an unnecessary step.
Since Jitsi is a project that is literally updated several times every day, I dont think a Final Thoughts section is necessarily appropriate. The application has come a long way in a very short time, and there are big plans for the coming year. We expect a lot of updates and fine-tuning.
I would recommend giving this soft phone a download if you do not already have one on your computer, or if youre completely new to VoIP and SIP and just want a way to test out IP calling. Its free so what have you got to lose?
More here:
Jitsi (Build 3132)
- How to Deploy Jitsi Meet with Docker on Ubuntu 20.04 - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Jitsi Meet review | TechRadar - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- Zoom vs Jitsi for video conferencing? | ONLYOFFICE Blog - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- IFrame API | Jitsi Meet - GitHub Pages - November 25th, 2022 [November 25th, 2022]
- Self-Hosting Guide - Debian/Ubuntu server | Jitsi Meet - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Best Video Calling Apps: Zoom, Skype, Hangouts, Jitsi And More On Test - Which? - Which? - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- When is it a good idea to turn off the camera during a video call - Aviation Analysis Wing - March 18th, 2022 [March 18th, 2022]
- Rwanda: Wave of Free Speech Prosecutions - Human Rights Watch - March 18th, 2022 [March 18th, 2022]
- 8x8 Video Conferencing API | 8x8 - February 19th, 2022 [February 19th, 2022]
- Video-as-a-Service Market is Expected to Generate Huge Profits by 2021 2026 Bulk Solids Handling - Bulk Solids Handling - October 3rd, 2021 [October 3rd, 2021]
- Android SDK Jitsi Meet Handbook - September 29th, 2021 [September 29th, 2021]
- Brave is taking the video conferencing fight to Zoom - Techradar - September 27th, 2021 [September 27th, 2021]
- Braves non-tracking, browser-based video conferencing tool is out of beta - TechCrunch - September 24th, 2021 [September 24th, 2021]
- Brave Talk, a new private video conferencing service tied to the web browser - InTallaght - September 24th, 2021 [September 24th, 2021]
- Brave gets a video call service integrated with the browser and leaves no traces The Clare People - The Clare People - September 24th, 2021 [September 24th, 2021]
- How To Install Jitsi Meet on Ubuntu 18.04 | DigitalOcean - August 2nd, 2021 [August 2nd, 2021]
- Zoom launches Zoom Apps and Zoom Events 'to empower the hybrid workforce' - iTWire - July 25th, 2021 [July 25th, 2021]
- Google Meets limiting free group calls to an hour what are your options? - The Next Web - July 14th, 2021 [July 14th, 2021]
- Its Official: We ODd on the Internet - OneZero - OneZero - June 13th, 2021 [June 13th, 2021]
- Is it the same as google duo? Explica .co - Explica - June 13th, 2021 [June 13th, 2021]
- Tips on Cybersecurity for Students and Teachers - Al-Fanar Media - June 4th, 2021 [June 4th, 2021]
- What is Jitsi Meet and how does it work the best free open source alternative to Zoom and Google Meet | Technology Explica .co - Explica - May 14th, 2021 [May 14th, 2021]
- Choose Your Own Adventure in the Virtual World - Observatory of Educational Innovation - April 19th, 2021 [April 19th, 2021]
- How Artists Used the Discord App to Build Community During COVID-19 - Hyperallergic - March 31st, 2021 [March 31st, 2021]
- How to Self Host Jitsi Meet With Docker [Step by Step Guide] - March 11th, 2021 [March 11th, 2021]
- Protesting in the Age of Mass Surveillance - EFF - March 11th, 2021 [March 11th, 2021]
- Jitsi | Quick Install | Advance Configuraton | Some Fixes - March 7th, 2021 [March 7th, 2021]
- Market trends and outlook coupled with factors driving and restraining the growth of the Web Conferencing market Jumbo News - Jumbo News - February 16th, 2021 [February 16th, 2021]
- Jenny Turner Ready to Go Off LRB 18 February 2021 - London Review of Books - February 16th, 2021 [February 16th, 2021]
- Want a goat to stand in for you on Zoom? Itll cost you around R102 for 5 minutes - SowetanLIVE - February 8th, 2021 [February 8th, 2021]
- Keeping mindfulness and employee health at the forefront: app reviews - Tech Wire Asia - February 8th, 2021 [February 8th, 2021]
- Inside job: Why Zoombombing isnt as random as you might think - Digital Trends - February 8th, 2021 [February 8th, 2021]
- Tech Trends 2021: All You Need To Know - CCM - January 17th, 2021 [January 17th, 2021]
- Comprehensive Report on Web Conferencing Market 2021 | Trends, Growth Demand, Opportunities & Forecast To 2027 |IBM, ReadyTalk, Adobe, ezTalks,... - January 9th, 2021 [January 9th, 2021]
- Jitsi Meet: Open Source Zoom Alternative - December 19th, 2020 [December 19th, 2020]
- Jitsi Meet - Download - December 19th, 2020 [December 19th, 2020]
- How to Install Jitsi Meet on CentOS 8 - RoseHosting - December 19th, 2020 [December 19th, 2020]
- New 8x8 CEO expected to improve business operations - TechTarget - December 19th, 2020 [December 19th, 2020]
- Is HelmChat Free Helmet Comm Solution A Good Alternative? - RideApart - September 18th, 2020 [September 18th, 2020]
- How to recreate water cooler moments in the virtual workplace - Quartz - August 13th, 2020 [August 13th, 2020]
- Our right to health and the COVID-19 pandemic - Davao Today - June 13th, 2020 [June 13th, 2020]
- A look at how Jitsi became a 'secure' open-source alternative to Zoom - The Next Web - May 24th, 2020 [May 24th, 2020]
- How the Covid-19 Lockdown Is Reshaping Uighur Activism - The Nation - May 24th, 2020 [May 24th, 2020]
- TikTok now gives you one-tap access to streaming app Resso - The Next Web - May 24th, 2020 [May 24th, 2020]
- Tips on Running a Remote Animation Studio - Animation World Network - May 24th, 2020 [May 24th, 2020]
- Adapting from Home: This Weeks View of Video Meeting Triumphs and Concerns - Yahoo Finance - March 31st, 2020 [March 31st, 2020]
- 8 Best Zoom Alternatives for Video Conferencing and Webinars - Beebom - March 31st, 2020 [March 31st, 2020]
- Jitsi Downloads - iOS & Android apps; Jitsi Meet, & Jitsi ... - March 26th, 2020 [March 26th, 2020]
- What Is the Most Secure Video Conferencing Software? - VICE - March 26th, 2020 [March 26th, 2020]
- Home schooling tips: The things I wish I'd known before the schools went into lockdown - Telegraph.co.uk - March 26th, 2020 [March 26th, 2020]
- Fox Sports 1 Utilized Video Call Center to Extend Reach of Shows Like The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Sports Video Group - December 22nd, 2019 [December 22nd, 2019]
- Fox Sports 1 Dials Up VCC for The Herd With Colin Cowherd - TV Technology - December 22nd, 2019 [December 22nd, 2019]
- Gladstone gold does club proud - Gladstone Observer - July 19th, 2017 [July 19th, 2017]
- Jitsi | Futurist Transhuman News Blog - euvolution.com - July 10th, 2017 [July 10th, 2017]
- FAQ | Jitsi | Prometheism.net euvolution.com | Futurist ... - July 5th, 2017 [July 5th, 2017]
- FAQ | Jitsi | Futurist Transhuman News Blog - June 29th, 2017 [June 29th, 2017]
- Tsirang vegetable vendors commit to selling local chillies - Kuensel, Buhutan's National Newspaper - June 27th, 2017 [June 27th, 2017]
- FAQ | Jitsi | Prometheism.net - euvolution.com - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- FAQ | Jitsi - June 25th, 2017 [June 25th, 2017]
- Jitsi - PediaView.com - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- How to Configure and Set-Up Jitsi - Liberty Under Attack - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Jitsi Meet (advanced) Projects - May 23rd, 2017 [May 23rd, 2017]
- Diaspora* and Other Free Software Are Available in the Occitan Language, Thanks to Volunteer Translators - Global Voices Online - May 23rd, 2017 [May 23rd, 2017]
- Online privacy guide for journalists - Radioinfo (subscription) - May 18th, 2017 [May 18th, 2017]
- Your Essential List of 7 Productivity Hacks and Time Management Tips - Business 2 Community - May 11th, 2017 [May 11th, 2017]
- Encrypted Chat Took Over. Let's Encrypt Calls, Too - Huffington Post - April 25th, 2017 [April 25th, 2017]
- 5 Apps You Didn't Know You Needed - Syracuse University News - April 3rd, 2017 [April 3rd, 2017]
- Jitsi Meet - Android Apps on Google Play - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Snowden helping develop tools to protect journalists and whistleblowers - 'to make the game a little more fair' - Press Gazette - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Edward Snowden's New Job: Protecting Reporters From Spies - WIRED - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Jitsi for Windows - Secure Instant Messaging and VoIP - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Jitsi for Mac - Download - jitsi.en.softonic.com - February 6th, 2017 [February 6th, 2017]
- Jitsi softphone for Windows OnSIP Support - November 23rd, 2016 [November 23rd, 2016]
- Trying to install jitsi meet with apache2 - Stack Overflow - October 29th, 2016 [October 29th, 2016]
- Jitsi - Wikipedia - October 27th, 2016 [October 27th, 2016]
- Jitsi - Mensajera instantnea segura de texto, audio y ... - August 10th, 2016 [August 10th, 2016]
- Jitsi - Quora - May 31st, 2016 [May 31st, 2016]
- Chocolatey Gallery | Jitsi 2.8.5426 - May 28th, 2016 [May 28th, 2016]
- Jitsi - - May 24th, 2016 [May 24th, 2016]
- Jitsi - FreeBSD Wiki - May 22nd, 2016 [May 22nd, 2016]