"hello is like Skype, but it's smart, open and secure. It's encrypted, so no-one can listen in, and because it's peer-to-peer, there's no central server to spy on." said Paul Grimshaw, founder. "It's far more than a Skype replacement though; It blends open source applications with a commercial platform to create advanced telephony features and a competitive free market. Skype better watch out!"
hello is a free open source application providing video, voice & chat securely and privately. This is combined with a platform for advanced filtering, multiple channels, web service integrations and real world telephone numbers. A foundation governs the applications and platform whilst multiple companies work in a free market environment.
hello to hello phone calls will always be free. You can organise, filter and redirect your incoming calls, make video calls, chat via IM. You can save voicemails or custom ring tones to dropbox, sync contacts with Salesforce or interact with the real world using IFTTT.
Grimshaw continued "What makes hello unique is that companies can use it to create their own offerings (e.g. call packages or integration with own branded services). The user can connect to more than one provider for some or all of their services and can freely move between them. Canonical could set up an Ubuntu-branded service or Samsung could bundle hello and their own call packages when selling internet enabled televisions."