I installed the application, but I have been unable to spend a lot of time with it yet. Early reviews of the service are positive for the most part. The app is free and you have nothing to lose (except time) so check it out and let us know what you think.

Download Fring from the Android Market:

• Start the Market application on your phone
• Search for “fring” and install

Download Fring from their WAP site:

• On your Android phone, go to Settings > Applications and check the box to allow ’unknown sources’
• Point your phone browser to fring.com and download Fring manually

Full press release from Fring.

London, 18 November 2009. fring™, the multi-award winning mobile application that lets users communicate and share web-based experiences from their mobile devices, today announces the world’s first full voice over internet support on all Android devices.

From today Android users join millions of fringsters worldwide with free calls, live chat, contact availability status, file sharing and more with friends on fring and several popular social services including Skype, MSN, GoogleTalk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! and AIM*. Centralized from one integrated contact list, fringsters also make calls to regular phone lines via Skype-Out and hundreds of popular SIP services over 3G, GPRS or Wi-Fi internet connection.

Avi Shechter, Co-Founder & CEO of fring said, “fring is glad to bring Android users the first free voice calls over fring, Skype, GoogleTalk and SIP, realizing the real potential of their new open, internet-enabled devices.” Shechter continued, “Now Android users can join the millions of fringsters on thousands of fring-supported mobile devices who enjoy the rich features and cost benefits that mobile communication over internet can provide: communicating and sharing social Internet experiences over Wi-Fi or data plan with their friends wherever they are, on the web or on their phones.”

In addition to Android, fring is supported worldwide on thousands of Symbian S60, iPhone, iPod touch, Windows Mobile, J2ME and Linux devices.

The brand-new Android version can be downloaded via fring’s WAP site at m.fring.com or directly via the Android Market.

The main Gizmo5 site is currently down, but you can see what they were offering before the Google acquisition by visiting the dev site. Gizmo5 services included voice calls, instant messaging, file sharing, SMS, and video calls. Google is reporting the Gizmo5′s engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice experience.

I truly believe video calls from smartphones will be the next big thing and it could happen in 2010. The carriers are beefing up their networks (see T-Mobile’s HSPA 7.2) and will have the bandwidth to support such a service. The only thing we are missing are phones with front facing cameras and those are starting to appear.

Are we really ready for hand held video calls next year?

Features offered by Gizmo5.