Recommendation for a good SIP phone (VOIP)

treenutz68

Cheogram works pretty flawlessly with jmp.chat voip service

[deleted]

Marila I've been using Linphone from the Google Play Store (burner), but you could get it from F-Droid and it should be free of all Google.

I don't use F-Droid because of some security issues, but it really depends on what you need.

Kindkey4468

Whichever VOIP/SIP client I use, outbound calling is OK. I can never receive inbound SIP calls. Pretty frustrating as I tried a lot. Currently I use Linphone (but tried many other SIP/VOIP apps), I run the latest version of Grapheneos and Mulvad VPN (pretty default configuration). Stun or Turn servers do not seem to matter.

ivanwmc

Throughout the years I have tried many SIP clients. Recently, I experimented with Linphone, Jami, Sipnetic and baresip(+). I only want to use SIP for soft phone-to-PSTN/SIP calls to institutes which insist on using the telephone, especially for when I am traveling.

Friends and family are on Cheogram. I did try JMP Chat with Cheogram, but since they only offer USA and CAN numbers, JMP Chat doesn't suit me.

I settled using Telnyx SIP Trunking with my own verified eSIM number as Caller ID for outbound-only calls with baresip as SIP client and NoPhoneSpam to block inbound calls to my eSIM number, notifying me of missed calls, while abroad.

I managed to get baresip and Telnyx setup with account settings:

SIP URI: <telnyx.connection.username>@sip.telnyx.com
Nickname: Telnyx
Display Name: <telnyx-verified.esim.number.(E164)>
Authentication Username: <telnyx.connection.username>
Authentication Password: <telnyx.connection.password>
Outbound Proxies: sip.telnyx.com:5061;transport=tls
Regsitration Interval: 3600
Audio Codecs:
- in Telnyx inbound settings: OPUS, G722, PCMU, PCMA
- in baresip app settings: opus, g722, g711
- in baresip account settings: opus/16000/1, G722/16000/1, PCMU/8000/1, PCMA/8000/1
Media Encryption: SRTP-MAND
Media NAT Traversal: ICE
STUN/TURN Server: stun.telnyx.com:3478
Country Code: <my.coutry.code>

ivanwmc

This way I can use Telnyx with TLS & SRTP enabled through FLOSS SIP client baresip for E2EE calls (up to PSTN). The Telnyx outbound 'From EEA' call rates to my home base are amazing: 0.0047 USD/minute to a landline, 0.0023 - 0.0082 USD/minute to mobile numbers (depending on Telnyx' providers 'Destination Prefixes'). Anyone know of cheaper providers?

I actually experimented with a Telnyx local landline number (DID) to also receive inbound calls. But I decided against it in the end, because I don't receive many calls from these institutions. The 1 USD/month number rate combined with the 0.0080 USD/minute inbound call rates from both my home base landline and mobile numbers, just doesn't make sense to me.

Receiving inbound calls would be more expensive (0.0080 USD/minute) than making outbound calls to mostly landline numbers (0.0047 USD/minute)!? Saving the 1 USD/month number rate would buy me 212 minutes of these outbound calls/month!

I like how it is set up now. Truly pay-as-you-go, no subscription fees. And I can call my home base institutions when needed from anywhere in the world (I travel 8 months/year) for lower than average local call rates.

schweizer

I am interested in a 2025 update on this. baresip sounds nice because it is open source and tracker free. But I did not get it to work. And it looks like it cannot integrate with the phone book so you have to enter all the numbers again. It creates an empty notification when it is running. That is not useful.

This thread should be about client apps not sip service providers.

secrec

schweizer It creates an empty notification when it is running. That is not useful.

Actually, it is useful. That's the "foreground service" notification, which allows it to remain running when you switch to other applications. Its pretty hard to receive a phone call if your software that receives it is killed by the system.

chinook

schweizer I think it should be primarily about the good SIP apps, but I would say the examples of the SIP providers and their set-ups are useful. See, I didn't even knew about Telnyx up until now, but now I'm tempted to create my own whitelabel eSIM for my family, just for giggles :)

schweizer

secrec Actually, it is useful. That's the "foreground service" notification

No, it's not. If they'd provide such a notification they could write "briar running" or "line 1 registered" and one line would be enogh for that. Instead you get a wide notification with no text in it.

I definitely give baresip+ a one star rating.

I am testing MizuDroid now. Setup done in two minutes. Contacts are available. No warning about missing play services. But I must test further to see if it is reliable.

secrec

schweizer Ok you just enjoy not receiving incoming calls.

schweizer

secrec Ok you just enjoy not receiving incoming calls.

What do you mean by that? I fact I encountered a bug in MizuDroid. It rings and shows full screen notification when the phone is locked. It does the same when the display is unlocked and the app in foreground. However, when I have another app in foreground it rings but there is no foreground notification. But for me the best sip app currently and hopefully they will fix it.

And if you know better tell us which app you are using.

lost_cause

I've got baresip running fine. It's one of the few apps that I've had no issues with once I got it running.

Calls come in reliably when I need them.

schweizer

lost_cause I've got baresip running fine.

What do you mean by that?

Do you see contacts?

Does it handle handover from wifi to mobile data?

How is battery usage?

Is audio quality good if the person on the other side also uses voip?

Those are the issues where it usually gets difficult with sip softphones.

lost_cause

I do see contacts, but you have to go into Settings and manually select Android contacts. It defaults to baresip contacts.

Wi-Fi to mobile I can't comment on as I rarely use mobile.

Battery usage is reasonable to me. It's at 5% over 15 hours in the background.

Audio quality is acceptable but it's usually VoiP to cell phone. I don't have many VoiP contacts.

I had more issues with Linphone, including intermittent 1 way audio.

schweizer

lost_cause I do see contacts, but you have to go into Settings and manually select Android contacts.

Thank you!

After a few days with Mizudroid the main issue is that it does not autostart. So after each restart you have to start it manually once.

lost_cause I had more issues with Linphone, including intermittent 1 way audio.

I had similar issues so it is no option to me either.