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  • About flaphone
  • Key features
  • Flaphone™ AIR
  • User interface
  • How to use?
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    • About flaphone

    Flaphone™ is a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) compatible web softphone, that is working in web browser without installation of any specific software*. Everything that you need is internet connection, speakers and microphone**. Flaphone™ users can call each other, to SIP phones, and any phone numbers, if SIP provider accounts are configured in control panel.

    * You need Adobe Flash Player version 9 or higher to use flaphone.

    ** If you use flaphone™ without a headset, your conversation partner will hear his own echo. This is caused by Adobe Flash Player, that doesn’t have echo cancellation feature yet.

    Key features

    • Flaphone™ can be used on any computer wherever you are.
    • Incoming calls processing.
    • No need to install any software (If you already have Adobe Flash Player installed).
    • Calling regular phone numbers at minimal cost, choosing the most convenient IP telephony provider.
    • No NAT and firewall problems.
    • Call history.
    • Video calls.
    • Instant messaging (IM).
    • User availability (Presence service).
    • CallMe widget.

    Flaphone™ implementation supports following technologies:

    • Calls and instant messaging by means of SIP protocol.
    • DTMF signal translation.
    • G.711, G.729 and Speex wideband voice codecs.
    • H.263, H.263+ and H.264 video codecs.

    Flaphone™ AIR

    If you use flaphone™ for incoming calls, web browser can be inconvenient for this purpose. That’s why we’ve developed Flaphone™ AIR.

    Flaphone™ AIR can be installed in several clicks with Adobe AIR Runtime, and after that you get SIP softphone that works exactly the same way as flash version does, but is a fully functioning desktop application. You can minimize it to system tray and be sure that you’re always online and can accept a call.

    User interface

    1 – menu panel
    2 – SIP account list
    3 – contact list
    4 – video panel
    5 – video quality settings
    6 – video transmission start button
    7 – dial button
    8 – show/hide keyboard
    9 – microphone record level control
    10 – show/hide video panel
    11 – speaker level control
    12 – cancel button
    13 – show/hide menu
    14 – number input field

    How to use?

    Calls

    With flaphone™ you can receive and make calls to to SIP URIs, landline and mobile bumbers, if you add SIP provider account. Let’s see what type of calls can be done by flaphone.

    Outgoing calls

    To call another flaphone™ user you just need to enter his login and press dial button. If you want to call mobile and landline phones, you need to add SIP provider account in “SIP accounts” dialog (link). After you done it, you will be able to call destinations that are supported by your provider.

    Incoming calls

    You can be called in 2 ways: by flaphone™ users and via SIP. Incoming SIP calls divide into 2 groups: direct incoming calls, when you are called as SIP URI sip:@flaphone.com and SIP account calls, when you’re called via your provider’s SIP proxy, that you’ve registered at.

    Contact list

    Adding groups and contacts

    Thanks to contact list, you can arrange your contacts, add new groups and new users. You don’t need to remember phone numbers anymore – just add them to contact list and call by several clicks.

    To add new group or contact, click corresponding item in contact list. After that enter group or contact name. To add contact to existing group you also should click existing group in contact list.

    To move contact from one group to another, you just need to press left mouse button over a contact and drag it to desired group, as shown on image below

    After you have added users, you should add contact numbers to them. To do that you need to click user, which you want to add contact number to, and select “Add number” menu item, as shown on picture below.

    In dialog you should specify number and assign type to it from combo box. Calls between users in internet are free of charge, to call other contact numbers you need to add your SIP provider account in “SIP accounts” menu (link). Flaphone™ users can see presence status of each other. To see flaphone™ user status, you need to specify flaphone™ login of user in “number” field and select “IP” type.

    Instant messaging (IM)

    Users can send messages to each other and exchange messages via SIP. You can send message only to numbers in contact list that have “IP” type.

    To send IM, click IP number of desired user and select “Send IM” item in menu, as shown below.

    Watching user state (presence)

    Flaphone™ users can watch each other’s presence state. To see state of specific flaphone™ user, you should add IP number to corresponding contact in contact list. You should enter that user’s login in “number” field.

    Settings

    Audio

    Flaphone™ supports new feature of Adobe Flash Player 10 – high quality Speex audio codec.

    To configure audio you need to click “Settings” item in menu. After that you’ll see dialog similar to the image below. Select audio recording device from the list and click “Test audio” button. You should hear your echo.

    Video

    Flaphone™ supports Flash-to-SIP, SIP-to Flash and Flash-to-Flash video calls. Flaphone™ lets its users to make video calls to each other, and to SIP software and hardware phones that support H.263, H.263+ and H.264 video codecs.

    To configure video you need to click “Settings” item in menu. After that you’ll see dialog similar to the image below. Select video recording device from the list.

    Flash

    There are 2 ways to configure Flash player. The first one is to right click flaphone™ and select “Settings” item in menu, as shown on image. The second one is to click “Settings” item in flaphone™ menu and press “Flash settings” button.

    In Flash Player parameters you also can select audio and video recording devices.

    For convenient use of flaphone™ we recommend you to check “Remember” checkbox in “Privacy” section and select “Allow” as shown on image below. It makes you free of requirement to allow flaphone™ access to your camera and microphone every time you log in.

    SIP accounts

    To add SIP provider account enter menu (1) and click “SIP accounts” item (2).

    After that, you’ll see table containing brief information about your SIP accounts.

    To add account, you should click “Add account” button. After that you’ll see dialog where you should enter following information (mandatory fields are marked with asterisk), that you should get from your SIP provider:

    Name – enter anything you like to identify this account.
    SIP Proxy – SIP provider proxy server address.
    Username – SIP provider user name.
    Password – SIP provider password.
    Auth user – login for authorization. If your provider didn’t give you this information, leave this field blank.
    Outbound proxy – proxy for outgoing calls. If your provider didn’t give you this information, leave this field blank.
    Register – if checked, allow you to receive incoming calls via this account. If you enable it, you’ll see “Enabled” in SIP account table in “Registration” column.
    If you experience any problems, ask us for help by mailing to info@flaphone.com.

    CallMe widget

    CallMe widget is free service, provided by flaphone. CallMe widget is HTML code that is embedded into your web page and allows anyone who opens it to call predefined number. Call is done via SIP provider that you’ve specified in “SIP accounts” settings. CallMe widget looks like image below. Any visitor of your web page can call your mobile, landline or SIP number and talk to you using his computer. Every flaphone™ user can make widget code himself.

    *If you want this widget to call mobile or landline number, you need to add SIP provider account that will be used for making these calls in “SIP accounts” menu.

    You can use CallMe widget in following example cases:

    • You need to make other people able to contact you, but you don’t want to specify your contact information. For example, if it changes often, or you want to stay anonymous.
    • You need to put your contact in social networks (Facebook, etc.)
    • You need to create simple and free of charge feedback for your customers, for example, remote support service.
    • You want to being attention by innovative approaches to communication.

    To configure CallMe widget, follow these steps:
    1) Choose a number, that you want to use for these calls. It can be your mobile, landline number, etc.
    2) If you want to accept calls via SIP softphone or hardware phone, or via your flaphone™ account, you can skip steps 2 and 3. If you chose landline or mobile phone, register at any SIP provider website. It will maintain connection between CallMe widget and chosen phone number.
    3) In “SIP account” settings configure your SIP provider account. See “SIP accounts” (link) for details.
    4) Generate CallMe Widget HTML code. It can be done in “CallMe widget” section in menu by pressing “Generate embed code” button. You can also tweak style and looks of widget.
    Placing generated HTML code on your web page, you create CallMe button on it. By pressing this button, visitor will call your specified number.

    CallMe Widget settings

    In menu (1) press button “CallMe widget” (2).

    You’ll see CallMe widget setup dialog.

    Dialog has following sections:

    1) Preview – example display of current settings. You can switch between 3 states that are used by widget to display current call status.
    2) Settings – this section is used to configure button label in different states, SIP URI or number to receive calls. If you enter phone number – don’t forget to configure SIP account in menu. If you want widget to call you when you’re logged ion flaphone, enter your flaphone™ login in “number” field. Don’t forget to press “Save” to store your settings at server. “Generate embed code” button is used to generate HTML code for your widget after you’ve finished with settings. If you press it, code appears in popup window, like in YouTube.
    3) Widget settings, Button attributes, Connection label – these settings change looks of your widget. They are stored in local cache memory of Flash Player and will be restored next time you open CallMe settings dialog. These settings are used when you click “Generate embed code” button.