PokeTALK Team Blog

If you live in the UK, Germany or Israel, and make international calls, then you might like to try the unique dial in services that we offer in these countries. Each service allows you to call a unique mobile number in your country that already forwards to your contact overseas. Best of all, to use the service there are no payments, you simply call the local number we give you.

You may be asking how can we offer such a service? In each country we have negotiated agreements with local carriers for them to assign us numbers. When you call the number, which for you cost the same rate as calling any other local mobile in your country, then we profit, and since we specialize in connecting international calls, we then forward the call overseas in a way that is profitable for everyone.

To get started in your country poke the below link:

Germany:  www.poketalk.com/de

UK:  www.poketalk.com/uk

Israel:  www.hallomize.com

The biggest obstacle users have in upgrading their account to Pro is payment methods. While credit cards are mainstream, there are many people who simply don’t enjoy using them in a virtual way. Luckily there are some creative new start-ups out there with solutions, such as Kwedit.

Kwedit now enables people to pay for on-line services without a credit or debit card. They operate 2 revolutionary new services, Kwedit direct and Kwedit promise. We recently integrated Kwedit direct which enables payments at  local retail store such a 7-Eleven.

To use Kwedit direct simply poke on the “pay by 7-11″ link in the Add Credit section and choose you location. You will receive the address to the nearest 7-Eleven where you can pay with a printable receipt. Its that simple !

We recently sent out a survey asking users about their favorite PokeTALK services and how they can be improved. Surprisingly, the send sms feature was at the top of the list for favorite features since using a keyboard is so easy to type, and because you have the ability to add a name or a number to send as id to the receiver.

In light of the adoration for the send sms, we have made some upgrades.

You can now view the last 20 sms’s sent and can resend them by simply poking on them. This is very useful if you want to sms the same person since it adds their number into the senders list, as well as if you want to send the same sms again.

Another feature to make sending sms even easier, you can now add numbers directly from your address book. If you want to sms your entire contact list, there is also an icon to add them in 1-click. This is all built into the sms interface so if you are a big sms’er you will love it.

As always, your sms’s will be free with your bonuses so enjoy !

Many new features have been released in the past month each one to make connectivity in your life just that little bit better.

We have received raving feedback for the local numbers service which is a one of a kind feature that makes international dialing as easy as possible. You simply receive a local number in your country which is already programmed to forward to your contact overseas, so you just  dial a local number in your country to call them. For example, if you are located in the USA, you will receive a unique US based number e.g 1215939xxx for all your overseas contacts. You can store each of the new numbers as a new contact in your phone because you wont need to dial long international numbers anymore.  Since PokeTALK offers calls to over 80 countries for under 2 cents per minute, you can  speak over 5 hours for $10.

You can also program the local numbers service for reverse usage. If you are usually calling your mom in France, you can set her up with a local number in France to call you (just don’t forget you will be paying for these calls but thats a small price to hear moms voice) ! Also make sure to add the numbers you are dialing from in the ‘My registered numbers’ which allows our system to recognize your account settings.

Pin code is similar to a standard calling card, only in virtual fashion. You simply dial the selected number in your country, enter your pin code, and then have an open line to dial any country. For numbers that you call frequently the local numbers is a preffered option because it forwards you directly, but if you are calling a number less often the pin code is handy to have around.

There is also now a beautifully designed desktop widget which you may download to make web activated calls from your desktop. The widget stores all your numbers and your contacts from your account, so dialling is as easy as in the website. Once you download the widget, it will appear on your desktop and in the gadgets option (right click on desktop this is next to screen resolution).

If you are a Facebook lover, you can now connect your account through PokeTALK. By connecting you can post details of your calls to all your friends, comment on calls, and invite all your friends in Facebook to join PokeTALK.

Lastly but most important, for a little fun you can add the ‘play’ service to enjoy the classic snake game. If you are on a long call this is some guaranteed entertainment :)  Happy poking.

PokeTALK has been around for over 2 years, and every year we have revamped the site to accommodate the changing needs of our users and add more features. The first version of PokeTALK was extremely simple, with a box to enter your numbers, and some advertising. This version only had one feature, the web callback, whereby you could only call a few countries for free, because there was no pro version. That was it !

The second version was built with the idea to make the site  interactive with more features to make calling fun, as well as the Pro option allowing users to upgrade calls to all destinations. This version had many experimental ideas included such as games to play while on the call, a feed of all recent activities, and even  an option to comment on a phone number, so that when someone else called that number they would see the comment.

The latest version which is what is available today, was created with the intention to allow full customization of the interface. Today there are over 10 different features available (and growing), which you don’t need access to all the time. For this reason there is a services menu on the left side where you can add/remove  features. In addition the services can be arranged in any order that is convenient by dragging them up and down. This gives you access to all the features, all the while avoiding a cluttered interface. This version was also built upon an open API to allow any developer to build features into PokeTALK, or to use the code to build their own telephony services.

If you have any suggestions for improving the interface we are always available at pro@poketalk.com for all your feedback, because at the end of the day this service is built for you to enjoy !