Telefonica/O2 releases "TU Me" rival to Viber

NFH

BBC News: Telefonica unveils data-based communication app Tu Me

Telegraph: O2 Tu Me app offers free calls and texts for all iPhone

Despite the mention of Skype and Whatsapp in the BBC article, TU Me seems to rival Viber most closely except that it's currently available only for iOS. Until it is released for other mobile operating systems, it offers little advantage over the iPhone's built-in iMessage and FaceTime. Also the Telegraph are incorrect in suggesting that it's available only to O2 customers.

Viber's launch didn't attract such attention from non-tech media such as the BBC and Telegraph. I'm guessing that TU Me has gained such coverage only because Telefonica/O2 are behind it.

NFH

I've just tested TU Me between two iPhones and it doesn't work unless the receiving party already has the app open, because it doesn't appear to support push notifications. This makes the app useless, unlike Viber, Whatsapp, iMessage and FaceTime which do support push notifications. Unless Telefonica/O2 fix this, I can't see TU Me taking off.

Skype also has this drawback but only because it is a peer-to-peer network, unlike TU Me which uses client-server technology. Therefore Skype has an excuse, whereas TU Me has not.

NFH

Telefonica/O2 have just released a new version of this app supporting push notifications. That was quite an impressive turnaround time to develop the new functionality, test it and get it released in the iTunes App Store.