Bolt for Android

Free calling apps, such as Viber, Skype, and others, are quite common, but they all suffer from the same fatal flaw: they require you to remember to use their special apps when you’re calling someone on their networks and use the standard phone app when you’re calling everyone else. Plenty of companies have tried to integrate calling into their existing apps, like Facebook and Apple with FaceTime Audio, but those features have generally been difficult to access and have seen little adoption among users. Bolt, a new calling app available for Android today, is looking to fix that problem by combining its free calling service with a full-fledged phone dialer app that can replace your phone’s standard dialer.

The premise of Bolt (which has no relation to the mobile browser of the same name from a few years ago) is simple: you install the app and use it to place all of your calls. It functions very similarly to how iMessage works on iOS devices for messaging. If you are calling another Bolt user, the app will intelligently route the call over VoIP and it will not count against your wireless plan’s minutes. If you call any other number, the app will fall back to your standard wireless carrier and use minutes from your plan.