Earlier this week, Telephone turned 10. On December 17, 2008, I released the first version 0.8 to the public. It was on Google Code—a go-to place for hosting and publishing opensource projects.
Since then, it’s come a long way. The source code repository has been migrated two times: from SVN to Mercurial to git. The project hosting has moved from Google Code to GitHub. The distribution—from Google Code to the Mac App Store.
My original goal for Telephone was to have a streamlined softphone that would be a native citizen on the Mac. As someone who wanted to use VoIP and loved Mac, I struggled with other apps being clunky and feeling foreign on the platform.
Fast-forwarding ten years, and my goal still stands. Telephone has become a full-featured softphone while keeping its streamlined interface and its nativeness to the Mac.
Over the years, Telephone was downloaded more than a million times. The vast majority of the feedback has been very positive, and that is what’s been keeping me going forward. I always wanted to dedicate more of my time to this app, and the introduction of subscriptions a couple of years ago finally made it possible.
Making something sophisticated and full-featured while keeping it easy-to-use is a big challenge. That is what I’m trying to do with the app, and that is what people seem to like in Telephone. History shows a lot of examples of apps getting bloated as the businesses put more and more unneeded features into them only to justify another paid update. And that’s where Telephone Pro subscription comes into play, allowing the app not to be flooded with unnecessary features.
I want to say thank you to all people who use the app! We often read these words in posts like that, but they are really true. Without you, without your positive feedback that inspires me, without your negative feedback that makes the app better, without your support Telephone wouldn’t have lasted this long.
Alexey