Conference calls are a necessary evil in today’s business landscape. Joining a call or initiating a call from your office is not complicated but if you’re out of the office more than you are in, hosting or dialing-in to conference calls from your mobile device may be a royal pain. That’s where an app like CrowdCall comes in handy.

Say goodbye to PINs and dial-in numbers

The user interface on the iPhone app is user friendly. Calling multiple numbers (max 20 participants) is as easy as selecting from your contacts list or Linkedin connections. Once you’ve added everyone, one simple tap will set the call in motion. CrowdCall will ring you first and then the others. To join the call, all that’s required is to enter “1”. This makes it easy as participants don’t have to remember to dial-in or even need to look up the dial-in and pin numbers to join the call.

CrowdCall

Schedule calls in a snap

If you have regularly scheduled calls, CrowdCall makes scheduling easy to do. You can choose whether the call repeats daily, weekly, bi-weekly, etc and whether you want notification reminders sent out prior to the call.

Plus and Minuses

For those with caller ID, CrowdCall will ring from the number of the host, not some random phone number you don’t recognize.

Call quality was pretty decent from my end and with the other callers. I do question whether someone can join mid way through the call. However, I do like the fact that all conference participants will be called when the conference starts up. This minimizes those who simply lost track of time and makes it easier for them to join in on the conversation quickly and easily.

You get 5 free daily calls on calls that cost CrowdCall less than $0.05 per minute (my account currently shows 500 minutes). Credits need to be purchased for calls that cost more than $0.05 per minute or for calls exceeding the 5 calls per day allowance. The plans (credits) range from $9.99 to $99.99 per month for 1,000 to unlimited minutes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find detailed information on their site that tells me which calls would be above/below the $0.05 per minute threshold. Though calls are “free”, keep in mind that calls from your mobile device still count towards your monthly mobile calling plan minutes.

CrowdCall currently only services Canada and the United States.

Whether your calls are local or within North America, this app is definitely worth a try.

The CrowdCall app is free via iTunes and Google Play.

Image credit: Socialdial Inc.