You probably don't email your best friend and your boss from the same email. And in all likelihood, you have a separate Twitter account for yourself and your business. There’s good reason for this way of doing things: It helps us to compartmentalize, prioritize and manage our communications. Meanwhile, though, we still struggle to achieve the same flexibility when it comes to our mobile phones. That’s what Flyp seeks to solve with its new service, launching today. The app piqued our interest at WebInno back in mid-January, and now, it’s finally available to download for both for both iOS and Android devices.
Co-founded by telecom industry vets Peter Rinfret (CEO), Ivan Zhidov (VP of Development), Jeff Stark (Senior Engineer) and Bob Cleaves (Senior Engineer), Flyp allows users to easily and relatively cheaply add multiple phone lines to their smartphones, making it easier to keep their personal and professional lives separate. In other words—with Flyp, you can set up a separate number to be reached by your business, family, friends, and even those randos you meet at the bar.
With Flyp, you can set up a separate number to be reached by your business associates, family, friends, and even those randos you meet at the bar.
John Sakalowsky, chief product officer, told me that Flyp began a substantial beta test for the app in December with a mix of friends, family, investors and some other users representative of the general population. After gathering a lot of feedback on the functions and features, the team was able to validate some of their assumptions but also generate ideas on how to enhance the user experience.
One key advantage of Flyp lies in the rates. The first line is free, and each premium number after that costs $2.99 a month, or $29.99 a year. According to Sakalowsky, that’s significantly lower pricing than the target that was previously set.
But what really sets Flyp apart is its functionality, he said. Each and every line can be configured with its own voicemail greeting, and since it operates the same way as your main number, you can also text from each number using the same mobile phone. In addition to that, Flyp boasts sophisticated functions for handling incoming calls. A text-to-speech call assistant, for example, comes in handy when you’re busy or just don’t want to talk to the person who’s calling. You can choose from a number of messages—like “I’m busy, please call me back” or, in the case of a persistent telemarketer—“please stop calling me.”
So far, Sakalowsky says the team has adhered to a “minimal viable product” approach.
“We intend to learn a lot,” he added.
But Flyp is already planning on rolling out a host of new features, including international long distance, as well as the ability to put a foreign number on your phone. To aid in these developments, the 15-person Boston-based startup is aiming to grow out the team. Currently, they’re hiring a Customer Relationship Yogi, and Sakalowsky told me that Flyp will likely be bringing on more developers and user experience pros in the near future.
