Yolla: International Calls App

What Yolla is and who it is for

If you phone relatives overseas often, the practical question is whether a prepaid calling app costs less than your mobile carrier's international rates. Yolla is built for that case. You put credit on an account and use it to call numbers in other countries.

The app is aimed at voice calls to landlines and mobiles abroad, with SMS as a secondary option. The listing names Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Myanmar and the UK among its popular destinations, and says it covers calls to any country. It is not a messaging app for chatting with contacts who also use it, although calls between Yolla users are free.

Placing a call from your phone

You can type a number or pick someone from your contact list. The listing says the app works with your existing contacts, so you do not have to re-enter people you already call.

Calls go over an internet connection. The listing names Wi-Fi, 4G, LTE and 3G as options, and says that calling over Wi-Fi avoids roaming charges. The person you call does not need Yolla, internet access or a smartphone, because the call reaches a normal landline or mobile.

Yolla uses your real phone number as the caller ID, so the person receiving the call sees your own number rather than an app-specific one. The listing presents this as a reason family can recognise you.

Paying for calls with prepaid credit

Calls are paid from a credit balance. You can top up in the app or on the Yolla website. The listing also describes an optional auto top-up, which adds credit automatically so the balance does not run out.

The listing says the balance never expires and there is no cancellation period, so unused credit stays on the account. Rates are quoted per minute, and the listing says the final cost is shown on screen with no hidden fees.

Credit can also be sent to other people. You can buy Yolla credit and transfer it to a friend or relative who uses the app, who can then call with it. The listing also describes a referral scheme: when an invited friend makes their first payment, both of you receive an extra $3 in credit.

Rates by destination and savings claims

The listing gives starting prices per minute for several destinations. Kenya is quoted from $0.01, the UK from $0.09, and Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Myanmar from $0.19. The listing also gives a general starting rate of $0.004 per minute, but does not say which destinations that applies to.

The developer states that calls can cost up to 90% less than traditional carriers. That is the developer's own comparison, and the listing does not name the carriers or the call types it was measured against. Rates for a given destination may differ from the starting figures above.

Sending texts and keeping your number

Alongside calls, the app sends SMS to more than 150 countries. The listing describes this as a quick option for when a call is not possible.

Because calls use your own number, the app is designed to work as an extension of your existing line rather than a separate identity. Sign-up is done with your phone number, and the listing says one account and number works across all your devices.

Support and account set-up

To start, you install the app, sign up with your phone number, add credit and then call. The listing describes this four-step process and presents it as the full set-up.

The developer states that support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for questions about calling over the internet.