Linphone (contraction of ''

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

phone'') is a free

voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

softphone A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer rather than dedicated hardware. The softphone can be installed on a piece of equipment such as a desktop, mobile device, or other compu ...

, SIP client and service. It may be used for audio and video direct

call Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call (poker), a bet matching an opponent's * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from L ...

s and calls through any VoIP softswitch or

IP-PBX An IP PBX ("Internet Protocol private branch exchange") is a system that connects telephone extensions to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and provides internal communication for a business. An IP PBX is a PBX system with IP connectiv ...

. Linphone also provides the possibility to exchange instant messages. It has a simple multilanguage interface based on Qt for

GUI Gui or GUI may refer to: People Surname * Gui (surname), an ancient Chinese surname, ''xing'' * Bernard Gui (1261 or 1262–1331), inquisitor of the Dominican Order * Luigi Gui (1914–2010), Italian politician * Gui Minhai (born 1964), Ch ...

and can also be run as a

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

-mode application on Linux. Both SIP service and software could be used together, but also independently: it's possible to connect Linphone service with any SIP client (software or hardware), and to use Linphone software with any SIP service. The softphone is currently developed by Belledonne Communications in France. Linphone was initially developed for

but now supports many additional platforms including

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

, and mobile phones running

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design languag ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

or Android. It supports

ZRTP ZRTP (composed of Z and Real-time Transport Protocol) is a cryptographic key-agreement protocol to negotiate the keys for encryption between two end points in a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone telephony call based on the Real-time Transport Protocol ...

for end-to-end encrypted voice and video communication. Linphone is licensed under the GNU GPL-3.0-or-later and supports

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

. Linphone can also be used behind

network address translator Network address translation (NAT) is a method of mapping an IP address space into another by modifying network address information in the IP header of packets while they are in transit across a traffic routing device. The technique was initia ...

(NAT), meaning it can run behind home routers. It is compatible with telephony by using an Internet telephony service provider (ITSP).

Features

Linphone hosts a free SIP service on its website. The Linphone client provides access to following functionalities: * Multi-account work * Registration on any SIP-service and line status management * Contact list with status of other users * Conference call initiation * Combination of message history and call details * DTMF signals sending (SIP INFO / RFC 2833) * File sharing * Additional plugins

Open standards support

Protocols

* SIP according to RFC 3261 ( UDP, TCP and TLS) * SIP

SIMPLE Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: *Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by John ...

NAT traversal Network address translation traversal is a computer networking technique of establishing and maintaining Internet Protocol connections across Gateway (telecommunications), gateways that implement network address translation (NAT). NAT traversal te ...

TURN To turn is to rotate, either continuously like a wheel turns on its axle, or in a finite motion changing an object's orientation. Turn may also refer to: Sports and games * Turn (game), a segment of a game * Turn (poker), the fourth of five co ...

and ICE * RTP/

RTCP The RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) is a binary-encoded out-of-band signaling protocol that functions alongside the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). RTCP provides statistics and control information for an RTP session. It partners with RTP in th ...

* Media-security: SRTP and

Audio codecs

Audio codec support:

Speex {{More citations needed, date=May 2025 The Speex project is an attempt to create a free software speech codec, unencumbered by patent restrictions. Speex is licensed under the BSD License and is used with the Xiph.org Foundation's Ogg containe ...

(narrow band and wideband),

G.711 G.711 is a narrowband audio codec originally designed for use in telephony that provides toll-quality audio at 64 kbit/s. It is an ITU-T standard (Recommendation) for audio encoding, titled Pulse code modulation (PCM) of voice frequencies ...

( μ-law,

A-law An A-law algorithm is a standard companding algorithm, used in European 8-bit PCM digital communications systems to optimize, i.e. modify, the dynamic range of an analog signal for digitizing. It is one of the two companding algorithms in the ...

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

Opus Opus (: opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera ...

, and

iLBC Internet Low Bitrate Codec (iLBC) is a royalty-free narrowband speech audio coding format and an open-source reference implementation (codec), developed by Global IP Solutions (GIPS) formerly Global IP Sound (acquired by Google Inc in 2011). It w ...

(through an optional plugin)

Video codecs

Video codec support:

MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related ...

Theora Theora is a free lossy video compression format. It was developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and distributed without licensing fees alongside their other free and open media projects, including the Vorbis audio format and the Ogg contai ...

VP8 VP8 is an open format, open and royalty-free Video coding format, video compression format released by On2 Technologies in 2008. Initially released as a Proprietary software, proprietary successor to On2's previous VP7 format, VP8 was released a ...

and

H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and d ...

(with a plugin based on

x264 x264 is a free and open-source software library and a command-line utility developed by VideoLAN for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video coding format. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Histo ...

), with resolutions from QCIF (176×144) to SVGA (800×600) provided that network bandwidth and CPU power are sufficient.Linphone.org » Features

Gallery

Linphone-1-linux-gnome.png, One of initial version's interface of Linphone in

(

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

) linphone on htc desire.jpg, Linphone running on

HTC Desire The HTC Desire (codenamed Bravo) is the first smartphone of the Desire series developed by HTC. It was announced on 16 February 2010 and released in Europe and Australia in the second quarter of the same year. The HTC Desire was HTC's third fl ...

Linphone-4.1.1-screenshot.png, Linphone 4.1 working on

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, made available for download via Microsoft ...

(main screen) Linphone-4.1.1-windows-settings.png, Linphone 4.1 settings on

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Free and open-source software Cross-platform software Android (operating system) software Free and open-source Android software Communication software Free VoIP software Instant messaging clients Instant messaging clients for Linux IOS software MacOS instant messaging clients Videotelephony VoIP software Windows instant messaging clients BlackBerry software