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Best Alternatives To Skype For Making VoIP Calls In The UAE
Etisalat and du both offer Internet calling plans that cost 50 AED a month plus taxes.
The United Arab Emirates doesn’t tax resident’s personal income, but it does generate a lot of money through the two major telecommunications companies that operate in the country, Etisalat and du, both of which are majority state-owned.
Etisalat and du offer Internet calling plans (ICPs) that cost 50 AED ($14 USD) a month plus taxes. These plans make it possible to make calls over the internet using the following alternatives to Skype, WhatsApp, as well as other popular VoIP apps, which are banned in the UAE.
BOTIM
BOTIM provides a user experience that’s very close to what WhatsApp users are familiar with, and it runs on Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS.
The app is easy to get started with because it automatically imports your existing contacts, bringing you closer to your family and friends.
Recently, BOTIM has introduced a new feature called Prime, which lets users take advantage of discounts offered by some of the most popular restaurants & cafes in the UAE.
HiU Messenger
HiU Messenger is an easy-to-use WhatsApp alternative that you can use to initiate a video or voice call with a simple tap.
You can find the HiU Messenger app on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. The app is somewhat less polished than BOTIM, but all important features are supported, including the ability to start a group chat with up to 500 people.
Unfortunately, the last update for HiU Messenger was released in 2019, and recent user reviews tell us that there are many things that should be updated.
C’Me
The last one of our alternatives to Skype, WhatsApp and other VoIP apps that we want to recommend is C’Me.
Just like HiU Messenger, C’Me hasn’t been updated nearly as often as it should to keep up with BOTIM — let alone the world’s most popular VoIP apps.
Still, it does let you make unlimited voice & video calls to any destination from the UAE, and that might be enough to justify giving it a try.
News
Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users
The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.
Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.
Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.
Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.
Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.
Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide
To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.
While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.
Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.
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