Test Drive Gruveo with Zapier

We have been working on developing Gruveo to work with Zapier and invite you to take it for a test drive. Zapier is an online automation tool that connects hundreds of apps, such as Slack, MailChimp, Calendly, and now Gruveo. You can automate repetitive tasks without coding or developers and it’s easy enough that anyone can build their own app workflows with just a few clicks.

The new integration provides you with a Zapier action to create a new Gruveo call room and get its name and URL. While very simple, this integration makes truly powerful workflows possible – for example, automatically creating a Gruveo room for your Calendly appointments and emailing the link to the invitee.

Zapier requires all new integrations to start in an invite-only test mode. To get your invite for Gruveo, simply shoot us a message:

Developer Alert: Updating the Static Embed Code for Chrome 64

The recently released Chrome 64 brought an important change whereby by default, camera and microphone permissions cannot be requested in cross-origin iframes such as the Gruveo embed. If you are using static HTML <iframe> code to embed Gruveo on your website, it is important to make sure that it includes the allow="microphone; camera" attribute as specified in our developer documentation. Otherwise, the Gruveo embed will be failing with the “Cannot access camera and/or microphone” message.

If you embed Gruveo using JavaScript, you don’t need to do anything because our JavaScript API inserts the allow attribute automatically.

We recommend using JavaScript to embed Gruveo to ensure that the latest compatible code is always used. If you are still using the static HTML method, now may be a good time to switch to the JavaScript approach instead. You can find the details in our API docs.

New Feature: Add Callers to Your Ongoing Gruveo Call

If you use Gruveo often (we hope you do!), you probably want to be alerted of any incoming calls even while you are on a call with someone else. Additionally, you should be able to add new callers right to the ongoing call, without having to use a room for such impromptu group conversations. Well, starting today, you can do both.

Get Alerts for Parallel Incoming Calls

Whenever you have an ongoing Gruveo conversation and a new call on your Gruveo link comes in, you will now get an alert like the one shown below.

A special alert will notify you of a parallel incoming call (Gruveo web app only).

The alert will give you two options:

• Add the caller to your ongoing call
• Decline the incoming call.

You can also hang up your ongoing call, in which case you will be taken to the incoming call screen for the caller who’s trying to reach you.

Another Easy Way to Create Group Conversations

The call notification feature provides a new easy way to create group calls on Gruveo. Instead of organizing your group call in a call room, or sharing the one-time join URL for an ongoing call on your Gruveo link, do the following:

1. Tell all call participants to follow your Gruveo link (grv.to/@myhandle) on the agreed upon time
2. Take the first call that comes in
3. Add any subsequent callers to the ongoing call.

It’s really that simple!

Available in the Gruveo Web App Today

The new call notification feature is currently available in the Gruveo web app on www.gruveo.com. We are working on bringing it to our Android and iOS apps, too. Meanwhile, here’s to even fewer missed calls and a new easy way to create group conversations on Gruveo!

Gruveo Subscription Is Now 40% Off, Important Changes Coming on January 25

We have prepared some important changes to the Gruveo subscription pricing as well as to how free Gruveo calls are handled.

The Gruveo Subscription Is Now 40% Off

Over the past several weeks, we have been hard at work optimizing our server infrastructure to bring the costs down. This work is finally bearing fruit and we are happy to be able to pass the savings on to our subscribers. Effective immediately, we are slashing 40% off the Gruveo monthly subscription price.

If you already are a Gruveo subscriber, you can take advantage of the new pricing while keeping your Gruveo account. All you need to do is cancel your existing subscription and then reactivate it after the end of your billing cycle at the new price. See this article for details.

New Rules for Free Calls Starting January 25

Along with making the subscription even more affordable, we are also introducing important changes to the free usage of Gruveo.

Up till now, all one-on-one calls on Gruveo have been free and unlimited. At the same time, group calls have been automatically disconnected after 10 minutes unless a Gruveo subscriber joined the call. To reduce the confusion and let users experience Gruveo’s high-quality group calling better, we are introducing a unified 20-minute limit to all free calls. (A free call is a call with no logged in Gruveo subscribers on it.) The new limit will kick in on January 25.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The new approach means that you will be able to enjoy Gruveo calls up to 20 minutes long with up to 12 people absolutely free of charge and without the need for an account.
• After your free call is automatically disconnected, you will be able to recreate it immediately for an unlimited number of times.
• If you are a Gruveo subscriber, just make sure you are logged in while joining your calls. That will lift the 20-minute free call limit as well as enable your other premium features.
• If you have been relying on Gruveo’s free calling to connect your website’s or app’s users, take a look at the Gruveo API, which we have available specifically for such integration cases.

We believe that the new subscription pricing as well as the free calling rules will make Gruveo more understandable and affordable. To start your free 14-day Gruveo trial, click here.

Announcing Caller Blocking and Chat History Emailing

We are excited to announce two new features that have just been added to Gruveo: caller blocking and chat history emailing.

Caller Blocking

Caller blocking is a new feature that lets you block callers from specific countries. One piece of feedback that we regularly hear from our users is that they sometimes get unwanted or mistaken calls from abroad. The issue is especially pronounced for owners of popular and easy-to-guess @handles.

With the new caller blocking feature, you can now block callers from unwanted countries with a couple of clicks. Here’s how:

1. Head to the new Caller Blocking page in your account on the Gruveo website.
2. Choose a country to block from the drop-down list and click “Add”.
3. Repeat for any other countries that you want to block calls from.
4. Click “Save changes”.

Done! You will no longer receive rings or missed call notifications for calls from the selected countries. Note that the callers will still be able to leave you a message if you have the Text Mail feature enabled.

Caller blocking lets you easily block unwanted calls from specific countries.

Chat History Emailing

Another piece of user feedback that we are addressing with the latest update is the ability to preserve the history of your in-call text chats. With this feature, the chat history is emailed to you immediately after each Gruveo call. No more worrying about losing that link or piece of important text pasted into the text chat!

For privacy reasons, chat history emailing is not enabled by default. Here is how to enable it:

1. Go to your account’s Notifications and Messages section on the Gruveo website.
2. Check the checkbox that says “Receive chat history for every call via email”.
3. Click “Save changes”.

Chat history emailing lets you receive chat logs for your Gruveo calls straight to your email inbox.

We hope you are as excited about caller blocking and chat history emailing as we are. These new features are available to all Gruveo subscribers immediately. If you are not yet a subscriber, start your free 14-day trial today: