Awaaz contestants are invited to participate in a “call & greet” activity this Sunday 4/16, where you have brief voice conversations with each other without knowing in advance which Awaaz member will answer your call (think chatroulette that’s voice only and just among Awaaz members).

When: Sunday, April 16 at 9:00 pm EST.

How:  Dial 1379 in the CallThere app.  Huh? CallThere allows members of a group (represented by a 4 digit number), to call and talk to a randomly selected member of that group without sharing phone numbers or names.

How does it work?  When you call the number of a group in CallThere, it randomly selects and rings a few members of the group, and the first one to answer is connected to you.  People see the city you are calling from but not your number or your name.  Calls are free and can be up to 7 minutes.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Download and run CallThere (for iOS or  for Android).  It’s free and has no registration or login.
  2. Say OK when it asks permission to use your location (otherwise you won’t be able to make any calls).
  3. Say OK when it asks to send you notifications (otherwise you won’t know if someone is calling).
  4. Starting at 9 pm Sunday 4/16, dial 1379 and tap the “Call There” button (not the “Call Here” one) to start a call. CallThere will ring like a phone and you’ll be connected to a randomly selected Awaaz participant.
  5. Each call can be up to 7 minutes, and you can call as often as you want.  Again, calls are free and don’t use your phone number.
  6. We recommend familiarizing yourself with CallThere before Sunday by calling 0 (CallThere support.).  If you have any trouble making calls, write to us at support@callthere.com.
  7. Aim to talk to 5 different people Sunday evening.  Alternate between calling and answering calls.  It goes without saying that the more people participate, the more interesting it’ll be, so encourage your colleagues to participate.
  8. After you are done and at your leisure, it would be appreciated if you could take a few minutes to fill out a short survey with your comments and feedback.  Check back here Sunday for the link to it.

Known issues:

  • Sometimes there’s no audio in an answered call.  Restart CallThere to reset its connection to the server (on iPhone, double-press the home button and swipe up the CallThere screen).
  • CallThere may lose connection the server from time to time.  It’s recommended to restart it after making or answering three calls or so.