It should be such a simple thing: you’re just going to make a video call. If it were a phone call, you’d dial a number and you’d either get through or you’d be directed to the other person’s voicemail.
But with video, there are too many variables. Which service will you use? Which software? Is the other person on my buddy list? Are they online? What if you want more than one person on the call? Do all participants have sufficient bandwidth? What if you want to share a screen? And on and on. You can’t “just” make a video call with a random person without thinking through these things.
Video calling app free download - Skype, Apple iTunes, MovieSherlock, and many more programs. Best Video Software for the Mac How To Run MacOS High Sierra or Another OS on Your Mac Best Graphic Design Software the Mac Stay Safe with Best Free Password Managers for iPhone View All Guides. Best all-in-one communication app on iOS Viber offers every type of communication imaginable, from text to video calls plus in-app purchases for stickers, money transfers and iCloud backups of. Regardless of this, the app remains reasonably popular in the UK for messaging and video calling. The app requires you to sign in and will naturally require the recipient to also have the WeChat app. Best Alternatives To FaceTime: Top Free Video Calling Apps For iPhone, iPad & iPod touch By Edward Marquez| December 4th, 2011 FaceTime was introduced by Apple in 2010 and has gained popularity since.
Even with all those questions answered, technology might not cooperate. I used to have a regular video conference with two other people across the country using Skype, but more often than not, the connection was awful. After dropping and reestablishing the call a few times, we’d give up and switch to Google+ Hangouts, which behaved better for us. But in recent months, the opposite has happened repeatedly—Google+ Hangouts first drops video, then audio, and we end up switching to Skype, which has been weirdly reliable (given our history with the service).
As a result, sometimes I can’t decide how to contact another person for a video call, even if the person is a Mac user with all the same software and account types I have. If you ever find yourself in the same boat, you may find my ruminations on the matter to be helpful.
Meet the contenders
As I mentioned in Replacing Messages Theater: more screen-sharing alternatives, there are oodles of choices when it comes to videoconferencing. I’m going to discuss just four: Apple’s Messages and FaceTime (both of which are built into OS X and iOS), Google+ Hangouts, and Microsoft’s Skype. These are among the most popular services, so it’s likelier than not that anyone you want to contact by video uses at least one of them. Choosing a service for which the other participants already have an account is usually the path of least resistance.
You may well find a product or service that you and your colleagues find more reliable or easier to use than one of these four. If so, by all means, go with what works best for you—by mutual agreement, well before any particular call is scheduled. The start of a call (or the few minutes before it) is not the right time for someone to set up an account and become acquainted with new software.
Here are the key differentiating features you should be aware of:
Messages: The OS X version of the Messages app can use Apple’s iMessage protocol for text and MMS messages, but for video calls or screen sharing, you must use an account type that supports video (namely, AIM, Jabber, or Google Talk). You can get free accounts for any or all of these services, and set them up in Messages > Preferences > Accounts.
Before starting a video call, you must put the other person on your buddy list—but you can add them unilaterally. Although you can have video calls with up to three other people, screen sharing is possible only when you’re on a call with one other person. Note, also, that the iOS version of Messages does not support video calls; to use a service like Google Talk on your iOS device, you’ll need a third-party app such as the free Vtok.
FaceTime: FaceTime, on either OS X or iOS, is great for one-on-one audio or video calls. Because it’s simple to use and available almost anywhere, it’s an ideal choice if you know the other person is an Apple user. And it offers highly secure end-to-end encryption. In most cases, you can use either an email address or telephone number to initiate a call, and the other party need not have FaceTime open or do anything special to log in. But you can’t have more than two participants in a video call, and screen sharing isn’t available.
Skype: With support for many platforms, multi-person video, and screen sharing (with simultaneous video), Skype is a great all-purpose choice for video calls, and it offers encryption (although with fewer protections than FaceTime). But it comes with a few gotchas. Before you can call someone, you may need their approval to add them as a contact (depending on their privacy settings). That’s fine for friends and business colleagues, but if you’re calling someone who doesn’t recognize your name, there’s no guarantee they’ll accept you as a contact. Furthermore, the other party must be logged in to Skype on at least one device.
Google+ Hangouts: Like Skype, Google+ Hangouts can be used on a variety of platforms. On OS X, you log in to your Google account in a Web browser. All participants need a Google account as well as the Google Voice and Video Plugin (which you’re prompted to install the first time you start or join a video call). iOS users need the free Hangouts app. Using Google+ Hangouts you can share your Mac’s screen and have video calls with up to nine other people. If any of the other participants aren’t signed in to Hangouts on at least one device, they’ll receive a notification when you try to call them (which they may or may not see immediately).
A matter of protocol
What’s the best way to choose among those options? Your mileage may vary, but my own algorithm depends on the nature of the video call.
Scheduled calls: If you’re planning recurring calls with your colleagues, the best advice I can give is to experiment, because what works for one pair of callers might fail for the next. Agree in advance that you’ll use Skype for the first call, Google+ Hangouts for the next, and so on. Regardless of which service you choose for a given call, have a backup plan—if the call starts stuttering or stalling, all the participants should know which provider they’ll switch to, or whether to try a conventional phone call.
Impromptu calls to a colleague: If I want to make an unscheduled video call to a colleague, my first step is to check the usual candidates to see if the person is online—Skype and Google+ Hangouts show participants’s status, as does Messages for people in my Buddy List. (The status might be incorrect, but it’s a good start.) If I can’t ascertain a contact’s online status with one of these services and I know the person is an Apple user, I try FaceTime. If none of those methods works, I use email, an instant message, or a phone call to see what works for the other person.
First-time video calls: First-time calls are the trickiest, because most people feel less comfortable chatting with strangers by video than in a phone call. If the person lists a certain service (such as Skype or AIM) on a business card, letterhead, or Web site, that’s a fairly safe bet. Even so, the best idea is to give the other person a heads up first via email.
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Now you can use your smartphone efficiently to avoid mobile phone “bill shock.” With the introduction of smartphones, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has progressed a lot. The smartphone users now have many ways to make free calls. Many people don’t know how to utilize this feature on their Apple iOS smartphones. iPhone has a lot of VoIP apps available in the iTunes app store, but unfortunately, they are not all handy.
Related: Best 4 iPhone Apps to Make Free Calls to US Landline and Mobile Number
Here, we have handpicked 5 iPhone apps tested all those and used for a while and sharing here to make your life easy.
None of them eats your minutes or your monthly limit of your cellular connection. Most of these are independent applications using your WiFi / 3G / 4G network to make calls.
FaceTime
Apple FaceTime has always been a flagship feature of calling with the Apple iOS users. FaceTime for iPod/iPhone/iPad/MAC makes it possible to talk, smile, and laugh with anyone on an iPad, iPhone, Mac. So you can catch up, hang out, joke around, and stay in touch with just a click. Sure, it’s great to hear a voice. But it’s even better to see the face that goes with it.
FaceTime is easy to set up. The free iPhone calling app works perfectly with the Address Book, so you don’t have to enter your contacts from scratch. Just select the phone number you want to call if you’re going to call her iPhone smartphone device. To call her iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, use her email address. An invitation pops up on her screen. When she accepts, the video call begins. And there you are, face to face. Apple iPhone FaceTime free calling service also works with Mac to iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Mac. FaceTime works side by side with the well-known iMessage for sending a free text or free SMS to iPhone smartphone devices.
Link from Apple: FaceTime
WhatsApp is one of the best messaging apps that support text, audio and video texting between mobile platforms. This free calling and the free instant messaging app supports almost all of the mobile platforms like iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Nokia, and Symbian.
In addition to the smooth user interface, this app packed with excellent features for mobile users like message delivery status information, option to control data usage for the mobile phone, etc. Whatsapp has the new feature of enhanced audio and video calling done without any additional charges, and you can make quality free calls without any problems. This can also be used as a free texting app as well as free calling app.
Download from iTunes: WhatsApp
Bobsled Calling
Unlimited free calling: Bobsled Calling gives you unlimited free calling to all your friends and family. You can talk to any of your Facebook friends and make free calls to any phone in US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. With a universal way to communicate, Bobsled users can easily message or call for free across devices, countries, social networks, operating system – and all mobile carriers.
Bobsled will find your friends on Facebook or their iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch and connect the call. If they are not there, send chat messages right from the app. Always stay connected with your friends. You have to log in with either email or Facebook to make free calls. This online, free calling app can be used to receive calls from your Facebook friends, Chat with your Facebook friends and you can leave Voice Messages.
Download from iTunes: Bobsled
Talkatone![]()
Free Google Voice, GTalk and Facebook VoIP phone calls and text. The only app that lets you call and text any phone number in US and Canada without requiring them to install Talkatone.
You can make Call and text your Facebook and Google friends for free, anywhere over WiFi or 3G/4G. Talkatone doesn’t use cell minutes, and there are no SMS fees. So you can enjoy the free calling and free SMS services. You need a free google voice account to connect with Talkatone.
Download from iTunes: Talkatone
Tango Video Calls
Tango is the only app that lets you make free video calls, phone calls, and send free video messages to a tango member. It is allowing the great feature of free Group Video Messaging. You can now record and share personal videos with anyone in your contacts list.
You can send and receive free video messages, Group video messaging and share with multiple people at once. With this free internationally supported free calling app, you can send video messages to friends who don’t have Tango, and you can view your sent messages & forward to others.
Download from iTunes: Tango Video Calls
ViberBest Free Apps For Mac
Free Phone Calls & Text: Viber lets everyone in the world connect freely. More than 40 million Viber users call, text, send photos and locations with each other worldwide for free with no subscriptions or purchases. Being one of the first ever free online calling and free texting apps in the market, Viber has now provided international WiFi calls to mobile with incredibly cheap rates.
You can call and text other users, on any network, as much as you want. All you need is a 3G or Wi-Fi Internet connection, and friends who got Viber too. Viber just works and lets you connect with your friends whose numbers you already have.
Download from iTunes: Viber
Best Video Calling App For Laptop
Related: How to Call US Land Phone for Free While you Abroad
Video Calling App Download![]() Best Video Calling App
It syncs with your mobile phone number and contact list to instantly show who already has Viber. Never again must you seek out your contacts, create new usernames, or build new records. Viber runs in the background without draining your battery, so you always receive incoming calls and message notification.
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December 2020
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