Voice calls are so last century. OK, there's plenty of hyperbole in that statement, but you can't deny that phone calls are going the way of the dodo. Video chatting's all the rage right now, and it's only going to get more popular as front-facing phone cameras become more common. Until recently, however, there haven't been many good ways to video chat using your smartphone—the services just weren't mature enough. But that all changed with smartphone innovator Apple's release of FaceTime with the iPhone 4, the real kickoff of the video chat craze.
FaceTime is still the best app out there as far as fluidity and video quality are concerned, but it only works over Wi-Fi and it only supports Apple devices running iOS. If you live in an Apple-only universe with constant access to Wi-Fi (and so does everyone you want to talk to), look no further than FaceTime. But everyone else needs a good video chat app, too.
There have been plenty of contenders for FaceTime's crown on both the iOS and Android platforms, but most of them were heavy on features and light on video quality. The latest crop, however, is making up for lost time. Apps like Skype and ooVoo, for instance, allow you to place quality video (and voice) calls between Android and iOS devices, not to mention desktops. Not only that, but they work over 3G and 4G connections as well.
So regardless of whichever device you're using, you're bound to find a great video chat app on this list that works for you. After all, where there's a will and a webcam, there's a way. If you want to read more about any of these apps, click the links to the full review.
ANDROID
Free
ooVoo is the best video chat app for Android and the best multi-platform video calling solution there is. Quality-wise, it's not quite on par with FaceTime, but FaceTime is limited to iOS and OSX and can only place calls over Wi-Fi. So if you're looking to video chat with your Android phone, and you don't want to worry about who has what device or what type of connection you're on, ooVoo is the app to beat. Now let's just hope it becomes available for more devices, fast.
Skype 2.1
Free
This latest update to Skype is a step in the right direction. Next to ooVoo, these are the best video calls we've experienced on Android. But if you own a device supported by ooVoo, we'd stick with that right now. The quality of video calls is better and more consistent, and it has the added benefit of group calls. But now that solid video chat on Skype is available for iOS, OSX, Windows and Android, it really has the potential to be the video chat app to beat. As it stands, however, Skype needs to smooth out the video calling experience and further expand its device support before it has a chance of taking over.
Google Talk Video Chat
Free
Right now, the Google Talk with video chat app has a whole lot of potential. But Google needs to work on some video chat performance issues, and it needs to release this app into the Android Market. If it do these things, we will be looking at what is essentially the Android equivalent of FaceTime—or even better, since Google Talk can make video calls over 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi, as opposed to just Wi-Fi.
IOS
Free
ooVoo
Free
Skype 3.0
Free
Amazing.Price is very high?Thanks for ur information.
nice aplication n gadget... i like this..