Best video call app?

Best video call app? A reader asks…

I’m looking at a lot of choices for making video calls, can you tell me which one is the best?

The video calling world has gotten crowded and yes, you have too many choices! Unfortunately, I can’t tell you which one is best, it really depends on your individual situation. Below I’ve listed a few scenarios along with the best option for each. Please leave a comment to describe your situation and I can possibly help you drill down more.

A quick google search on ‘video chat’ shows dozens of services out there. The biggest problem with video chatting is that both/all parties to the video call need to be on the same service. This is unlike plain-old-telephone-service (POTS) where any phone will do, you just need a telephone number. With video services, the caller and callee both need to have the same service, and have already configured it for their computer, tablet or smartphone. Sounds simple but it can easily be the bugaboo that stops you from using the service because it’s just too darn hard. I wish it was easier, but with so many possible combinations of hardware and service options, almost every call becomes a very unique situation.

That said, here are some scenarios:

• iPhone/iPad/Mac users: If you want to video call someone with a Mac, iPad or iPhone, then Apple’s Facetime app is going to give you the best results with the least amount of hassle. Unless you turned off (or didn’t turn on) Facetime in your settings (for iOS, Settings > Facetime, for Mac, open Facetime and use the menu Facetime > Preferences) all you need to do is pick someone off your contacts list to initiate a call.
• Facebook users: You can use Facebook’s video chat between any two Facebook users. But this method seems to have a lot of compatibility problems. Oh, and you can’t use it with Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• Google & Android users: use Google Hangout to call other gmail/google users. A really nice feature of Hangouts is that you can have up to 10 people on a party call – this is great for virtual family reunions! And of course you’ll use Google Chrome.
• You can use Skype to call just about anyone, but video calling on Skype seems to always have lots of freeze-frame and audio stuttering. Skype is the old guy in the video calling world, and a lot of people depend on it for cheap international calling.
• For any computer-to-computer calling (and a few Android smartphones), you can use GoToMeeting Free (up to 3 participants). Also doesn’t work on Microsoft Internet Explorer, and you can’t use the free version on an iPhone or iPad (but yes on some Android smartphones).

So what do I use? I use two methods, Facetime for calls with other Mac/iPhone/iPad friends, and Google Hangouts for everybody else. I’ve yet to need to link up with someone who doesn’t have one or the other.