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What is your favourite Android app for Video Calling?

4K views 21 replies 7 participants last post by  JamesK 
#1 ·
There are so many apps for video calling, some being exclusive to one brand of phone: Apple's Face Time (exclusive to iPhone/iPod/iPad) which is NOT good because some of your friend and family might not be rich and can not afford apple and may have an android or Windows Phone device.

I would like to know of the many apps, which one is your favourite, and why?

Me: 1. I used to use Skype, but I noticed not everyone has or wants a skype account now a days, and the ones that do, tend to forget their password or have an account but do not have the app installed on their phone its low on their list of priorities but it works great when I had it. But I am finding the app is not keeping up with the competition and is seriously lacking, just the other day I made a call to a friend on skype, and it told me I need to put money on my skype account to make this call? wtf? its always been free to call other peoples skypes, I thought money was to call landlines? guess they're getting greedy. one pro about skype is cross platform, plus i found a skype lite app on the google app store looks very good they got rid of all those bots and crap.

2. Whatsapp. I was using WhatsApp but I find that it was not so popular, people used it more to share funny images all day long in group chats and rarely used video calling to talk. I did chat a few times on whats app but noticed people who i tried to call would not work because they deleted the app but forgot delete their account and did not tell anyone. one pro about whatsapp is cross platform

3. Google Duo. I'm new to google duo but noticed its getting pre-installed on my android, my wifes android, my tablet, and some of my friends and family members phones. Plus they make not just an android version but an iphone version too for cross platform capability so u can call iphone people with google duo. I am willing to give it a try but I do not want to have so many useless apps on my phone I want to stick to having just one or two so let's see.

4. Facebook. - Since im NOT on facebook and highly dispise it, I have decided to stay far away because I do not agree with their handling of my private information. I also heard not many people used it and you needed another app to use it.

5. Carrier based video calling - my androd has the default carrier video calling but the problem is if i call my cousin in new york it is a long distance call since the audio portion of the call goes thru the carriers LD network, which is one disadvantage of using the carriers video calling platform.

So to sumarise it, im going to install google duo on my parents tablet and make video calling to them with google duo from now on and stop using skype so i can uninstall it.
 
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#2 ·
Facebook messenger because everyone I know is on Facebook. Those rare friends that don't have Facebook also don't use the world wide web to much and use a landline :) I call them at home or on their mobile phone if it's turned on :)

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
 
#3 ·
Skype sucked when we used it seemed the grand parents where on dial up or couldn't get it working correctly.. Many forgot passwords.. Its a stand alone product so I get that it's not being used by many..

I use hangouts with my kids because they don't Facebook..



Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
 
#6 ·
I don't think that is true, when I logged on my tablet I was able to download it and already was showing my mobile number based off what was stored to my google account. I have yet to test making and receiving a call from my tablet but i bet any money it should work, i've even read articles and news releases about it working on tablets
 
#7 ·
My statement was in part based on the following quote which I found here

"A very frustrating part of using video-calling apps such as Google Duo or WhatsApp is that you need a phone number to get them up and running. When installing them on a smartphone or a phablet, that is not a problem but becomes one on most tablets."

That was written last December, so things may have changed since. What does seem to be available is the ability to use it on a tablet if you have already installed it on a phone.
 
#8 ·
Yes since it works based on an actual mobile number then yes I can see the requirement to have a mobile phone tied to your google account before you can operate it on your tablet. Either way, Apple has gotten away with having this feature for years with face time and iMessage. I remember seeing my wifes tablet receiving all kinds of imessages and facetime calls because it was tied to her apple icloud apple id account
 
#10 ·
I find that as more android phones are being sold they are coming pre-installed with google duo, but its not bloatware it *can* be uninstalled. I've owned this phone for less than a year and I have noticed during that time that as my friends have gotten new phones which had google duo pre-installed, or they install it on their phone, it notifies everyone who has that contact on their list, and I have seen notifications that a good 15 to 20 friends and family members have joined google duo. So that is a good chunk of people getting google dup and it is helping google increase its market share to compete against apps like facetime and the aging and dying Skype. Yes we all used to use skype back in the day but its dying and its gotten to complicated having to have to create an account and add the user to your contact list vs google which simply syncs with your existing hotmail or google or yahoo contact lists.
 
#15 ·
I been using duo on my tablet for the last 2 years, so this is no surprise. WhatsApp = facebook, Duo = Google/Alphabet. So it seem the one with the most reach will be the dominant player. face time is out of the equation because it does not support multi platform, only duo and whatsapp can so far, oh and skype too
 
#19 ·
^^^^
You can say that again! ;)

Actually, I've been having group chats with some friends, using Google Meet. It works on computers, tablets and phones. Since we get together every week, I created it in Google calendar and sent out invites that way.
 
#20 ·
yes since this post was created, several new video calling apps have come out which are helping people keep connected because we are not even allowed to see or hug our parents or family members so yes developers have cashed in and created several new apps like Zoom, House Party, Teams, and Google Meets, etc. some require accounts to be registered with your data sitting on some server for ever, while some use your address book contact list to find other people to call. etc.

I think the MORE video apps we get makes it MORE confusing down the road, and that means in the future, you will eventually need like 10+ apps on your phone, you need one app to call uncle john, a different app to call uncle tony, and an even different app to call grandma, and maybe one cousin of yours does not even do video calls, and you cant call them with any app u need to do a regular voice call, it gets confusing having too many apps.

as much as people hate it, it is probably easier on everyone when one company owns the market share for video calling, leads to less confusion
 
#21 ·
The thing about Skype is that Skype was one of the first video calling apps, but it was not created for video calling, they just added the functionality, it was an app that was meant to call other Skype users for free and the rare instance you needed to call a landline you could call for a reduced fee based on credits you bought. but ya I do not know anyone who uses Skype to actually call landlines anymore but yes everyone calls other Skype users. I had a Skype account for like what ? close to 15 years now? it was good at the time, but yes the apps were flaky at times, but since Microsoft bought them, anyone with a Microsoft owned email has access to Skype and no need to create a separate Skype ID and password, or you can do what I did was merge my Skype username into my Microsoft account. Skype was indeed good at the time, but now most phones come pre-installed with apps like Google Duo, Google Meets, or face time, these are slowly taking over the market place. Skype is still good I know a lot of businesses who use Skype cus there is a Skype for business. I had a Skype Lite client on my phone it was early access so it was not available to the general public but I did use it and the lite version was actually very clean and user friendly and easy to use and simple, but people stopped using Skype around that time in favour of google duo and face time etc. So I saved my self the hassle and uninstalled it for now. I can always re-install it if i ever want later.
 
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