Qik is a free video app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your video chats, multi-platform video app Qik may be right up your alley.
Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a pure video chat app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings. Unlike the other video chat apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts-if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. It’s not the best way to video chat, but if you’re looking for new friends…it works pretty well. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text chat. When you join a room, you’ll see your video feed in the upper left corner. There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. This app lets you find people to talk to-you can either join a public Camfrog chat room, or look someone up by username and chat with them privately.
Camfrog is a free video chat app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. Nobody to video chat with? Instead of chatting with friends and family, try chatting with total strangers on Camfrog. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account. The biggest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up-the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. For example, Fring charges 3.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges 2.1 cents (and Skype charges 2.6 cents).įring also offers group video chatting (up to four people at one time). Of course, before you decide which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often-Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges 2.3 cents per minute (though, to be fair, Skype does offer a subscription rate of $2.99/month). landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.2 cents per minute. Tango offers video chat, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts. Getting started with Tango is a snap-you don’t even have to enter a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and first name to create an account.
Tango is one of the most popular third-party video chat apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s incredibly simple to use. Another neat ooVoo feature is the ability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a video call.
Credits work for calls to multiple countries (see a full list here), and rates start at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Voice calling between ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too overwhelming), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging. At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book).
When you first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. The ooVoo app is simple and straightforward on both iOS and Android.