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If you’re missing friends and family far away, you aren’t alone. Your dearest wish may be to bring everyone together may not be possible in the physical world, but you can get your loved ones together in the virtual world.
Last week I interviewed Rajesh Midha, Vice-President, Corporate & Business Development at ooVoo about their video calling service. OoVoo offers video calling from your computer, smartphone or tablet for free. You can have a 6-way video call for free and up to a 12-way video call if you upgrade to a premium account. As Midha observes, “No one has to be alone for the holidays. Friends and family all over the world can get together through ooVoo.”
If you want to preserve the special memories of the video chat, ooVoo allows you to record your video calls. You can email these video files to others or post the video on Facebook or YouTube for wider distribution. “Oovoo is at the juncture of social and communication,” says Midha.
If you want to participate in a video chat, you will need a webcam (many laptops come with webcams) or a mobile device equipped with a camera, such as a smartphone or a tablet. Ridha points out that, “ooVoo is not just multi-party, it’s multi-platform.”
If you want to use ooVoo on your mobile device, you can download the ooVoo app here:
ooVoo for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch: ooVoo in the iTunes App Store
ooVoo for Android: ooVoo in the Android Market
The ooVoo app works on mobile devices over Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G (LTE) networks. Be sure if you are calling via ooVoo using data instead of Wi-Fi that you don’t exceed the cap on your data plan to avoid unnecessary surprises on your next cell phone bill. (See, Mind the Cap!)
To use ooVoo, go to www.oovoo.com, sign up for an ooVoo account and download the software to your computer. You can add contacts by connecting ooVoo to your email, Facebook and/or Twitter accounts. OoVoo also allows people to participate in a video chat through a web browser without downloading ooVoo software or signing up for an account.
[note] Before you place a call, make sure to check your webcam and microphone:
Settings => Audio & Video => Check Your Video and Audio Settings. [/note]
To place a video call, click on a contact and the video call will start. You can add more people to the call by clicking on the toolbar at the top of the screen => Add to Call. If someone doesn’t have a webcam or smartphone, he can still participate in the call via telephone.
To record a video call, when you’re connected, click on Actions => Record and the video call will be recorded. The other participants on the call will see a pop-up notice at the bottom of the screen notifying them that the call is being recorded.
To test ooVoo, I participated in a 5-way video call with members of the ooVoo team, including one participant, Laura, who connected using her Android phone. Connecting was easy and the feed from all five cameras was clear, including from the Android phone. You can see the video here:
If you want an ad-free experience or multi-party calls with up to twelve participants, check out ooVoo’s premium plans. These plans give added benefits such as minutes for voice calls to mobile phones in the US, Canada, Hong Kong & China and landlines in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Israel. The Plus Plan is $9.95/month or $89.95/year and gives ad-free video calls and 200 minutes of voice calling time a month. The Pro Plan is $29.95/month or $269.95/year and gives up to 12 way video calls and 500 minutes of voice calling time per month. More details on the Plus and Pro plans can be found here: ooVoo Plans
OoVoo has a Facebook page with 1.5 million followers that allows you to meet other ooVoo users with mutual interests. Midha gave the example of someone who is interested in tech and international travel being able to find someone with similar interests for a video chat on ooVoo. You can find ooVoo’s Facebook page here: ooVoo on Facebook.
Will you be apart from your loved ones for the holidays? Would you like a way to connect with them using video chat? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
I thought of you when I saw this Youtube Video about an Iphone app –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJCvigxk2_o&feature=digest_thu
It looks useful.
Wow, thank you, Mike. This is really helpful. I just downloaded this app and will give it a go.
I appreciate you sending this YouTube video to me! 🙂
If I’m not mistaken Carolyn, that’s what we used last year when we did our video chat with my nephew over Thanksgiving. My brother downloaded but I seem to recall it was that service. He prefers it over Skype which is the only reason I remember that.
I like that you can even record it but I’m sure that can be accomplished with Skype as well. As you can tell, I’m no expert on this subject so don’t hold me to it. I just usually chat with one person when I’m using Skype. Still think this is an awesome service so thanks for sharing with us what all it can do.
Happy Holidays and have a blessed Christmas. I have no doubt you’ll have a wonderful time with your family.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, That’s great that you used ooVoo last year with your brother and nephew. According to Midha, 7/10 users prefer ooVoo to Skype because of the video quality between the two services.
OoVoo does allow video calling but Skype does not provide that service.
I wish you the best for this holiday season and the new year, Adrienne! 🙂
If that don’t beat all……….can’t you do the same on Google chat? I’m not sure if you can record it however.
You sure looked happy; were you drinking again?
I used to have the family all over the place and that was way before technology; but fortunately everybody in my immediate family will be at home.
Thanks for sharing though, cool beans.
Hi Bill, you’re right, ooVoo is a very cool service. And, yes, I was drinking. Water. H2O keeps me well hydrated! You know what makes me happy, Bill? Tech! And cool beans tech makes me especially happy!
I’m so glad you will be able to be together with your family for Christmas, Bill. I hope it’s a very merry one for you and your family! 🙂
I forgot to respond to your Google + question. Yes, you can now record Google+ hangouts, but the ability to upload the files to YouTube is coming soon. According to Midha, the advantage of ooVoo is the high quality of the ooVoo stream and that you don’t have to be a member of Google+ to have a video chat with ooVoo.
Does Skype allow you to chat with more than one person? Recently, Adrienne and I both used the Google+ Hangout functionality, which allowed us to video chat with a small group of people. I thought it worked pretty well. But I’ll have to check out Oovoo – it might be a good option for me since I do conduct a lot of meetings remotely.
Hi Ruth, great question. Skype does allow multi-party video chats, but it is a premium feature you have to pay for. With ooVoo, you can have up to six people in the video chat for free! According to Midha, the quality of the ooVoo video stream is superior to Skype because ooVoo was built from the ground up as a video service while Skype started as an audio service.
You should consider giving ooVoo a try to see if you like it better than Skype. Please let us know what you decide.
Great source of information Carolyn!
I guess no one has to be alone any longer now with OoVoo around. However, I wonder how does it differ from Skype in the real sense, as we do manage to video chat for free on that as well. Yes, I don’t think we can do all such things on the Android or iPhones though.
I am lucky though that all my near and dear ones are within the country, so a simple phone call covers the distance and video chats through Skype works best as well. But OoVoo seems a great option for those living far apart and as its also enabled on the smartphones etc, it makes things so much easier.
Thanks so much for sharing this information with everyone. 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, with ooVoo you can have a video chat with up to five other people for free, including people who are using smartphones.
I’m so glad you’ll be able to get together with your loved ones in person, Harleena! I hope you have a blessed holiday season! 🙂
Carolyn, aloha. Thanks for the introduction to oovoo. Though I was sure there must be a service of this type, I had not taken the time to look for it. Now, thanks to you, I don’t have to search.
Carolyn, I can definitely see the applications for this because I think Skype can only be one-on-one.
Off to spread the word. Thanks so much. Aloha. Janet
Hi Janet, You can have more than a one-on-one video chat on Skype but it will cost you. With ooVoo multi-party chats are free up to six people.
I’m glad you learned about ooVoo, I hope you find it useful, Janet! 🙂
Carolyn, aloha. Just went over to PI to tweet this and the last thing I saw was Gazelle. Will this be up later? If so, please let me know when it’s up there so I can tweet, etc. In the meantime, I will tweet per usual.
Hi Janet, Thank you kindly for checking on the article! It was published a little late today but it’s up now. Here is the link: OoVoo gets you together for the holidays
I will also be linking to it in the next Wonder of Tech article. I appreciate you spreading the word, Janet! 🙂
This looks like nice option. It could be of great use during Christmas. This could be popular than Skype if marketed well.
As you have mentioned that its up now to use looking forward to use during Christmas. Thanks for sharing! Also excited to read your next post.
Hi Carolyn,
ooVoo sounds very interesting and I understand why people want to be using it. I haven’t talked to many people at the same time when it comes to video chats, but I have tried Skype and FaceTime. I especially enjoy FaceTime from my iPad, it works great.
I have thought about testing hangout at Google+ and that sounds a little familiar as ooVoo?
Hi Jens, Yes, ooVoo has some similarities to Google+ hangouts, but with ooVoo you don’t need to be a member of a social network plus you can record the video from within ooVoo.
I like FaceTime from my iPad too. It’s fun and easy. 🙂