Top 3 Mobile Video Chat Options

The iPhone 4 has everyone buzzing over its newest app, FaceTime, which brings the ability to video chat to the palm of your hand. While Apple’s marketing will leave you believing it invented mobile video chat, it has actually been available for years in Europe and Asia and even from a few providers here in the United States. The buzz over FaceTime is that with such a major mobile player adopting this function, it will hopefully prompt competitors to release their own versions and make mobile video chat a mainstream way to communicate.

This is exciting news for business users who are increasingly looking for ways to stay connected. With mobile video chat you can hold face-to-face meetings over the phone -- and without the need of an IT army -- show your clients what you’re working on, see the progress of employee projects, and more. It’s even cheaper than regular phone calls, since most video calls use a Wi-Fi connection and not your carrier minutes.

Here’s a closer look at three top mobile video chat apps currently available.

1. FaceTime 
   Price: Free
   Supports: iPhone 4
   Cool factor: What makes FaceTime stand out from other mobile video chat apps is that it’s as easy to use as it is fun to play with. When placing a call, simply scroll through your address book and tap the FaceTime button next to your contact. Switching to video in the middle of a voice call is also as easy as the tap of a button, and your minute usage automatically ends when you switch to video. In addition to its super-simple interface, FaceTime’s unique camera views make it feel like you’re in the same room as the person you’re calling. As you’re looking at the person you’re talking to, you can also see an image of yourself or whatever you’re pointing the camera at in a small window in a corner of the screen. FaceTime also lets you switch between front and back camera views, so you can seamlessly give your contact a video tour or show them what you’re looking at.
   Needs improvement: FaceTime currently only supports iPhone 4, so you can only place video calls to people who have the same device.
2. Qik Video 
   Price: Free for standard service, $4.99/month for premium service
   Supports: Sprint HTC EVO 4G
   Cool factor: Qik offers several cool features, such as the ability to share your videos on social networks, video sites, and blogs and the ability to post live, streaming video. Qik also automatically archives every video you make to your Qik account for later access and lets you toggle between front and back camera views. Upgrade to a premium account if you want higher-quality videos, unlimited video archiving, and unlimited video mail messages. The premium service will also have two cool features available soon: the ability to snap photos while recording and the ability to automatically download videos to your computer. Even though Qik Video is only available for EVO 4G, it’s currently running a promotion that will let all Android users try the Qik Video premium service for free.
   Needs improvement: In order to use Qik video chat, the person you’re chatting with must also have EVO 4G. However, if you do call someone without a supported device, they will receive a text message with a link to watch the video live on their mobile browser. Another quirk is that you’ll sometimes have to exit the app and log in to Qik’s Web portal to use certain functions.
3. Fring 
   Price: Free
   Supports: Android
   Cool factor: Fring was one of the first mobile video chat apps available in the United States and is used in nearly 200 countries. In addition to free video calls, Fring lets you text for free and make free regular calls using Wi-Fi and Skype’s VoIP. Video chat is currently only available on Android, but you can enjoy Fring’s other features on multiple platforms, including iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and more.
   Needs improvement: Reviews of Fring show that users are generally underwhelmed by its video chat feature, reporting problems with volume, speakerphone quality, and out-of-sync audio.