and Canada and live-chat customer support.Īlready the dominant service for PC-to-PC video calls, Skype Mobile is off to a good start in the mobile space.
Skype video call android phone software#
The paid version of the software includes free landline calls in the U.S. Skype also offers instant-messaging chat, something FaceTime lacks.įor $8.99 a month or $4.99 for a day pass, users can use Skype Premium services. Other iOS video chat apps such as Fring and ooVoo offer prices that start at less than $0.01/minute and $0.02/minute respectively. Skype can also be used to make calls to international landlines and mobile phones, but only with prepaid minutes, which start at about $0.02 per minute. ooVoo's free mobile app offers five-way voice calls with a single shared video stream. Like FaceTime, the Skype Mobile app can only make one-on-one video and voice calls. On the other hand, we like that when we rotated the camera on an iPhone 4 or iPad 2, Skype rotated not only our thumbnail image but also the larger video feed from our caller, just like calls made using Apple FaceTime. We still found that FaceTime offered the best video quality for chatting between iOS devices, especially when using the iPad 2. We noticed that video in Skype streamed more efficiently than video in the ooVoo app, which stammered frequently and showed more pixelation, even over Wi-Fi. Audio, on the other hand, dipped in and out again, sometimes leading our callers to ask us to repeat what we said. Although Wi-Fi calls looked sharper, both provided adequate quality and we never experienced a dropped call. We made Wi-Fi and 3G Skype video calls using the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 to a coworker running the Skype desktop app on an HP G62t notebook and a new MacBook Pro. Switching the iPhone to a Wi-Fi network improved video performance, though the visuals were still quite blurry. Even when video froze, the audio continued (albeit with a two-second delay) and the video caught up in a few seconds. Using the Nexus S 4G on Sprint's 4G network improved image quality.ĭuring Skype video calls made from the iPad 2 (Wi-Fi) to the iPhone 4 (Verizon 3G), video quality was a little murky and sometimes froze, although we never outright lost a call. Calls made between the iPhone 4 (WiFi) and the Samsung Nexus S 4G (Sprint 3G) took a second to connect and the image quality was fuzzy, but the connection strength was strong enough to maintain a video call without lag or audio drops. Our caller's voice never dropped, and neither did our own. Connecting both phones to different Wi-Fi networks offered slightly better image quality and much more consistent audio. However, we did notice that audio dipped in and out on both sides of the call.
Skype video call android phone skin#
We could see our caller's face, clothing color, and skin tone very well, despite a faint fuzziness to the image. Calls made between the two iPhones offered solid video quality over 3G. We tested Skype on two iPhone 4s, an iPad 2, and the Samsung Nexus S 4G, making calls between all devices as well as laptops and desktop PCs. We liked that buttons for tasks such as sending SMS texts, launching IM chat, searching for new contacts, disabling the mic, reviewing account info, and switching between cameras are laid out conveniently in the interface. In landscape mode, caller video appears in a large left pane while a contacts pane sits to the right. The iPad 2 app is simplified even more: there are no tabs, simply a contacts page that morphs into large-screen video during face-to-face calls. The Android app offers the same features and layout as on the iPhone, but the homescreen is simplifed to four floating buttons: Contacts, Recent Calls, Call Phones (for connecting to land and mobile lines), and Profile. A button to end the call also appears there. You can tap the screen to pull up a hovering menu with a button to switch between a back or front-facing camera, mute the microphone, or check the call time. During face-to-face calls, the incoming caller's video takes up the entire screen, while a thumbnail-sized window of outgoing video sits in the left corner. To launch a call, you can select a friend from the contact list and tap "Video Call" (you can also initiate an audio call and send an IM).
The iPhone app is divided into five tabs: Call, Chats, Contacts, History, and My Info.
Skype Mobile's interface works similarly to the desktop version but is simplified.
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