VENICE BEACH, Calif. — Video-chatting is becoming more widespread every day.
Apple's FaceTime, which lets you talk one-on-one via iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Macintosh computers, is a huge hit for the company. And many new apps (FriendCaller, Tango) let you video chat with friends for free.
In May, Google ditched its old Talk instant message service and renamed it Hangouts to mirror the Hangout feature in the Google+ social network, which lets up to 10 people stage a video chat.
The app, introduced at the Google I/O conference, is unique in that 10 people can not only video chat for free, they can do it across multiple platforms — on Android and Apple devices, as well as Apple or Windows computers.
Apple's FaceTime does not have a group chat function. Video chat pioneer Skype offers group chatting for up to 10 people, but you'll need to upgrade to Premium service for that, starting at $4.99 monthly.
FriendCaller, the popular app with more than 11 million users, lets you chat with up to seven people at once. Tango is one to one. And the new Spin app, launched this week, offers free group video chat for up to 10 folks, but it's only available on Apple devices.
In the accompanying video, we tested the Hangout app on a recent visit to Google's swanky offices here, where we talked on video via an iPhone, Android phone and Apple laptop. All worked as advertised and was fun During plain texts, your chat shows up both in Gmail and G+, which is kind of cool — it gives you a second place to find the sessions, in case you have too many windows open.
In the most recent version of the Android Google Hangout app, and coming soon to IOS — free phone calls in the United States and Canada for folks who sign up with the Google Voice service. (This service is already available for Google Voice users within their Gmail on computers.)
Google Voice is the service that ties together your cellphone and land line with a new number from Google and lets you answer both. In the new version of the app, outgoing calls come from the Google Voice number, while incoming Voice calls can be answered from Hangouts. For folks who don't have unlimited minute plans with their wireless carrier, this is a way to potentially save money.
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