- Introducing the Major Video Chat Platforms
- Evaluating the Major Video Chat Platforms
- Which Video Chat Platform(s) Should You Use?
- Which Device(s) Should You Use for Video Chat?
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Which Device(s) Should You Use for Video Chat?
In addition to deciding on what video chat platform to use, you probably also have a choice of what device to use for your video chatting. Depending on your situation, you may be able to chat on your phone, your tablet, or your laptop or desktop computer. You may even have other options, such as a smart speaker with a screen or a dedicated video chat device, such as Facebook Portal. Which device should you chat with?
Best for One-on-One Chats
When it comes to one-on-one chats, convenience is key. This probably means using whatever device you’re closest to at the moment. If you’re working at your desk and want to chat, use your computer. If you’re sitting in your car or your living room, just pull out your phone. You don’t need a big screen to chat one-on-one with a family member or friend.
Best for Group Chats
Group chats, on the other hand, benefit from a device with a larger screen. If you have a half-dozen or more people displayed in little boxes, it’s nice to have a bigger screen to see everyone clearly. This pretty much rules out using your phone. If it’s a smaller group meeting, a tablet might suffice, but for meetings with large numbers of people, nothing beats the bigger screen of a laptop or (even better) desktop computer.
Best for Business Meetings
If you’re participating in a business meeting, you may need access to documents and files on your computer during the meeting. This means using the same device for the video chat as you do for your regular work—either a laptop or desktop computer. This way you can open the video meeting in one window and the other documents you need in other windows—and even keep your email app going in the background, too.
Best for Mobility
When you’re moving around, you need a device that’s more mobile, which probably means your phone. A tablet might do in a pinch, but the good old smartphone is the ultimate mobile device.
Best for Picture Quality
So far, the focus has been on your end of the video chat. What about what other people see—the quality of the picture captured by the camera in the device you’re using? Although there are significant variations in camera quality from device to device, here’s some general advice.
It’s likely that your phone or tablet will have a better camera than the one built into or connected to your laptop or desktop computer. You use your phone or tablet to take high-quality photographs and videos; you don’t use your computer in the same fashion. For this reason, most newer and more expensive phones and even some tablets have very good cameras and lenses that take very good pictures, even in low light.
On the other hand, your computer’s camera, whether built in to the device or an external webcam, is likely not optimized for picture quality and in many cases delivers much lower resolution than the cameras in many phones and tablets. Put simply, you’ll likely look better if you use the camera in your phone or tablet than if you use your computer’s camera or a webcam.
If picture quality is important to a particular video chat or meeting, use the device with the best front-facing camera—which is probably your phone or tablet.
Best for Non-Technical Users
Many people use video chat to keep in touch with relatives who are less than comfortable with today’s technology. Clicking into a Zoom meeting or answering a Skype call may seem easy to you but could be frustratingly beyond the capabilities of some less tech-savvy people.
If you want to chat with someone less technical who might not have a computer or tablet or even current smartphone, consider purchasing that person a device specifically for video chatting. There are several available.
First, there are smart displays, which are like smart speakers (like the Amazon Echo Dot) but with a screen. If you’re in the Amazon ecosystem, that means the Echo Show (www.amazon.com); in the Google ecosystem, that’s a Nest Hub Max (store.google.com/product/google_nest_hub_max). If you have a similar device in your home, it’s extremely easy to make a video call from your device to the other one, or vice versa.
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Then there’s the Facebook Portal (portal.facebook.com), which is a family of devices designed specifically for video chatting over the Facebook Messenger service. Facebook offers several portals with their displays of various sizes, as well as a Portal TV unit which has a built-in camera and connects to your TV to view the video chat. The Portal TV gained popularity during the COVID-19 crisis and is especially popular among older users.