How To Video Chat and Stay In Touch With Others Using Your Apple Devices

Your Mac, iPhone or iPad can be used as a way to video chat with others while you are stuck at home away from friends, family, work or school. Technology can help with social distancing. FaceTime is great for Apple-to-Apple communication. Skype and Facebook Messenger can be used for cross-platform communication or with those who are more comfortable with those services.

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let's talk about how you can keep in touch with other people using your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. 
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So right now a lot of us are more isolated than we usually are. We're working from home, avoiding getting together, and avoiding traveling.  So that makes it more important than ever to use our computing devices to stay in touch with people. Fortunately we live in a time where it's easy to send electronic communication whether it's email, text messages, internet phone calls, or video chatting. If you're using Apple products this is pretty easy. 
So you've got FaceTime for Apple user to Apple user communication. FaceTime, of course, comes with your Mac and is built into the operating system. You can easily run it. You'll see yourself there. You'll see previous calls. All you need to do to start a video call is enter in the person's name, if they are already in your Contacts, or their iCloud or Apple ID email address or their phone number if they have an iPhone. Any of these will then allow you to start a video chat with them and they will be able to talk to you on their Mac or on their iPhone or iPad. You, likewise, can use the FaceTime app here on your Mac or iPhone or iPad. 
So from Apple user to Apple user FaceTime is the best way to keep in touch with someone. But what if they're not an Apple user? What if you need to communicate with them from your Mac or iPad or iPhone but they are on Windows or Android. Well, there are tons of good options. Probably the most obvious one is to use Skype. So Skype is an app that you can get for your Mac. Of course it has been around a lot longer than FaceTime or almost any other method of video chatting.
Of course you can use Skype to make regular phone calls even to regular phone numbers. That's kind of a premium thing. But chatting from Skype app to Skype app is free. You can do it audio or you can do it video. You can also text message on Skype as well. So all the person on the other end has to do is get the Skype app on their phone, on their Windows computer. Whatever it is. Sign up for a free account and then you can use their Skype ID to then talk to them. Do video chat or audio chat totally free around the world. So this is a great cross platform solution.
You can get Skype by simply going to skype.com. It's owned by Microsoft now. You just download the app, install it, and it will walk you through if you need to setup an account.
But if somebody doesn't already have a Skype or they are not good with technology you may want to go with something they already have. They probably have a Facebook account. Right? Well you can use Facebook Messenger not only to send quick little messages to each other but you can use it for audio and video chatting. You can do that on an iPhone or iPad using the official Messenger app on Facebook. On the Mac there is no Messenger app yet although one is coming really soon. In some countries it's already out. Until then you can go to Facebook.com on the web, click on the Messenger button and you can actually video chat from your Mac to another Facebook user right there on your Mac using your Mac's webcam. For non techies this may be the best option if they are already using Facebook. They're used to being in there and you are already are connected to them as a friend so it's probably a little easier for them to figure it out.
Now FaceTime, Skype, and Messenger aren't the only options. There are tons of other options out there. So if you're already using another app with some friends and that has video chatting in there certainly stick with those. Do whatever is easiest. It doesn't really matter what system you use or what app you use as long as you are able to communicate.
Now text messaging can be just as important. Just checking in on people. Letting them know that you're thinking about them. You can, of course, use iMessage to go from Apple user to Apple user. If you have an iPhone then you can use iMessage interchangeably with SMS for people that are on Android phones and other devices. A lot of people just use Facebook to send messages back and forth. That's good too. There are apps like What'sApp. People communicate on Instagram, on SnapChat, TikTok. Just about any other social system has a way to message people.
Don't forget about email. Most people have email accounts and email is a great standard way to get in touch with just about anybody. If you want the accessibility to message them or to do video chats with them you can start with email deciding on the platform you both want to use and setting up times to look for each other and things like that. 
I'd love to hear from the entire MacMost community what ways you are using your Apple products to stay in touch with other people during this difficult time.

Comments: 10 Responses to “How To Video Chat and Stay In Touch With Others Using Your Apple Devices”

Will

4 years ago

Zoom seems to be popular in the academic community because it is stable and allows multiple simultaneous users. I have tried Skype with multiple simultaneous users but got into a mess with it because people kept dropping out. I guess any advice you can give about stability, multiple users and options when broadband width begins to run out would be helpful.

Gary Rosenzweig

Will: Zoom is pretty good for multiple users, yes. I haven't done Skype with many users before.

Scott Hagarty

Gary:

I know that Facetime is very secure, can you advise if Skype is? We need to contact our clients who don't own Apple products via a secure system.

Thanks

Scott: I have no idea how secure Skype is. What sort of clients? I know medical professionals need to use HIPPA-compliant apps. I don't know if Skype is. But I'm sure you can look on Microsoft's Skype info to find out.

Gene

Must one's device be on Wi-Fi to use FaceTime? Other apps for video conferencing?

Gene: No. You can use it over any Internet connection that is robust enough. People use FaceTime on their iPhones via mobile networks all the time.

Jim Terrinoni

Excellent and timely. Keep up your fabulous work.

Carol

3 years ago

Google Duo between Mac (iPhone or computer and Windows/PC/Android

Kathleen Santelle

Face Time question: I am setting up a group face time chat with 9 members. One member can only see 1 person and not the group. She is using an iPad that is 2 years old. How can I get her to be part of the group?

Kathleen: Hard to guess what could be wrong. Are they using the most up-to-date version of iPadOS?

Comments Closed.

How To Video Chat and Stay In Touch With Others Using Your Apple Devices

Comments: 10 Responses to “How To Video Chat and Stay In Touch With Others Using Your Apple Devices”

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