Since we are all home now as we social-distance from our jobs, schools, activities and pretty much everything under the sun, we have to be creative about how we can interact digitally with those closest to us. The good news is that we are living in 2020, when peer-to-peer video technology over the years has improved tremendously.

Here are a few of the most popular video chat apps to connect with family and friends in real time and maybe even share a drink, if only virtually.

Zoom

This is probably the one app that you have heard the most about lately. It has become the go-to app for connecting with colleagues in the workplace. Most companies have adopted Zoom because you can have up to 100 people on a single chat. The catch is that the free version only allows the call to last for 40 minutes. With a premium account you can have up to 1,000 people at a time for much longer, but who really has 1,000 friends, let alone 1,000 that they would want to be talking with at the same time. 

The biggest benefit is that it is easy to use: The host creates a meeting and shares a link to those they want on the line. Anyone can use that link from a browser and they don’t have to download any apps to connect in.

Facetime

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If you’re an Apple user then there’s a 99.9% chance that you have used Facetime already with family and friends. The app is built into every iOS device, so it makes connecting to other Apple users a breeze. The downside is the one friend who has an Android device. Yup, there’s always one in the bunch. My parents and sisters are all Apple users, so this is their default video chat platform. My parents live in Florida and so connecting with my nieces and nephew is all the joy right now. But I’m the one guy in the family that’s using an Android. So, in this case, there are the next two apps to consider.

Google Hangouts

Hangouts is perfect if you have a Gmail account, which the majority of people have. Sorry boomer, it’s time to ditch that AOL email. Hangouts is a tab in Gmail on your browser, and with Chrome you can download an extension for ease of use whenever you have your laptop open. The drawback (if you consider this one) is that you can only have 25 users on the line at a time. The cool thing is that unlike Zoom, you can share emojis while you’re live, and what fun is video chatting without that? 

Facebook Messenger

Since there’s over 2.2 billion people that use Facebook in the world, it’s safe to assume that everyone you know is on it, and that makes Messenger the most ubiquitous. The difference with the others mentioned above is that it doesn’t allow as many people on the same line, but it’s perfect for connecting house-to-house and since you probably already have it downloaded on your phone, all you have to do is open the app, find the friend you want to call and tap the video icon. This is the app I use when I connect with my parents, their iPad to my Galaxy phone.

Now if I could only find an app to video chat my barber in the next month to get a virtual haircut, because boy I don’t really want to sport a mullet anytime soon.

What apps are you using to connect with others right now? Let us know at tips@sunjournal.com.

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