Free Video Conferencing
Free video conferencing services are popular among families, friends, and business partners. A free video conferencing service lets multiple parties exchange text chat messages, speak to one another, and exchange live video streams via the Internet. Let's take a look at what's available to you… |
Options for Free Video Conferencing
There are several levels of interactivity in free video conferencing. You can participate fully, speaking and sending live video of yourself, it you have a Web camera and a microphone. If you lack a Web cam that's OK; you can still view and hear other participants in a free video conference. In some free video conferences, you can exchange text chat messages in real time with other participants even if you don't have a microphone or a Web cam.
Some free video conferencing services require you to download a software application and install it on your computer. OoVoo.com is one such service that's very popular among users of the Skype free telephone/videocall service. OoVoo's software enables live text chat and manages the connections between participants, and even remote sharing of your computer's desktop with others. Remote sharing is a great way to conduct training or conduct troubleshooting on someone else's computer.
Two-party video conferences are always free with OoVoo. If you want to gather people from more than two locations in a video conference, OoVoo offers two pay plans. Both support up to six participants with high-definition video. The ad hoc rate is ten cents per minute per participant. Money-saving monthly subscriptions for 3 to 6 participants range from $9.95 to $39.95.
Tinychat.com aims to make video conferencing "dead simple" for up to twelve participants in one free video conference. There is no software to download and install; the company's Web server hosts all the software and makes it easy to organize and participate in free audio conferencing, and Web-based video conferencing It does not support remote desktop sharing.
Many free video conferencing services are designed for small, informal self-service meetings. You and some buddies just want to chat and see each other. More sophisticated pay services enable features like remote desktop sharing; the ability to upload Powerpoint and other presentation documents to be shared with all participants; whiteboarding software that lets participants mark up an interactive presentation; and scheduling software that automatically imports contacts from Google Mail or Outlook; sends invitations; handles RSVPS; and keeps a larger video conference well organized.
Tokbox.com is one of these higher-end video conferencing services. Several levels of service priced from "free" to $39.99 per month can accommodate small get-togethers or seminars of up to 200 participants.
Online video conferencing is an increasingly popular business tool. It's also used for distance learning; in fact, some schools are turning to free online videoconferencing to keep classes going during bad winter weather. The free online conferencing offerings are a good way to learn how video conferencing works and how you can apply it to your business and social groups.
Got something to say about video conferencing? Post your comment or question below…
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This article was posted by Bob Rankin on 11 Nov 2010
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Most recent comments on "Free Video Conferencing"
Posted by:
Dennis
11 Nov 2010
Windows Live Messenger provides free video conferencing. You can video chat in high definition or send a video message to a friend. It is part of the Windows live messenger package.
Posted by:
Jason
12 Nov 2010
I haven't tried it yet but Skype lets you do group video conferencing now. They're calling it a beta feature though, for now. And of course, they've had video conferencing for a while now.
There's also Stickam website for group video as well although the video windows tend to be small.
Posted by:
Damien
12 Nov 2010
Video Conference
Visual viewing mode enabled via any web cam is available as an included feature with the Whiz Web Conference package. Currently you can experience 8-way video conferencing enabled via our live conference manager ConCall Manager™
http://www.whizmeeting.com/concallmanager.aspx
Posted by:
Jon
16 Nov 2010
Here's a thought...
I haven't tried it, but a low-tech solution for friends to have free multi-person video chat (conference) might be to open & resize multiple browser windows, go to http://www.justin.tv , "tune in" to your different friends' "channels" in separate windows & Voila, video conference. You could probably have 4 windows opened & spread out on your monitor. Some windows might have to overlap to get the screen section of the page visible & once they're set, they'd have to be left stationary 'cause clicking around on the monitor might upset the continuity of the viewing area. Hmm, as I said, just a thought.
Posted by:
TanMan
17 Nov 2010
To Damien above, ConCall Manager is NOT free.
Gmail chat also lets you video conference for free. In my tests, though, Skype video conferencing had the best results.
Bob, a recommendation for your posts. Listing a bunch of alternatives is OK, but you're just replicating Google. What would make your lists of products valuable would be evaluations of each product, and perhaps a recommendation or two.
Posted by:
Rohan Wickramasinghe
01 Dec 2010
I do hope more use is made of video conferencing in time to come. Major conferences have been organized in Kyoto, Copenhagen and this week in Cancun, Mexico. The purpose of these is to discuss global warming, CO2 emissions etc. There is also the complaint about availability of funding.
Wouldn't it be nice if everyone stays in his home country/town and uses video conferencing for discussions? Flying the large number of participants and support personnel around the world must be generating a huge amount of avoidable CO2 emissions (not to mention any possible effects on the ozone layer etc.) What is the actual objection to using video conferencing to perform this work? Of course, it takes out some of the fun of foreign travel. Rohan Wickramasinghe, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Of course, the answer could be that the Climate conference has very little to do with CO2 or Climate. Some say the climate change issue is mostly alarmism, fueled by carbon traders who have billions at stake, as well as social progressives whose goal is global wealth redistribution. ClimateDepot.com is worth a look.
Posted by:
Alex
23 May 2011
I would suggest you to look into RHUB ( http://www.rhubcom.com ). It is a pretty good tool for all web conferencing and collaboration services that enables multi-point video conferencing and free audio conferencing.
Posted by:
Prasun
11 May 2018
Quality of voice and video in free video conferencing tools is doubtable. Hence, I would recommend use of paid HD video conferencing apps like R-HUB HD video conferencing servers. It provides 30 way HD video conferencing and works on all platforms viz Windows, MAC, Android, iOS etc.