Mon, 06 Mar 2017 16:59:29 +0000

Even if you’re having a great time traveling abroad, you’ll still have your moments of homesickness. Android has plenty of video chat apps, but you want to make sure the apps are available for international calling. Additionally, if your friends and family don’t have the apps you’re using, you’ll likely want to choose one that allows for landline or mobile phone calling.

Here, we’ll talk about four of our favorite talk or text apps that let you reconnect with your friends back home while you’re thousands of miles away.

Tango

A video and texting app with an international fan base, Tango operates on smartphones and tablets, so you can use it wherever you are. One of Tango’s best features is its free group calling that lets you call or text multiple people at once. Additionally, Tango offers fun features like stickers, filters, and in-call games.

WeChat

WeChat might be the most popular messaging system in the world, with over 400 million users across the globe. WeChat is popular because it lets you complete multiple functions on a single platform: users can text, video call, and voice call friends and family directly from the platform. Additionally, WeChat lets you make calls to landline and mobile phones for a low monthly fee.

Skype

Skype, the old video calling standby, is one of the largest and most reliable networks around. You might get lucky calling your friends and family around the globe with Skype since over 300 million users have already downloaded the app. Further, you can call your family and friends without Skype downloaded on their landlines for less than a dollar a month.

WhatsApp

The hugely popular international app WhatsApp is available on all smartphones, so whomever you’re calling is likely to already have the app installed. The app works by requiring your phone number to log in, so it’s more secure than other apps that don’t have a similar verification method. Additionally, the app operates through Wi-Fi, so you don’t have to worry about getting an international phone plan when you go abroad.

International travel is great, but it can sure make you miss your friends and family back home. How do you ward off homesickness when you’re away from home? Let us know in the comments.

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Fri, 23 Sep 2016 18:02:42 +0000

Skype is a popular app to use for making free national and international video calls and phone calls. You can video chat with a single person or multiple people, and instantly message others through the app. There’s even the option to call those not on Skype by simply calling their phone number. This option is similar to your phone plan. You can pay as you go (about 2 cents/minute) or else purchase a monthly national or international plan, which ranges from $2.99 to $13.99. A major feature to use with that phone plan (or without!) is Skype Translator, which allows you to chat with someone who speaks another language, whether through video chatting, phone calls, or messaging.

Unlike some other popular apps, you can sign out of Skype. However, it is still easy to “stay connected” even when you’re not connected. Whenever you’re not logged into the app or can’t answer an incoming call, you can have your calls forwarded to another phone.

More often than not, you’ll achieve better call and video quality by using Skype on an LTE data connection as opposed to Wi-Fi — specially if many other devices are currently using your Wi-Fi. Keep in mind that a video call will use much more data than a phone call, so you may want to restrict your video calls to a certain time limit or else exclusively to Wi-Fi if video quality isn’t a big issue for you. You can also restrict the amount of data Skype uses by altering the app settings on your Android device. Simply click the app’s “data usage” option and activate “restrict app background data.”

If you’re more bothered by the connection speed than the video quality, a reduced video quality should help your video call to run smoother. You can reduce the video quality under settings. Reducing the video quality will also help to reduce your data consumption. There are also a few ways to reduce Skype’s battery usage, such as turning off your camera while in the middle of a video call, or else adjusting your phone’s screen brightness.

Another great feature of Skype is the ability to quickly send files to anyone. Send documents, pictures, contact information, or videos of any size through the messaging app. Another fun feature is the ability to quickly record and send video messages. Or, take advantage of all of the emoticons Skype has to offer. There are even secret emoticons you can use, which you can access by typing a specific word or phrase, without spaces, inside of parentheses. Some examples include (pool party) or (plane). A full list of visible and hidden emoticons are available on Skype’s Help webpage.

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skype – PSafe Blog