The best video chat apps are a great way to get face to face with people when you can’t be there in person. If the pandemic years have shown us anything, it’s that we can still maintain meaningful relationships with people who aren’t physically in the same room as us. And there are still many reasons why that might not be possible.
Video chat apps can offer virtual presence at physical events or help you stay in touch with friends and family who live too far away to meet in person regularly. The magic we call the Internet means those physical gaps are bridged, and it’s as easy to do as picking up the phone.
But which of these applications is right for you? There are many options available and choosing the right one can be a bit complicated. Lucky for you, we’ve rounded up the best video chat apps out there and you can use them all without paying a dime.
The best video chat apps you can download today
The pandemic turned out to be a big deal for Zoom, cementing its position as the de facto video chat app for many people and businesses, and rightly so. Zoom’s rich feature set and broad platform support have made it a popular choice around the world. Whether you’re on a desktop, mobile device, or prefer a web client, Zoom offers something for you.
Screen sharing, encryption, and live annotations are standard with Zoom, whether you pay or not. But while a simple one-on-one chat has no restrictions, having more than three people in a meeting restricts free users to a 40-minute time limit. If you want unrestricted access for up to 100 people, you’ll need to pay $16 a month for the Pro tier, while the more expensive Business tier raises that limit even higher.
Zoom suffered a series of high-profile security issues in the early days of the pandemic, but things have since changed for the better. Calls are protected by end-to-end encryption, there are new privacy-focused notifications, and an updated privacy policy makes it clear who can save and share meeting recordings. You can read more about the app’s issues and how much the company did to fix them on our Zoom security issues page.
Skype has been in the video chat business for a long time and still offers a solid feature set for up to 50 people at a time. It also costs absolutely nothing to use and is available on almost every device you need to use.
Additionally, Skype is known for being able to connect to basic landlines and mobile phones, and supports international calling and texting. You have to pay for this, but it’s especially useful for keeping in touch with friends and family who are several countries away.
Skype also offers many common features, including screen sharing, live transcription, and in some cases, real-time translation of chat audio.
While Apple has had Facetime for years, Google’s Android operating system lacked its own native equivalent. Instead, people had to rely on third-party apps downloaded from the Play Store and hope their friends were willing to sign up as well.
Fortunately, Duo emerged to solve that problem, with a video chat app that’s remarkably easy to use and accessible from the Android phone’s native app. Additionally, Duo supports many fun features, including the ability to record and send video messages that allow you to connect with friends and family even if they’re not available at that exact moment.
Duo is even available on iOS, so you can stay in touch with your iPhone-using friends without having to buy an Apple device to access Facetime. And it even has the same 32-person limit as Facetime, so they don’t have many excuses to stay away.
Gamers already know Discord as a great resource for connecting with their friends via text, but did you know that Discord also supports video chat? Plus, because it allows streaming in the app itself, it’s a great way to play some games with friends, broadcasting the content of one user’s screen to the rest of the group.
In fact, the Jugo Mobile staff did exactly that several times during the COVID lockdowns: one user shared Quiplash from their PC screen with the rest of us playing on the phone. Fortunately, Discord has even gone so far as to increase its built-in Go Live streaming service from a maximum of 10 people to 50 people temporarily.
If you upgrade to Nitro, which costs $10 per month, you can increase streaming quality to 1080p/60fps, compared to a maximum of 720p/30fps for the free tier. Nitro Basic offers some perks for $3 a month, but streaming quality isn’t among them.
It’s no surprise that FaceTime appears on this list of the best video chat apps. Apple’s software wasn’t the first in video chat, but it started it all for mobile users and led the industry toward making video chat easier and more accessible.
Today, FaceTime is pre-installed on all Apple hardware and supports a number of really fun and useful features, from cute Animojis, Memojis, and stickers to allowing up to 32 people on a single call. And because FaceTime also has a voice calling component, FaceTime Audio, you can easily route calls over data or Wi-Fi whenever you want, where your conversations will sound infinitely better than over your cell phone provider’s voice network. .
The only downside to FaceTime is, of course, that you’ll only get the full experience on Apple hardware, including iPhones and Macs. Android and Windows users can join calls from a web browser, but they can’t actually host them. Still, it’s better than being completely blocked, as was the case before.
The nice thing about using Facebook Messenger for video chat is that you’re probably already signed up to use it. As long as you have a Facebook account and the Facebook Messenger web or mobile app, you can start video chatting with your Facebook friends right now. Even if you once had a Facebook account and have since deactivated it, you can still use Messenger.
Simply tap the small video camera icon in the top right corner of the screen and you can start a call with an inpidual or a group chat. And like Skype, up to 50 people can be present on a Facebook Messenger video call at the same time, a figure much higher than the maximum of 32 video chats supported by Apple’s FaceTime and Google Duo.
Plus, even while video chatting, you can still use Facebook Messenger’s countless features like sending chat messages, stickers, etc.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging alternatives on smartphones today, both because you can join with just a phone number and because many of your friends and family are probably already using it.
Until recently, WhatsApp’s video calling feature wasn’t the most robust out there. But that changed once the maximum participant limit was raised to 50, thanks to an integration with Facebook Messenger’s new Rooms feature.
WhatsApp video calls are also end-to-end encrypted, as are chat messages. In other words, you’ll never have to worry about any of your conversations being intercepted by nefarious intruders.
Previously, video calling was only available on mobile devices, but recently that changed. It is possible to make and receive video calls through the WhatsApp desktop client. Everything works exactly the same, the only difference if you’re using a desktop computer instead of a mobile device.
While primarily aimed at businesses and professionals, there is still something that Microsoft Teams can offer. Especially if you ever plan to gather in particularly large groups. The free tier allows you to have up to 100 people on a call, which should be more than enough for even the largest family gatherings.
Unlike Microsoft-owned Skype, Teams also comes with some professional tools that you may still find useful when talking to other people. Tools like screen sharing, background blurring, and noise suppression software powered by Teams’ own AI. It even connects to Office and is included in an Office 365 plan, in case it’s relevant outside of the office.
While Teams has a reputation for being a bit messy, it’s usually the professional level that fares worst. But if you plan to use Teams only as a video chat app, then you don’t need to worry too much about it.
How to choose the best video chat app for you
Because all of the best video chat apps have free tiers, you shouldn’t worry about trying different ones to find something you like. After all, the riskiest thing you may have to do is install the software and create a new account.
But if you want to know where to start, the best advice is to take stock of why you need this application. If you’re just looking to chat on your phone alone, Duo, FaceTime, or one of Facebook’s offerings will suffice.
However, if you and your friends use multiple devices to connect (phones, tablets, computers, etc.) or if your need is more professional or collaborative, we recommend leaning towards Teams, Zoom, Skype or Discord. These apps are available on all platforms, and while some offer paid tiers, you probably won’t need to use them. Especially if your number of people is small enough or the period of time you plan to chat is relatively short.
The paid tiers will include more sophisticated features in many cases, but the free versions already have many features. At the very least, you’ll have access to all the basic features you need to chat with other people.
Ultimately, you’ll probably end up using whatever video chat app your friends and family prefer to use; That’s how these things usually go. But if you’re in the mood for a replacement, hopefully one of the options on this list will do the trick.
- Best Zoom Alternatives for Video Calls
- How to receive FaceTime calls on Android
- The best WhatsApp alternatives that you can use right now
