Video chat done the Apple way

FaceTime, the excellent video calling application originally introduced for the iPhone 4, is Apple’s answer to Skype. It allows you to keep in touch with friends and family on Apple devices via video chats. Open FaceTime and you’ll immediately see yourself on screen and you must sign in with your Apple account to get started. Once done, FaceTime will sync with your address book, allowing you to immediately call anyone with an iOS device.

Stable, high quality video calling from Mac to iOS devices

The best way of keeping in touch for Apple devices

Calling an iPad or iPhone is easy, once your contacts are added via your Apple ID. Image quality is excellent, and the display is pleasantly free of distractions. If the iPhone is rotated, the image also changes on FaceTime for Mac, from landscape to portrait and back. All round, it’s a very smooth, simple and comfortable video call experience. Although much will depend on your internet connection, the quality of calling on FaceTime is generally better than Skype.

FaceTime is not perfect though. While integration with your contacts on the iPhone makes perfect sense, on the Mac it’s less useful and some users may find contacts get duplicated or confused on their Mac. This is complicated by the fact that you can’t add contacts to FaceTime directly, but have to do it via Address Book so if you don’t use Address Book, you’ll have to start. It would also be nice to have FaceTime open without constantly seeing video of yourself!