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Video Calling On Mobile Phones by Mark Hirst
One of the great things that 3G promised was the ability to make a video call as easily as we do a voice call, however in practice, the limitations of the early hardware, and problems with networks at the dawn of the 3G era made video calls unreliable at best. Once the teething problems of video calling on mobile phones were addressed on a technical level, there was still a huge problem facing people who wanted to talk face to face, and that was finding a person to talk to.
There weren't many early adopters of 3G, which meant that even if you had a video phone and wanted to chat to a friend, the chances were that none of your friends had a compatible model.
It has taken a long time for the number of subscribers using 3G to increase to such a level that enough people actually have the service to make regular video calling a genuine option for users, so what is it actually like now that the service is finally becoming widespread enough to be viable.
Making a video call using your mobile phone is actually just as straight forward as a voice call, and depending on which model you have, the difference can be as simple as pressing a different key on the menu screen. Likewise, the person you are calling will be faced with an option to accept the call as a video, or as voice. If they choose video, the call will begin. If they choose voice, you will only get a voice connection.
There are two things about actually making a video call that make it a little strange when you first do it. Initially, the fact that you hold the phone out in front of you rather than pressing it against your ear is a little odd, but you soon get used to it. The really strange part about the process is that you have a picture of yourself showing on the screen at the same time as the person that you are talking to.
You often find that your attention drifts away from the face person who you are chatting to and onto your own picture. You start making exaggerated facial gestures, and become self conscious.
It only takes a few calls to get used to the image, and after a while you do realise that even with the relatively low quality of the image transmission, and the slight jerkiness of the stream, that you are able to convey a great deal more information than you can with voice alone. Expressions fill in the details in the conversation that you can sometimes miss out on.
The only thing you have to worry about is looking bored when you're talking to someone and offending them.
About the Author
Mark Hirst writes for Best Mobile Contracts, a website that specialises in finding the best mobile phone deals. If you would like to find great O2 mobile phone contracts (http://www.best-mobile-contracts.co.uk/search/o2contracts.aspx) then visit his site today.
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