Google Chat /Video
Features:
- Built-in chat — Gmail has chat built right in, so you can easily switch between emailing and instant messaging with your contacts.
- Video chat — See and hear your friends with high quality video. Get the plugin.
- Voice chat — Free PC-to-PC voice calls to any of your Gmail contacts. Get the plugin
- Invisible mode — Appear to be offline when you don't want to be interrupted.
- Group chat — Invite multiple people to chat with you in a group.
- Chat history — If you use Google Talk with a Gmail account and all of your chats are saved to a searchable archive in Gmail.
- Reply by chat — When the contact who sent you an email is online (in Google Talk or Gmail), you have the option to reply to that person by chat.
How it Works:
- Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the "Video & more" menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose "Start video chat."
- You'll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it's ringing, and then you'll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail.
- You can click the "pop-out" iconto make the video larger, or click the fullscreen iconin the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience. See this all in action in the video below:
- Select the contact you want to call.
- If they have a camera icon next to their name, you can make a voice or video call; just click 'Actions' and 'Start video chat.'
- If your friend doesn't have a camera next to their name in your chat list, you can invite them to download the voice and video chat plug-in from the Actions menu in a chat window. Even if your friend doesn't have a video camera, you can still have a voice chat or a 1-way video chat.
- If you don't have a camera yet and want to get one, here are some cameras that we know work well with voice and video chat:
- For Windows desktops: Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP
- For Windows laptops: Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks
- For Mac: Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro for Mac
Google Chat Introductory Video (YouTube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFGJRfoK9xQ