Living independently is not always all it’s cracked up to be. Sure you’re the master/mistress of all you survey and have all the time in the world to do as you please, but there are times you miss your family. And those times, all you want to do is talk to them, joke with them and throw around a few good-natured insults. Then, there are times you miss your better half, who may be a couple of continents away or even in the next city.
There are also times you need to plan your best friend’s birthday party with your gang, most of whom do not live in the same area you do.
So what do you do? You install one (or more) of the following apps and get cracking.
Fring
The app lets you send free instant messages and make voice calls as well as video chat.
However, unlike most other apps, you can use it even on a Symbia phone, not just a smartphone. You can even make group calls with up to four friends at a time and use your phone number to register instead of a username and password. That, though, is a double-edged sword, because if you’re a user of say, the iPod touch, you will need to use a phone number that can receive and send texts, one that is not associated with another Fring account.
Tango
One of the simplest apps out there, just sign up (no password required) and start calling.
You can even play games with the caller, like darts or tic-tac-toe. In fact, a lot of times, the video chat quality is a lot better than that offered by most other apps, especially considering the sad lack of good internet connections for mobile phones.
Unlike most of the prominent apps though, Tango does not offer cross-platform calling, so you can only connect with other Tango users. Another drawback is that you cannot video chat with multiple people. A fun feature? You can personalise your profile with status updates, photos and even edit, comment and like photos on your newsfeed. A bit of a social media wannabe, but cute enough that it can be overlooked.
ooVoo
Speaking of social media, ooVoo is a great app that integrates with Facebook; so you can video chat with your ooVoo contacts, as well as your Facebook contacts.
The app lets you group chat with up to 11 people, but you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s easier to manage.
Another app with fairly decent video quality even on most mobile data carriers, ooVoo is good for IM and audio calls as well. One fun feature -- colourful filters for in-call video and video recording.
Skype
Arguably the most popular video calling app, Skype is also one of the oldest, and therefore you’re a lot likely to find most of your friends – and even the oldies in your family – using this rather than any of the other newly-burgeoned apps. The app lets you IM, make audio and/or video calls, even send video messages. However, it’s better to use the app over a WiFi connection, as video calling on Skype, even on 3G, can be a very frustrating experience.
Hangouts
One of the most popular apps to cash in on the public, live-streamed video chatting concept, Google Hangouts is even integrated with your Gmail and your Google phone’s text messaging system. Hangouts lets you video chat with a group of up to 10 people, send or receive photos, maps, emoji, and animated GIFs. Also, since a lot of people have Google accounts, it should be almost as easy as finding and connecting with someone on Hangouts as it is on Skype.
