71–80 of 379 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't they just put a camera behind the screen? Been waiting for this for over a decade
Now that people are coming up with ways to put people's real facial expressions in VR, most video calls are probably going to be replaced with avatars generated from your face that use your facial expressions captured by the front-facing camera. https://vimeo.com/156034648
I know these will be preinstalled on Android, but many friends and family use iOS and I will feel silly asking them to install Duo and Allo. Hangouts is able to mix voice, video and text just fine. Why start requiring separate apps? This is Google at its dumbest. They are squandering the small amount of momentum Hangouts has.
> Hangouts is able to mix voice, video and text just fine. For varying values of "just fine". For me, hangouts is probably the worst performing app on mobile, desktop and tablet. It's so bad that even Skype shames it. And FaceTime...well let's not even compare.
Video calling is a great example of something you don't need, but because you can do it, you do it. It's also impossible to refuse a video call for fear of being seen as secretive or worse when in fact you just don't care to look up somebody's nose when you talk to them. I also wonder if it's mainly nerds who care about video calling because it speaks to their otherwise rather broken social skills. "Normal people loo…
Have they announced when it will be discontinued?
Video calling is a great example of something you don't need, but because you can do it, you do it. It's also impossible to refuse a video call for fear of being seen as secretive or worse when in fact you just don't care to look up somebody's nose when you talk to them. I also wonder if it's mainly nerds who care about video calling because it speaks to their otherwise rather broken social skills. "Normal people loo…
Really? I refuse video calls all the time (or answer with audio only), and people never make a problem of it.
> I also wonder if it's mainly nerds who care about video calling because it speaks to their otherwise rather broken social skills. "Normal people look at each other when talking, right? Look! Using this heap of high tech makes me a normal person!"
That's a pretty horrible thing to say.
> Meanwhile, I note that amongst actual normal people, interest in video calling is low because they see it for what it is: a poor substitute for the real thing. Just as no normal person is into cyber dildonics.
Your personal experience is wildly different from mine. I know a ton of people who care deeply about video calling, and most of them are not technical at all. Parents and their adult children often use video calling to keep in touch (no as a replacement of real world visits, but as a supplement), and pretty much every expat or immigrant I've had extended contact with uses it to talk to their family back home.
Just because you have a personal distaste for it, doesn't mean you have to be mean towards everyone who does care about it.
I know these will be preinstalled on Android, but many friends and family use iOS and I will feel silly asking them to install Duo and Allo. Hangouts is able to mix voice, video and text just fine. Why start requiring separate apps? This is Google at its dumbest. They are squandering the small amount of momentum Hangouts has.
Worse, now I have to find my friends' phone numbers. Is this targeted to people in developing countries who use apps like WhatsApp? Those people don't have fast enough mobile internet to make video calling work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now that people are coming up with ways to put people's real facial expressions in VR, most video calls are probably going to be replaced with avatars generated from your face that use your facial expressions captured by the front-facing camera. https://vimeo.com/156034648
I think a floating head is a lot scarier than people not looking directly at me...
Video calling is a great example of something you don't need, but because you can do it, you do it. It's also impossible to refuse a video call for fear of being seen as secretive or worse when in fact you just don't care to look up somebody's nose when you talk to them. I also wonder if it's mainly nerds who care about video calling because it speaks to their otherwise rather broken social skills. "Normal people loo…
When I worked at Apple Retail, video calling (whether Skype or FaceTime or whatever) was mostly popular with the older generation - their relatives have moved away and when they call they still want to see their face.
Have they announced when it will be discontinued?