Video telephony: Keeping in touch with loved ones is so easy

In order to avoid contagion with the corona virus and to generally slow down its spread, people are currently encouraged to only leave their own four walls in important cases. This is particularly tough for anyone who is not allowed to visit their family. Grandma and Grandpa, for example, are particularly at risk. Nevertheless, you can stay in touch with your loved ones by phone – and you can even see them via video telephony. Even group discussions are possible.

Provider and requirements

There are numerous apps and services that you can use to video chat with your relatives or friends. The best known and most reliable include WhatsApp, Skype, Google Duo, Facetime and Facebook Messenger, as confirmed by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).

If you want to use a smartphone or tablet for video telephony, you only have to download and set up the app you want in one of the official stores. When using it, however, you should make sure that you are connected to the WLAN and not use up your mobile data volume. This can be quickly eaten up by a video chat.

PC, laptop or Mac users, on the other hand, need an internet connection – via WLAN or cable – also a webcam, speakers and a microphone if they want to hear and see each other. Laptops usually have cameras, microphones and speakers built in, just like a smartphone or tablet.

New users should first discuss by phone which service is most popular in the family or among friends, because a connection between different apps or programs can usually not be established. If all relatives use an iPhone, for example, it usually makes the most sense to use Apple's Facetime as the free function is already preinstalled.

A quick start guide

With all the providers mentioned, making and receiving video calls is quite simple – first of all the corresponding apps or programs must be downloaded, installed and set up. For this, free accounts must be created for some. How this works exactly varies with the services.

The whole thing is particularly easy with Facetime and Google Duo. Here, other users can be easily found using the existing mobile phone number or email address and then contacted. If the number is already saved in the contacts, users can also click directly on the name of the person they want and make a video call.

Here are the individual instructions for WhatsApp, Google Duo, Facebook Messenger, Facetime and Skype. You can also read how to create group calls in the applications.

A special help for seniors can be the YouTube videos of "LernKanal", a project of the Bavarian Seniors Network Forum (BSNF), which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). For example, here is a Skype learning video.