With the increase in number of smartphones and increased telecom bandwidth in India, people are exploring video calling apart from the normal day to day calls with their dear ones. The voice calls are still a first choice for many and is hardly to be replaced by video calls, but that doesn’t mean video calls are a dud.

Most promising video calling apps are available for android and iOS users but the most popular apps in India that come with video calling feature are WhatsApp, Google Duo, and Facebook Messenger.

Let’s take a look of features these video calling apps are offering and comparing them as well that which one suits best in the field of speed and size.

1. WhatsApp Messenger

WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most popular messaging app. Currently it has over 200 million monthly active users in India only. The Facebook-owned app introduced the video calling feature in 2016.

During WhatsApp video calling, user can switch the cameras between the front and rear – the video being captured by your camera will be at the bottom right in a small rectangular widget that can be tapped to make full screen. You also see mute button, and a disable video call button, in addition to the end call button. In case you’re on a voice call on WhatsApp, you will now be able to switch to a video call by tapping a button in the call interface in the latest WhatsApp version for Android and iOS.

2. Google Duo

Google has several video calling apps such as Hangouts, however at the I/O conference in 2016, Google realized to focus more on messaging and calling apps. It launched the Google Allo and Google Duo apps at the conference.

Google Duo is comparatively simpler than WhatsApp since it doesn’t support textual messaging. It comes with voice and video calls only.

The Google Duo has an interesting feature called Knock Knock that lets the person who you are calling see your video before the call is answered. The app was recently updated with a fresh contact list and a recent list.

3. Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger was initially launched as one of the suite of apps from the social media giant. Facebook launched its Messenger independent of your Facebook profile however you can use Messenger with your Facebook account as well.

Alternatively you can sign up with your mobile number without having to create a Facebook profile if you don’t wish to.

If to think about which app is better, we can say Facebook Messenger has a lot more features than WhatsApp and Google Duo like lot of stickers, games, automated responses from brand pages, and chatbots, separate tab where your voice and video calls are saved, group calling, better interface, the video call screen has mute, video chat off and end call option.

Apart from above , there are two buttons Chat and Camera. Tapping on chat icon will bring you the chat screen while your video call is still running in a Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.

WeChat, a Chinese multimedia messaging app recently crossed 1 Billion download which is also offering load of features.

Image credit- Canva

Ubiquitous social multimedia messaging app WeChat, developed by Chinese technology giant Tencent, has crossed the one billion accounts mark  as its messaging, game and shopping services attract more and more users worldwide.

The symbolic threshold was announced by Pony Ma, the founder and CEO of its parent company Tencent.

“WeChat’s worldwide monthly active users have surpassed the critical one billion mark,” said Ma, who is a delegate at the two-week session of the Communist Party-controlled National People’s Congress. “In the future we hope to use technological innovation to push forward the next developmental step of reform and opening,” Ma said.

WeChat falls behind Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, whose active users reportedly stood at 2.1 billion and 1.5 billion respectively as of last year.

The popularity of WeChat—and profits from its addictive mobile games—have pushed Tencent’s earnings and share price sharply upwards.

Another popular feature of WeChat is its payment service, which allows people to pay at restaurants, buy goods from shops or even send money to friends.

Features of WeChat which made it popular

• Multimedia Messaging: Send Video, Photo, Text, And Voice Messages.
• Group Chat & Calls: Create Group Chats With Up To 500 People And Group Video Calls Up To 9 People which is just double offered by its rival WhatsApp.
• Free Voice & Video Calls: High-Quality Free Calls To Anywhere In The World.
• WeChat Out Calls: Make Calls To Landlines And Mobile Around The Globe At Low Rates (In Certain Regions Only).
• Sticker Gallery: Hundreds Of Free, Fun, Animated Stickers To Express Your Feelings From Some Of Your Favorite Cartoons And Movies.
• Moments: Share Your Best Moments On Your Personal Photo Stream.
• Better Privacy: WeChat Gives You The Highest Level Of Control Over Your Privacy. It’S The Only Messaging App To Be Certified By Truste.
• Meet New Friends: Use “Friend Radar”, “People Nearby” And “Shake” To Meet Others.
• Realtime Location: Instead Of Having To Tell Others Where You Are, Just Use Real-Time Location Sharing.
• Language Support: Localized In 20 Different Languages And Can Translate Messages To Any Language.
• More other features like Desktop App, Custom Wallpapers, Custom Notifications, And Official Accounts make it more interesting among other chatting and multimedia apps.

Recently its rival WhatsApp added new feature to delete the sent message to everyone and extended its time limit.

Image credit- Canva