Vtok goes beyond just enabling iOS users to send messages to their connections logged in to Gmail or Google Apps, with many of the features people love about the service. That means voice and video chat first and foremost, but it also includes a number of other features. → Read More
LiveNinja, a video chat marketplace we spotted in TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Alley in May, is today announcing having closed a seed round of $500,000 in funding as it goes to publicly launch its platform. The round included angels from the Miami area, where LiveNinja is based, as well as a few from New York and South America. → Read More
QuicklyChat, a Y Combinator-backed startup participating in the Summer 2012 program, has an interesting take on video conferencing. With its newly launched solution designed for small teams working remotely, QuicklyChat is trying to bring back ad hoc conversations, which are still the most valuable aspect to the in-office work environment. With its “push-to-talk” video chat system, your co-workers… → Read More
This was probably inevitable: Google today announced that it is replacing video chats in Gmail with Google+ Hangouts. The company first brought video chat to Gmail in 2008, but ever since the launch of Google+, it was only a matter of time before the company decided to replace its old video chat feature with Google+’s marquee group video chat tool. Hangouts, Google says, “utilize the power of… → Read More
Are you ready for your close-up? In early June, the dynamic, disrupting duo of Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning launched their new video chat and sharing network, called Airtime. As a matter of course, the founders built Airtime on top of Facebook, with a cool $33.5 million in funding to get the operation off the ground — and more.
Today, the startup released a polished new video that aims to… → Read More
In May, we wrote about Flikdate, an innovative mobile video dating service that feels like a mix between Chatroulette and Match.com. The app is now available in Apple’s App Store. Unlike most other video dating services, which focus on pre-recorded videos, Flikdate allows you to set up virtual mini-blind dates using video chats right on the phone. The app, which was created by an all-girls team… → Read More
Desperate to increase video chat usage, Facebook is testing out a “Call” button on top of people’s timeline profiles. I don’t think I’ve received a Facebook video chat since Facebook partnered with Skype to launch the feature a year ago, but now that might change. If a friend is online on the desktop version of Facebook, those in the test see a “Call” button next to that friends name on their… → Read More
Rounds, the social video chat app for Facebook and the web, backed by $5.5 million in funding from Verizon Investments, Rhodium, DFJ’s Tim Draper and other angels, is now expanding to the desktop. This week, the company will debut its Windows and Mac applications which will allow users to send and receive video chat calls to and from their friends without using their web browser or visiting… → Read More
Until now, online and mobile video dating has mostly been about looking at video clips. Flikdate for iOS, however, is all about live video calls, making it feels more like a mix of Chatroulette and Match.com than the current crop of video dating services.
The Flikdate team gave me a demo of the service earlier this week and it turns out the app is about as easy to use as it gets. You simply… → Read More
Video chat is still something quite a few people don’t feel comfortable with. For U.S. teens, however, it is quickly becoming a pretty routine way of communicating with each other. According to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 37% of teens now regularly use Skype, Google Talk or iChat to talk to each other.
There are significant differences between how many boys and… → Read More
For a while now, Mozilla has been looking beyond the core browser features to expand Firefox’s capabilities. Last week, the Firefox team showed an interesting new demo at the ITEF 83 meeting in Paris. In this demo, the Firefox team shows a new browser-based video chat feature for Firefox that is completely based on JavaScript and other open standards. The most important of these standards for this… → Read More
How do you meet new people in today’s digital age, without over-exposing yourself the creeps, trolls and spammers? The answer, perhaps, is build a social service on top of Facebook, leveraging your network, your friends of friends and shared interests to form connections with people you don’t know. That’s what the new startup Speeksy is doing. The service is virtualizing the experience of going… → Read More
As promised earlier this summer, mobile video calling app Tango has finally made it to the PC. Today, a year after its launch on iOS and Android, Tango is now available for Windows desktop computers (XP, Vista and Windows 7). The company says a Mac version will be available later this year. → Read More
SHAPE Services, makers of the popular, cross-platform IM+ mobile instant messaging applications, is today launching its first video chatting app: IM+ Video. The new app, available here on iTunes, lets you video and voice call with your Facebook friends – and not just those using IM+. → Read More
Everyone wants to be “the next YouTube,” to take a simple concept—there, watching videos online—and bring it to the everyday Internet user, cashing out for $46 zillion. TokBox, whose name I still can’t figure out how to pronounce, is one of those companies, its focus being live Web chat. Think of how many times you’ve been on AIM or MSN and thought to yourself… → Read More
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