Having a Samsung Droid Charge is great, but what is not so great is that it has a front facing camera and no video chat capability until recently. Video chat through Google Talk is available on tablets running Android 3+ (Honeycomb) as I found out testing the new Acer Iconia A500 this past Saturday. From everything I have read. a Gingerbread upgrade for my phone will allow video chat although it has not been confirmed.
This past week I downloaded Fring for my Samsung Charge and it does allow you to use the front facing camera for video chat. The only problem with it is the other person must be using the application on another phone as they do not have a computer application for Fring at this time. This proved that the front facing camera can be accessed on a device using Android 2.2. Therefore it is just a matter of time before other video chat applications will be adjusted to be able to use the front facing camera.
On Thursday, August 4th I ran across this ZDNet article “Skype with video calling comes to Android 2.2 devices” and it specifically states that Skype is available for video calling on Verizon’s Samsung Charge and HTC Thunderbolt. When you go to the market, Skype lists them as being supported, but when you download the application, you still can not utilize the front facing camera for video chat! In the Android Marketplace Skype list in their description that front facing cameras may not be accessed on phones using Android 2.2 but it does list the Charge and the Thunderbolt as being now available.
On Saturday I found that the Oovoo Android application now allows use of the front facing camera on my Droid Charge! Even better is that they have an application for the computer to use as well. Now there are 2 Android applications that utilize the front facing camera on phones running Android 2.2. Unfortunately, Oovoo is an application like Skype that wants to take over your computer or phone to get you to make calls through the application and charge you for minutes. That should be illegal! But I guess they have to make their money ripping off someone stupid enough to put their credit card information in the application.
Yahoo Messenger is getting closer to having video chat available on Android devices, but isn’t there yet. Really what I want is to use Google Talk for video chatting like on the computer and tablets running Honecomb!
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