Facetime app?

[derien]

My niece is growing up so fast, on the other side of the country, and I'm not getting to interact with her as much as I would like. Can one recommend me a reputable site to download a Facetime app that will run on a Windows PC, with no input from any Apple devices (which I don't have)? I found a site, ( https:\/\/facetimeforwindowspc.org\/facetime-for-pc\ ) but I'm not sure I trust it. (Tried Skype, but apparently that's too outdated for my brother to handle.)

Comments

[pinesandmaples]

I...wouldn't do it.

Google has a video chat product (Hangouts) that can be used on phones or computers, Mac/Windows/Android. It works well on all three.

[derien]

My difficulty is, my brother is very non-technical (you think I'm bad? he's worse.) and if the best solution involves him also having to download something to his phone or device which might require some tweaking, well... it probably just won't happen. Is Hangouts going to be push-button easy for him?

[pinesandmaples]

Yes, especially if he already uses Gmail. Facebook also has a video option which is push-button easy, provided your browser also supports it.

[derien]

I don't know if he has Gmail. I think I actually tried to avoid getting involved in gmail, but I should check. I have made myself dozens of accounts trying to lock up my user name on every platform available, though it hasn't always worked. :)

I suppose I should plug my camera back in and go look at Facebook's video option! :) Where on FB do I find that? A quick glance doesn't show it to me, but then again I find FB not very user friendly.

[derien]

I did find something called "Live Video", but it seems to be all people streaming publicly. Which is neat, don't get me wrong! :) But not something my sister-in-law is going to allow. She doesn't even allow pics of my niece to be posted online, which makes me sad.

[pinesandmaples]

Go to the messages tab from the left column on the main FB window. Start a conversation with your brother. At the top of the window, you'll see these icons:


The video camera will start a private video chat, again, if your browser supports it.

Your brother may have to concede a little bit so you can actually see your niece. Like, you know, learning to use some new tech.

[derien]

So... I don't have a decent pic hosting site right now, but the short version is that when I open a message there's a thing at the top which looks very much like what you posted there, only does not have the video camera icon.

So now my brother is actually conceding a tiny bit and saying he might be able to reactivate the Skype account he used to run off his iPod, so that's something. :)