The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally elementary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the demonstrate, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates embark at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, embarking at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Trio.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is plain and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting embarked with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you begin making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can commence movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Trio megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too breathtaking), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates commence at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the display, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, beginning at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all fully free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is ordinary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too staggering), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly elementary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch roles, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, kicking off at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Three cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The thickest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

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Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too tremendous), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a utter list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s amazingly plain to use. Getting began with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to inject a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (however you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. However the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (however you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you commence making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (however, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The largest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can begin movie talking with these people instantly. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free" was originally published by TechHive .

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all downright free, PCWorld

The five best alternative movie talk apps—all entirely free

Your message has been sent.

There was an error emailing this page.

Regular phone calls are over—these days, it’s all about movie talking. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’re likely holding a video-chatting machine (in all its forward-facing 1.Three megapixel glory). And regardless of what OS your smartphone is running, it likely came with some built-in movie talking software.

But what if you want to, I don’t know… call someone on a different platform? Or what if you need to talk with your entire rugby team at once? Facetime only works on iOS, and Google Hangouts only supports ten chatters at one time. If you’re facing a movie talk crisis, never fear—third-party movie talk apps are here to save the day. These five cross-platform apps bring extra functionality, such as group movie talks, movie messaging, free texting, and cheap voice calls, to the table.

ooVoo—iOS, Android

If Facebook is your main method of communication, you may want to check out ooVoo. A free movie talk app for iOS and Android, ooVoo also has a desktop client for PCs and Macs and integrates with Facebook. ooVoo also lets you group talk with up to eleven friends at a time (12, including yourself), which is two more friends than Google Hangouts supports (Ten, including yourself), and has a more sturdy social network to boot.

The ooVoo app is elementary and straightforward on both iOS and Android. When you very first download it, you’ll be prompted to create an ooVoo account or login with Facebook. At the top of the screen, there are three buttons for your three different contact lists: ooVoo contacts, Facebook contacts, and All contacts (which includes your address book). At the bottom, there are five navigation buttons: Contacts, Phone, History, IM, and Settings. Multi-friend-chatting aside (you only see four people on the screen at a time, so it’s not too terrific), ooVoo is a full-featured app that also offers voice calling and instant messaging.

Voice calling inbetween ooVoo contacts is free and unlimited, but if you want to call regular numbers (both cellphones and landlines), you’ll have to cough up some cash for ooVoo credits. Credits work for calls to numerous countries (see a total list here), and rates begin at around 1.8 cents per minute to the United States. Instant messaging is always free and works even when you’re in the middle of a movie call. Another neat ooVoo feature is the capability to upload an avatar photo and a status update, which your ooVoo friends will see in their contact lists.

Tango— iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.Five

Tango is one of the most popular third-party movie talk apps, and it’s not difficult to see why: It’s exceptionally ordinary to use. Getting commenced with Tango is a snap—you don’t even have to come in a password, just your phone number (which is already populated), email address, and very first name to create an account. Tango offers movie talk, voice calls, and instant messaging, but only with other users who also have verified Tango accounts.

The good thing about Tango is that it’s all free and unlimited—video talks and voice calls use your phone’s data connection, so you don’t have to worry about using up your minutes (tho’ you do have to worry about using up your phone’s data connection). The bad thing is that it only works with other Tango users (so no cross-platform talking with WP8). It also lack an option to purchase minutes for calling cellphones or landlines that do not have Tango installed.

While Tango has a few nice features, some of them cost extra. Tho’ the movie talk feature is the starlet of the showcase, Tango’s regular talk is pretty neat too. In the regular talk you can share photos, movies, and voice recordings, and you can add numerous people (tho’ you can’t movie talk with numerous people). Tango also has a store where you can purchase mini-games such as darts, switch sides, and tic-tac-toe, which you can then play with other people during a movie talk.

Fring—iOS, Android

On the surface, Fring is similar to the other movie talk apps we’ve covered so far: It offers free, unlimited movie talks, voice calls, and instant messages to other Fring users. But its real advantage is when you embark making paid phone calls (also known as “FringOUT” calls) to cellphones and landlines around the world. Fring has one of the cheapest rate systems available, commencing at just one cent per minute.

To call U.S. landlines and cellphones, Fring charges 1.Two cents per minute. By comparison, ooVoo charges 1.8 cents per minute, and Skype charges Two.Trio cents per minute (tho’, to be fair, Skype does suggest a subscription rate of $Two.99/month). Of course, before you determine which service to use you’ll want to check out which countries you’ll be calling most often—Fring isn’t the cheapest for all countries. For example, Fring charges Three.7 cents to call to a Japanese landline, while ooVoo charges Two.1 cents (and Skype charges Two.6 cents).

Fring also offers group movie talking (up to four people at one time). The fattest drawback of Fring is that you do need a phone number to set it up—the service sends a text to your number to verify that it’s yours. So iPod Touch users will need to use a phone number that can receive texts and that’s not associated with any other Fring account.

Camfrog— iOS, Android

Nobody to movie talk with? Instead of talking with friends and family, attempt talking with total strangers on Camfrog. Camfrog is a free movie talk app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users, as well as PC and Mac users. This app lets you find people to talk to—you can either join a public Camfrog talk room, or look someone up by username and talk with them privately.

There are tons of public Camfrog rooms that you can join to talk about…basically anything. When you join a room, you’ll see your movie feed in the upper left corner. In the right corner you can swipe to access other people’s feeds (you can swipe through all the feeds, but you can only see one at a time), and the lower half of the screen features a text talk. You can pause your feed, switch cameras, or talk to the room by tapping the speaker icon. It’s not the best way to movie talk, but if you’re looking for fresh friends…it works pretty well.

You can also make voice calls and sent instant messages to other Camfrog users. Unlike the other movie talk apps in this round-up, Camfrog doesn’t scour your address book for contacts—if you want to privately talk to another user, you’ll need to look them up by their Camfrog nickname. Since Camfrog is more of a social network than a unspoiled movie talk app, you can edit your profile to add a profile pic, status update, marital status and what you’re “seeking,” occupation, home page, and you can also set your privacy settings.

Qik—iOS, Android, BlackBerry

If you want to mix a little lifecasting in with your movie talks, multi-platform movie app Qik may be right up your alley. Qik is a free movie app available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. It’s not primarily a movie talk app, though—it’s more of a lifecasting app, or an app that lets you record moments and publish them to your very own live Qik feed. But it does have movie talk functionality, including the capability to send movie messages to offline users.

Qik’s main screen is just a view through your phone’s camera lens. On this screen you can record movies using either the forward-facing or the rear-facing camera, and you can add live effects such as black-and-white, x-ray, mirrored, etc. Once you’ve recorded a movie, you can name it, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or via email or text. Your movie is automatically uploaded to your Qik feed, which can be viewed by other Qik users (you can also make your movie private).

If you’d rather movie talk with a friend, tap the “Connect” button at the bottom of the screen. A fresh menu will open up with the typical movie talk features: History, Contacts, Keypad, and Movie Mail. Qik scours your contact list to see who already has Qik accounts; you can embark movie talking with these people instantaneously. Otherwise, you’ll need to invite your friends and family to Qik—it only works with other Qik users.

This story, "The five best alternative movie talk apps—all totally free" was originally published by TechHive .

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