Best VOIP and Video Chat Apps for Android And iPhone

Staying connected has never been so easy, thanks to the modern-day smartphone, keeping us in touch with our friends even when they are out of reach. With advancements in the field of communications, smartphones have also evolved in how we communicate with other people.

Also after introduction of VOIP Services, Video Chats on mobile devices, customers are using these services a lot. VOIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol, Video Chats has been in existence from a long time but, after introduction of these services to Mobile Phones, these service are getting revolutionary services.

There are many Apps available for Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows and other smartphones that offers you to do Video Chats, user VOIP services easily. But, efficiency matters a lot. So here we are telling you Some Best VOIP and Video Chat Apps.

Skype hardly seems to need any introduction here, since it’s one of the most famous and widely used communications apps on the Internet. In addition to video chat, voice chat, and instant messaging (IM), Skype supports VoIP calling to outside numbers starting at 2.3 cents per minute. So it’s fairly comprehensive.

With almost 700 million registered users, and client software for every major operating system, Skype is also theoretically the most broadly compatible of the video chat options out there. Its touted compability doesn’t stop at OSes. Skype is rated to work with every Android device listed on my Google Play/Android Market account, including review units still listed there which I can’t delete. Here are some examples: the Samsung Galaxy Player 5, HTC Status, and Viewsonic G-Tablet.

I can’t speak to Skype’s actual video chat performance across all supported platforms, but it behaved flawlessly on my Stratosphere phone and XOOM tablet. I also found the Android app quite easy to use. Of course, no app or service is without some negatives. Ironically, one of Skype’s is its own ubiquity. When you start a new account, you might find it difficult to come up with a unique username, even if you’re just attempting to use your own real name.

With Google Hangouts, you can chat over text, video or VoIP call, you can also do group video chats with your friends, family or colleagues, up to 10 members and all this for free. If you aren’t from US or Canada then you will have to pay for VoIP calls, but the prices are lowest among all its competitors.

You can also broadcast your live hangout for free with Hangouts on air. Once, the hangout is over, It will be uploaded to your YouTube channel. You can also find out the upcoming hangouts on air by using this link. The best thing about Google Hangouts is that unlike Skype, you don’t have to install any third party app, software or something like that to start using it, all you have to do is to sign up for free Gmail or Google plus account and you can have access to hangouts & all its features.

Tango Mobile VOIP ServiceTango lets you do free mobile calls, Video Chats and Text Messages over 3G, 4G and WiFi Networks. It is available for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone for FREE. Tango VOIP Service also facilitates you to send pictures and video messages.

The service is continuous and offers Video/Voice Chats, Text Messages at very fast speed and high quality. You can also play games while having chat with your friend. No need to worry about your Minutes and Text Messages as it don’t use these plans and services. Tango lets you do all the things via Internet Connection.

Free app for both Android and iPhone/ipod users. Easy to install and setup. Tested it with my niece who was using her current gen iPod Touch on WiFi and me with my EVO on WiFi.

Video Quality: Fair to Good. Wasn't as clear as the iPhone's FaceTime - but it wasn't bad either. Somewhat pixelated and kept getting a "Poor Network Connection" alert. But video never froze or got so distorted that we couldn't make each other out.

Audio: Crap to Fair. I could hear her fine - but even with my volume all the way up it still was a bit low. She on the other hand could barely hear me - even after tinkering with the settings. I sent a support ticket to Fring about this and they replied saying my niece (w/ iPod touch) should uninstall Fring, reboot her iPod, then reinstall Fring. Don't know if this worked though as we haven't had time to test it as of yet.

ooVoo is an iOS and Android release from the company of the same name. It’s available now as a free download from the Apple App Store and Google Play and carries no additional in-app purchases.

ooVoo is a video and text chat system in the same vein as Skype and Google Hangouts. When first opening ooVoo, users will be prompted to sign into or create an account. Account creation can easily be done through social media profiles, though creating a proprietary account can be accomplished just as fast as connecting a social media profile. Once logged in, ooVoo will import contacts from the device and social networks and will easily list any contacts that are also using ooVoo. Users who don’t have friends using ooVoo can easily invite them, and the ones who are connected will show up on a special contact list.

Not a fan of paying through the nose for texts and calls? Viber offers a free, no-strings-attached service that lets you send texts and share both photos and videos with friends and family. You can also make high-quality VoIP calls using 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi via your existing mobile number. Plus, Viber automatically syncs with your contacts and knows which of your friends have Viber, making it easy to stay in touch on the cheap. Not only is this app incredibly simple to use, it's available to more than 200 million users for almost every mobile platform. Find out why Viber tops our list of messaging apps

Getting Viber up and running takes less than a minute. After installing the app, Viber first asks for your permission to send push notifications and access your address book. You then enter your phone number, which is your ID. You won't be assigned a different number on Viber, unlike such apps as TextPlus and TextFree. Next, you enter your name, add a profile photo and connect with Facebook to sync your profile, friend list, email address and newsfeed.

KakoTalk is a Korea-based VoIP service that resembles Viber a lot. Services like this that give free calls and other communication services for free to other in-network users are numerous, but what I find more interesting with services like KakaoTalk is that it uses your phone number to identify you and does not require you to register for a username. The service can be used exclusively with people who are already users of KakaoTalk. You can’t place calls to other landline and mobile numbers, not even if you pay. So you will be happy and save money with the service only if you have buddies using it and with whom you communicate frequently. For this reason, the huge number of users using this service (reaching 50 million) makes it interesting.

KakaoTalk is also used as a social networking tool, as a means to meet new people and to chat. It has features that allow you to search for people using their names, their numbers and their email account. It manages to get hold of people and their information so easily that it makes me think a lot on security and privacy issues. For instance, when I installed and set up the app on my Android device, it automatically fed in one of my phone numbers. It was actually an old number that is no longer active. How did they get that kind of information?

LINE was originally developed as a mobile app for Android and iOS but grew to support Blackberry, Nokia Asha, Windows Phone and Firefox OS. LINE apps are also available on computers running Apple Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.  LINE users can send free text messages (SMS), picture messages (MMS), voice messages, video messages, and make free voice calls and video calls. Group chat functionality and bulletin boards for groups (up to 100 people at once) are also available. Other services include location sharing, contacts sharing, photo sharing, Timeline, Official Accounts and Hidden Chats.

Timeline allows users to share texts, photos, videos, and stickers with your close friends similar to Facebook’s status reports. By adding Official Accounts of your favorite artists, celebrities, brands and TV shows as a LINE friend gives users exclusive news and coupons only available on LINE. Hidden Chats are encrypted messages that will be deleted after a predetermined amount of time, similar to Snapchat.

LINE offers paid for services including downloading stickers, downloading games with in-app game purchases and LINE Premium Call. LINE users send over 1 billion stickers on a daily basis. In 2014, LINE added a new feature allowing users to create their own stickers and sell them to each other on LINE’s platform (LINE charges a 50% commission). LINE’s gaming platform has registered over 300 million downloads. LINE Premium Call allows LINE users to call mobile phones and landlines for flat rates (calls between LINE users are free).

Cisco's WebEx system has actually been around for quite a long time, and allows companies to hose private, online meetings with all the trimmings. The idea is that you join in via telephone and computer, with slides and other meeting-centric info displayed on the PC while you give your input over the speaker phone. The system doesn't really alter here, except that the WebEx app unifies all these virtual meeting facilities in your iPhone. The voice aspect works just the same, with you dialling into a Cisco WebEx meeting as normal, using the traditional telephony features of your iPhone.

Once the call has been established and you're connected - through the various security tunnels that hook you up to the right meeting room - the iPhone's multitasking comes into play. With the call active, but minimised, you can launch the Cisco WebEx Meeting Center app for the visual and interactive elements of the executive show. WebEx meetings aren't particularly difficult to sign into, but neither is it generally considered to be a streamlined process. The app, and its knowledge of the call you're currently connected to, simplifies the login considerably, so if for no other reason it's worth installing this app and calling in from your iPhone whenever you've a meeting scheduled.