The unavailability of voice and video chat was a major disappointment for Gmail users so far. Not anymore, Google announced yesterday about its new video-chat features in Gmail. From today onwards Gmail users can now video chat from within Gmail itself. Now a webcam and microphone is all you need to chat with your gmail friends.
To enable this feature you must first install this plugin. After installing the plugin, all browsers need to be restarted for the video chat feature to work. Watch this video to know more about the new video chat feature and how to get it running.
From the Gmail Blog:
Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the “Video & more” menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose “Start video chat.” You’ll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it’s ringing, and then you’ll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail. You can click the “pop-out” iconto make the video larger, or click the fullscreen iconin the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience.
This new Gmail feature goes a step ahead of the Gtalk voice-only chat. This makes Gmail the answer to all your communication needs. Gmail is not just about email anymore. Sad part is, this video chat feature is only available for Mac and Windows(XP and Vista only) users. Like when Chrome was released, Linux users will not be able to use this new Gmail feature.
Also what does it mean for Skype and other service providing VoIP service. Some bloggers have already termed this new Gmail feature as “Skype killer”. Skype would certainly need to enhance their offering in order to compete with a giant like Google.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Devakishor
Great information! With the holiday coming up, it would be nice to get a face to face greeting from friends and family who can’t travel.
Thanks
Giovanna Garcia