Video chat may be coming to Android 2.3.4

By on Apr 26, 2011 at 2:28 PM
mobile April 26, 2011

A carefully crafted tweet has sparked rumors of a native video-chat feature coming to Android 2.3.4 in the near future. “Just had a video call using gmail on Nexus S. Impressive quality @googlenexus Gingerbread 2.3.4 #io2011,” reads the post in question. The implication is — obviously — that Google will migrate its Gmail, browser-based video chat service to Android and unveil the new offering at this year’s Google I/O conference, which is set to kick off May 10th in San Francisco. We can’t say we’d be surprised to see it… but we’re still pretty excited.Read [Android Police] Read [Twitter]

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  • Ray

    Lame FaceTime has been over for over a year, catch up android!

    • Ray

      Out*

      • No

        Um, no. It hasn’t been a year. I believe it was introduced with the iPhone 4 last June.

        Wanker. If you’re gonna flame, at least get it right.

      • Douche

        Thank you, just get a plus! You shouldn’t have to use a shitty-ass third party app for video conferencing – it should be built into the OS which iOS has had for a long time. Go wack off to a poster saying “free and open” you droid retards.

    • Anonymous

      Yep, FacegriMe has been out for a year and it still doesn’t work. It’s about as fragmented and choppy as the New York City subway system on any given weekend.

      • Anonymous

        It’s worked perfectly for me every single time I’ve used it. Makes the third-party apps look like garbage. Maybe your WiFi sucks?

      • Anonymous

        Nope, not my Wi-Fi since, I’m not on AT&T.

      • Anonymous

        A android os lover calling something fragmented and choppy….ALL RIGHTY THEN.

      • PRGuy

        Your mom is fragmented and choppy, at least she was after I was done with her.

      • Anonymous

        @PRGuy

        Weeeeeeeppa!!!!!

      • Anonymous

        You’ve just admited to sleeping with a corpse. Get help

      • Ray

        I have no complaints while FaceTime your mom. Crystal clear.

      • Anonymous

        Are you using the virtual keyboard on that teeny-tiny iToy? For some reason in all your posts, iSwear you mean to write something else.

    • Geust

      Lame iPhone just cached up to it.. my HTC Tytn with Windows 5 was doing video calls no problem.. no special apps needed :D

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

      We’ve got Qik, Tango, Fring, ooVoo, and a think a few other ones…..

      #fail.

      • Ray

        So does iOS I was talking about intergeated into the operating system, #Fail

      • Gunther

        Well, there’s really not much difference. And if you are going to suck Steve Job’s dick over Facetime, at least acknowledge that the Evo 4G beat Apple’s sorry ass to not only having a front facing camera, but also 4G speeds.

        So, so much for Apple.

      • Ray

        Well FaceTime was intergrated flawlessly into the OS first I never said it was the first to have a front facing camera. Bleeding edge technology isnt as cool as you android sheep believe it is… It’s about making sure it works properly and flawlessly. The iPhone took the FF camera and made FaceTime something that works flawlessly no log ins, passwords or anything just an extension of your phone number. Perfectly designed.

    • Anonymous

      Video chat has been available to android since last year through yahoo messenger. Video calling has been in Asia and Europe since 2006 and they call that there 3G calling. Just love it when you guys thought that Steve jobs first walked on the moon. Just love the ignorance … and facetime only works on wifi, so lame. Not 3G.

    • Doug Colligan

      “Lame FaceTime”

      You’re right, Ray, FaceTime *is* lame.

      Anyone tell you how by the end of the year, there will be over 60 Android phones from 5 manufacturers supporting 4G/LTE, and there will be exactly 0 iPhone models from Apple supporting 4G?

      Weaksauce.

    • PRGuy

      Well, the headline is misleading. There are already tons of apps that do Video chat on Android, it’s just that it will now come as a Google branded app. look at Qik, it has both Android and iOS integration for video chat.

  • Anonymous

    it would be nice to see a built in FaceTime like feature .. the current video chat solutions are not good.

  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

    Why does gtalk on my DROID Thunderbolt 4G LTE not have video char yet? That is a major concern of mine. At least it doesn’t work for the iPhone yet either.

    • Anonymous

      It works perfectly for the iPhone using FaceTime on WiFi. No accounts or sign-in needed. It doesn’t work on iPhone over 3G unless you resort to the mostly crappy third-party video chat apps.

      It doesn’t work for Android on WiFi *or* 3G unless you resort to the mostly crappy third-party video chat apps.

      It’s good that Google is fixing this flaw with a native solution.

    • Anonymous

      No one at Verizon wants to address the Skype Video issue; some reps’ blame HTC, some blame Skype, some blame both but, won’t give a time frame for availability. GTALK, that’s Google’s court but, no word their either. Strangely, though, XOOOOOOOOM reportedly has those functions.

      • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

        I blame Verizon and their correct with skype. It’s hindering everything.

      • Anonymous

        That’s why I’ve held off on the TB, they should’ve had that ready before the launch, especially since it was one of the pre-launch marketing points.

        Anyway, glad I waited, DI2 this Thursday and it’s global.

    • Steve Jobs

      its cause your thunderbolt SUCKS. Not to mention it eats battery like a meth addict does their skin.

    • Anonymous

      seriously. shocked. why is it that all these major platforms don’t have this feature but my niche device does?!?! i’ve had native gtalk video call support for over a year. nokia n900. i’m sure they’re cheap on ebay by now. you can even run android on it if you want (though obviously you’d need to boot the original maemo OS for gtalk video call support).

  • http://twitter.com/wheineman Will Heineman

    I hope that if this feature it launched, it lets me make voice calls through Gmail so that i can drop my minutes!

    • Droidman

      Google Voice

      • Anonymous

        GV uses regular minutes. Not sure why you think it doesn’t?

      • Anonymous

        perhaps he’s using google voice’s VoIP integration with gizmo5? i do. i have my mobile phone (nokia n900, but any nokia would do – as would anything else that supports SIP) setup so that incoming calls to my google voice # hit my phone via VoIP if i’m online, gsm if not. outbound calls are rare for me, but the same rule applies, i default to voip and use gsm as a backup.

        it’s nice that it is all native on a nokia (probably won’t be in the WP7 devices coming up though). this means that the standard dialer knows how to make both gsm and voip calls, and all the normal contacts and call log features apply equally to voip and gsm. it may be the fundamental reason why i’ve been a diehard nokia fan over the years – i’ve been saving mad loot by having all my incoming calls be free (gizmo5, inbound is always free) and outbound calls are a little less than 2 cents per minute.

  • Bringit

    Way to copy iPhone. Again. gPhone Lite.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

      you mean the iphone copied Qik and the HTC EVO 4G….. IIRC..

      any way this is not coping the iOS feature in the least. I can assume that it’ll be done over 3G/4G/WiFi, where as the FaceTime feature can only be done via Wi-Fi. And this I can Assume will also allow people to talk to other Android phones, iOS phone (given the feature is iOS supported), Blackberry (given they are BIS/BES supported)….

      they did not copy.

      • Anonymous

        I can’t believe that, after all this time, the iPhone still just works on Wi-Fi.

        That’s just iSad!

      • http://twitter.com/MrKow84 Kyle

        I can’t believe you think it only works on wi-fi… your sad bro… and FYI your icon looks like a hitler android… lol…

      • Supafly

        @Papinyc When you jailbreak you can do FaceTime over 3G. JB brought up a good point on Twitter yesterday about purist/fanboys so my question to you is how many android devices have you had?

      • Anonymous

        @Supafly

        What up’ dogg? To answer your question: four different devices I have personally owned, not counting the dozen or so I’ve played with over the past 2 some-odd years, they include:

        G1 – Good preview of what Android would be.
        EVO 4G – Best phone I’ve ever had (out the box)
        DROID 1 – MOTOBLUR ruins it
        DROID X – Better than DROID 1 but, MOTOBLUR is a severe handicap

        Other devices/OS’s:
        iPhone 2G x’s 2 (8GB & 16GB)
        iPhone 3G x’s 2 (8GB & 16GB)

        Almost every Windows Mobile Phone on Verizon from 2002-2010:
        Thera 2032
        Samsung i700
        XV 6600
        XV 6700
        XV 6800
        Samsung i760
        Touch Pro 2 (XV6875)

        Skipped the Samsung i730, & i830, Touch Pro, and Touch (XV6900)

        Still have the two Jailbroken iPhone 3G phones that iRolled back to iOS 3.0, however, they’re about as obsolete as most of the Windows Mobile phones above.

        Any other q’s, brothaman’?

      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

        Droid 1 didn’t have blur. Pure vanilla

      • Anonymous

        @Walter Sobchak

        I could stand corrected; I’ll have to research. Still, there was something about it that was not smooth. I had one on my account for about three months and HATED it. I’m beginning to warm up to this DROID X, though, I prefer HTC and EVO. Will look into Incredible Deuce on Thursday. (except no 4G)

      • Anonymous

        @Michael – i agree they did not copy apple. but your Qik and HTC references are only the latest variants of mobile video calling. UMTS (the GSM version of 3g) debuted in 2002 with video calling facilities baked right in.

        that’s why pretty much every european or asian targeted mobile phone since then has had a front facing camera. no one really copied anyone else here, since the spec was public and intended to be broadly adopted. it’d be like (negatively) saying mom copies betty crocker because she uses a particular cookbook.

        as far as supporting calls to iOS, BIS, or BES: i have no idea if this will be true or not. i would suspect so, just as you do. my nokia n900 (maemo based) supports gtalk video to any video capable gtalk client: browser, ichat, fring, etc. so i would suspect that android will too.

      • Anonymous

        How DARE you mention Nokia!!!

        I miss my N900 soooo hard.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

        True. I know where you are coming from. My old HTC Dual Touch had a FFC on it. I really didn’t think that far back. I just saw a typical iFan and wanted to thwart his evil plans for trolling.

      • Bringit

        Exactly. Michael is just a typical defensive gPhone fan with evil plans for trolling.

  • Anonymous

    I still think that services like this and FaceTime are only really ideal for easy-setup video conferencing (albeit a one-to-one conference); not so much for just regular phone calls. If you have a small business with remote employees, it’s fantastic. Or if you have relatives than live out-of-state/country.

    As much as Apple laid the infrastructure over the last half decade (all Macs have cameras built-in, and have had them for years), I’d have thought that Apple would promote the fact that FaceTime can easily connect iPhones to iMacs, etc.

    As it stands, it’s just a novelty, or at least that’s how its marketed.

  • Anonymous

    ugggh how are they gonna add video calling in the Gmail app without adding a way to simply highlight and copy text without having to jump through a bunch of menu items?!!! WTF get it together Google

    • http://twitter.com/MrKow84 Kyle

      Sorry but I have to Lol at your comment, I also hated there was no Copy-paste feature ?? why can’t google get the SMALL stuff first before jumping into so random project that might or might not flop… another reason to love Apple…

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

      all you have to do is long press on text, the select what you want, just like in iOS… they done the same way.

      • Anonymous

        No that’s how it is in the rest of the OS, but not in the Gmail app. In the Gmail app you have to go to Menu then Select Text then use those arrows to select the text then copy it. It’s stupid and i think Gmail is the only app that does it like that and I can’t stand it which is why I use HTC’s Mail app

        Definitely not enough to make me use an iOS device though

      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

        Gingerbread has it

      • Anonymous

        Nope, we’ll atleast not the CM7 Gingerbread. The Email app (with the combined inbox and whatnot) had it but not the Gmail app

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

        the the long press copy and hold must be built into Cyanogen(mod). I use at least once every day…..

      • Anonymous

        are we talking about the same app? not the Email app, the official Gmail app by Google. because i had CM7 RC1 on my Evo and it was the same issue, its something Google needs to fix, not Cyanogen, since its within their app and not the OS. the Email app handled it just fine which is why i cant understand why this simple feature hasnt been put in the Gmail app for all of this time

  • Anonymous

    wow – i’m shocked it wasn’t already possible. i’ve been doing native (ie no 3rd party apps) video chat on gtalk from my nokia n900 for over a year now.

    or am i missing something here? was this a gtalk to mobile-carrier thing? as in a video call to the native video call feature of some network?

    if not, i’m just shocked that my abandoned nokia device was able to do this natively and reliably (well, on 2g it doesn’t work reliably at all, but 3g and wifi works great) for at least a year before google’s own platform could.

  • @j_nathaniel

    This would be very impressive as well as very welcomed. The video chat I experienced on the MyTouch 4g was quite bad using Qik. I have no one to do it with right now so I have not tried anything on the G2x. If it is clearer than what I have seen so far I will try it once every few months…maybe!

  • Anonymous

    woop woop!

  • Jayanthi Rangarajan

    Most of you are forgetting that the real need is for a mobile-optimized browsing experience, such as that provided by Novarra (now part of Nokia).

    Even today’s powerful smartphone browsers need a better user experience. Maintaining 2 or more websites – one for normal browsing, one for mobile browsing – is neither realistic nor cost-effective.

  • Anonymous

    Now if they’ll only get around to fixing the complete rubbish current FB 1.5.3 app (and 1.5.2) are.

    New features that don’t work because the app rather crash is being like Google Maps.

  • Douche

    The funny thing about this is that all you android owners (bar the Nexus and Nexus S) will never see this update because your OS is fragmented crap.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

      I know you are just trolling, and that’s okay with me. Trolls gotta troll. But on my personal phone. I’ve got Android 2.3.3 on my device and T-Mobile has said that the update shouldn’t be out till late summer for my device…..

      So we do see updates, and most of them come WAY before the official bomb drops.

  • Mck1318

    Tried yahoo video chat over wifi from Thunderbolt to Atrix. Sucked pretty bad. Wouldn’t even connect over Verizon/AT&T.

  • heyhey

    rejoice android punks; with video chat, you, android and lady gaga can finally change the world into a better place!!! finally google is adding a functionality that android users actually wanted and cared about. sounds like the mediocre android programmers have finally been able to implement the functionality instead of reverting to appease the android user by unwanted functionalities hoping that the user would forget things like UI, music player, broad video support, hardware accel. well done google!!! but here’s a warning to the punks before they crap and jizz their pants out of excitement: if history is of any relevance to you, you should expect this video chat service to be buggy, choppy and with a fugly UI. so i’d curb my enthusiasm if i were u.

  • http://ocentertainment.net ocentertainment

    Frankly, it’s about damn time.

    Since the Evo launched last June, there’s been a slew of devices, including Google’s own branded device, the Nexus S, that have included front-facing cameras with no third-party solution for video chat. This could almost be understood since plenty of hardware gets used by third-parties more than the first (sure, the OS includes some accelerometer- or gyroscope-based functions, but third-parties are near-universally more interested in the functionality), except that Google has had the perfect app to make use of this functionality for years now: Google Talk.

    I already use Google Talk to replace SMS for the contacts I have that use Android phones. Between that and Google Voice, I merely assumed it was only a matter of time before I was able to replace all communication functionality, SMS, voice, and even video chat with Google’s data-based options, as opposed to paying for minutes and texts. After all the leaks, and even new functionality included in Gingerbread (like SIP/VoIP support), I assumed that time had come.

    A little bit longer to wait, I suppose.

  • Anonymous

    Thank You Jesus!

    I won’t have to deal with Qik and Skype nonsense. Video Chatting shouldn’t need a additional apps. It was only a matter of time.

  • http://twitter.com/SenorDickhaus Señor Dickhäus

    Ironic that you made this post with a Nexus One in the photo…

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