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Comment by midoridensha | Hacker News Reader

The article discusses the picture-phone in 2001 as if it's commonplace technology today, but it really isn't. It's available, but people don't actually use it much outside of Zoom meetings for work. I've tried getting my family to use video chats to keep in touch since I live so far away from them, and either they can't be bothered (they just want to use voice, no video, and even this is rare), or they use their phone held in their hand so all I see is a blurry, shaky image far worse than the worst shaky-cam movie you can think of. We have the technical means to have great video chats, but we don't really use them; instead, people now prefer to communicate solely by text message, so we're effectively going back to something like a fancy telegraph.

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The Facebook Portal (2018-22) was the greatest home videophone.

When it came out, I was living in a different country than the rest of our extended family. We got three Portals for Christmas: one for us, one for each of the grandparents. All of us still use the devices regularly to call other as well as other people.

The UI is grandma- and kid-friendly with big clear buttons and nothing extra. The camera is very good for family video calls because it’s a fisheye that’s digitally cropped and corrected to provide automatic pan and zoom. The kids can run to the other end of the room, and the Portal will automatically follow them and crop the image neatly.

The Facebook brand probably did it no favors, and they really dropped the ball during Covid by not having Zoom available until very late in the game.

RIP sweet dedicated family videophone. With how much money Meta lost on this, I don’t suppose anyone will try again anytime soon.

My mom struggles with FaceTime apps, and a FaceTime appliance would solve those issues for her.

My cousins use it in their family and love the product. It’s funny though that my aunt saw it at an Amazon store in the Mall, went to Apple Store to see if they had one, then went back and bought like 9 portals.

It boggles the mind that there isn’t a FaceTime video unit!

We went with the Lenovo Smart screen and used Google Duo. It worked really great. I would have preferred some dedicated buttons but we were able to get our 90 year old great grandmother to use it. Alas this was backed by Google and they no longer think Duo is fun.

It seems that everyone want to be on the video conference market but no-one wants to cater to simple point-to-point calling.

I really hoped the SIP standard would rule the world by now. But that did not happen either.

As a family distributed globally we jumped on FaceTime for video calls early on. Each family had an iPad (later a few had iPhones too) and the UI was grandparent friendly. Actually seeing, as opposed to just hearing, my nephews grow up was fantastic. Being able to see art they made at school, see fancy dress costumes, etc. made the family feel much closer - despite 8hrs time difference.

>The Facebook Portal (2018-22) >RIP sweet dedicated family videophone.

Wow, this reminds me of Google: another great-sounding thing I didn't hear about until after it was canceled.

I think that's just your family- and friend-group or maybe local culture. My family and friends are always making video calls on WhatsApp. Probably more common than voice calls, but less than audio messages.

> It's available, but people don't actually use it much outside of Zoom meetings for work

This is just your environment. There are some cultures which embraced videocalls so much it's annoying to be around because, surprise! you can't make a quiet videocall in public.

When I spot someone doing a video call while walking, I am always expecting them to bump into something.

> you can't make a quiet videocall in public.

I find video calls annoying when out in public because a) I don't want to be looking at my screen if I'm moving about and b) I probably don't want to hold my phone still enough to be worth anyone looking at me while out

But... as long as you use earphones not speakerphone, there's no need for it to be any louder than just a regular phone call? I guess maybe you meant that most people wouldn't bother using headphones at all... but tbh I see more people using speaker for voice calls than video calls, nearly every video call I see someone doing on public does involve headphones/earphones.

We have friends from an ethnic community who have a large extended family scattered all over the east coast and California. They literally have an all day Zoom meeting that about a dozen people are in at any given time. It’s kinda nuts but also really cool.

> The article discusses the picture-phone in 2001 as if it's commonplace technology today, but it really isn't. It's available, but people don't actually use it much outside of Zoom meetings for work.

Before Covid this was definitely true. However, since early 2020 there has been a significant trend of people turning their cameras on during conference calls. And not just for work, my local AFOL club has weekly zoom meetings where most participants use video. Family members will sometimes do a group video chat on FB.

I likely participate in more video calls per week than sci-fi writers and scientists of the 1960's imagined, mainly because the incremental cost today is zero (we pay for it whether we use it or not).

> people now prefer to communicate solely by text message, so we're effectively going back to something like a fancy telegraph.

While true, I don't think that makes video calls an irrelevant novelty.

I live on the east coast and my siblings live on the west coast of the USA. We mostly do video calls.

One time, must be at least 5 years ago, I was waiting for a bus in Flushing, NY and watched a woman doing one-handed sign language (eg. Not talking) on a video call walking down Main Street.

My future is amazing

My teenager doesn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t FaceTime. I can’t get her to call on the phone - she video calls everyone (Of course she texts as well).

I feel this may be a generational shift, especially when you also consider the terrible spam problem that the phone system has.

I think of the classic sci-fi depiction of "picture phones", and they are almost exclusively a device mounted on a wall, much like the original telephone. Maybe it's just a usability issue, in that holding a phone pointing at yourself is a bit annoying?

Colossus: The Forbin Project had videophones everywhere, but they were shaped like tiny terminals, placed on desktops, and there is at least one scene where a someone wants to use the device and moves it to face them, so the devices are not fastened.

These sound similar to the video intercoms in Star Trek (1966). They sit on desktops and can rotate.

Those can rotate, but they are not discrete units, and can not be moved around on the desk.

It also has A.I.s that concoct their own language so that they can conspire on the Q.T.

When does that happen ?

At 21:50, 29:49, and at 33:08.

Everyone had a video phone in Space: 1999; it was called a Comlock. It could open doors and communicate via video. It would take another 11 years for iPhones to catch up! Sadly those people living on the moon in 1999 would never get to see one.

https://catacombs.space1999.net/main/cguide/umcomlock.html

> We have the technical means to have great video chats, but we don't really use them; instead, people now prefer to communicate solely by text message, so we're effectively going back to something like a fancy telegraph.

The humble, asynchronous text message is tremendously efficient in helping people decide if it is worth having a synchronous call/video call.

> It's available, but people don't actually use it much outside of Zoom meetings for work.

FaceTime, Telegram, Google Meet and the video call button on my burner android all would like to disagree.

My girlfriend facetimes her friends pretty frequently, and her 70-year-old mom every day. They both hold their phones in their hands but the image isn't all that blurry or shaky.

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