What could I switch to (on both Mac and PC) that would give me better video chat functionality?
Edit: Just to clarify, here's what I'm looking for:
1. Free plan; available everywhere in the world (I have family outside the US).
2. Both Mac and PC clients that are actually good.
3. Video chat quality (including noise filtering and such) that matches or exceeds what Skype can do.
4. IM-like client that supports text, voice, and video chat. This disqualifies business-type solutions that are geared around groups pre-scheduling meetings. I just want to see who's online and send them an IM or video chat request.
I've used https://meet.jit.si/ for quite some time now... nothing to install, no flash, only needs a plugin if you want to screen-share, works on all platforms.
They were bought by Atlassian recently and they used it to replace the HipChat video/audio chat function.
I'm not sure yet whether you can also use it with the jitsi desktop clients (https://jitsi.org/) seamlessly, but it'd make sense :)
FaceTime is Mac only. Join.me seems geared towards business users and pre-arranged meetings -- I want something more like an IM client where I can see who's online and ask to video chat with them. Also, join.me doesn't seem to have a free plan (only a free trial.)
Signal actually looks great, but their Mac/PC client has been in beta since 2015 and isn't linked from the homepage -- I had to dig it up on their blog. Also, video chat has been in beta since March 2017. It's not clear if their beta non-phone client supports the beta video chat. Still, I'm digging their encryption.
I don't mean to shit over your suggestions, I really am looking for something better. But so far, nothing seems like a clear winner.
I can second that zoom.us is a very good alternative ... it's not really a chat application but for multiuser confcalls or video calls it's miles ahead of the competition like gotomeetings or skype.
I personally don't know anybody using it past early 2016. It's all Whatsapp, Messenger, Telegram (but many people don't know what it is) and Skype on the desktop. Snapchat among the kids.
>A lot of people have iPhones and many these days now have Macs.
Not really here in Germany. iOS has about 20% of the market, Android the other 80%.
macOS is at about 8%.
Anecdotally, even discounting that I have neither, of the 20 or so people I'd realistically want to chat with (friends and family), two have iPhones and one has a mac.
Plus: What happens when they switch? Or when I want to switch?
Also, I don't really want to use multiple applications.
In the US, many people have the iPhones and iPads. For professionals worldwide at least in developed countries, it makes sense to use iPhones which are far, far more secure than Android platforms, especially when taking into account total cost of ownership, the monthly fee for cell service on a high quality network.
In professional settings, the Mac is becoming a more popular platform, IBM is converting many Thinkpads over to Macs.
Many in Europe, even the young, smoke cigarettes which are very costly with the taxes. I'd suggest for both health reasons and using money for better purposes to quit smoking cigarettes and use the money for iPhones (and Macs).
A pack of Marlboros in Germany is about $8 per pack according to Wikipedia.
My daily cost for being on the Verizon (top cell provider, esp in NYC) network and having Verizon yearly upgrade for latest iPhone is $5 per day. Upgrading to latest MacBook 15" Pro from recent model is about $2 to $3 per day.
The Macs, iPhones, and iPads play much better together as an ecosystem.
Edit: Just to clarify, here's what I'm looking for:
1. Free plan; available everywhere in the world (I have family outside the US).
2. Both Mac and PC clients that are actually good.
3. Video chat quality (including noise filtering and such) that matches or exceeds what Skype can do.
4. IM-like client that supports text, voice, and video chat. This disqualifies business-type solutions that are geared around groups pre-scheduling meetings. I just want to see who's online and send them an IM or video chat request.