Paltalk Video Chat – eliminating some of the “creepy” in group chat with Video Chat over cellular & Wi-Fi
by Toni McQuilken
Apr 24, 2012 9:55 AM –
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Paltalk Video Chat is the first Android application which offers multi-view video capability in chat rooms. It also allows you to make free audio and video calls over 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi.
Price: Free
Tested on: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- A free video chat app to hear and see the people you’re talking to!
Cons
- While at first glance, there are a lot of categories, when you start drilling down, there aren’t many rooms within them.
- The rooms themselves only have a few people, at most, in them.
- The conversations in the rooms I went in to all felt very… teenager. As an adult, there wasn’t anything to keep me interested – and none of them were talking about the topic of the room. It was PG, but not interesting.
Features:
Paltalk Video Chat is basically a chat room that allows you to talk to and use video to see the people in the room, instead of just anonymous typing. You can choose to just type and listen, if you’d rather not be seen or heard, but the options are there. This does cut down on the kind of not-PG-rated conversation that many chat rooms tend to descend to fairly quickly, since it’s a lot harder to tell someone you’re a 15 year old model when they can see and hear that you’re a 40 year old guy. That being said, the conversations I tried were all very, very boring. They were, to me, the kinds of conversations awkward teenagers have with each other. There was no real substance.
It didn’t help that while at first glance there are a lot of different rooms with various topics, when you start to drill down, you realize there aren’t really many rooms, if any, in each category, and in those, there are, maybe 2-3 people. The topics themselves aren’t very interesting to begin with, and then, within them, the conversations had nothing to do with the actual topic, that I heard.
Content aside, the app worked pretty well for me – I had no problems with the audio or video, and never had anything freeze or not work.
Watch on Mobile
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Paltalk Registration
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Paltalk How To
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Paltalk Chat
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Paltalk Browse
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Paltalk Categories
Usefulness:
I don’t really think this is a very useful app, honestly, unless you are looking for awkward, stilted conversation that has almost no substance at all. Maybe this can be useful if you’re bored and want to engage in a conversation with someone.
Ease of Use:
It was very easy to use. I had no problems setting up the account or moving between rooms. And in the rooms themselves, I had no problems communicating with the other people there.
Frequently Used:
After the first use, I wasn’t very interested in going back, but if you do find a group you like, I could see it being something you check in to chat with friends on a daily basis. I could even foresee it being used for constructive activities like book reading clubs, group discussions, town hall meetings, public debates, etc.
Interface:
The interface was actually very clean and well laid out. It was easy to navigate, and I never had to wonder where something was.