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11 Tricks for Making Video Chats With Friends More Fun and Immersive
By Editorial Staff
Video chatting is a convenient way to talk to friends, and new innovations make it more fun than ever to stay in touch.
1. Mess with the Effects
Distort reality by changing the filters or effects on your screen. Video chat services like iChat for Mac users or Tango for Androids even let you edit or distort the image, kind of like a funhouse mirror. You can go from being black and white to having frog eyes with a click of a button. Your friends will love messing with the controls and trying out new extra-terrestrial looks.
2. Play Video Games Together
Now you can have your friend in the corner of the screen while you play games together. You can make distracting faces to throw friends off their game, or watch everyone’s reaction when you win.
3. Enter a Virtual World
Enter a totally new persona and walk around a virtual world with your friends. It’ll be just like hanging out, but in a totally different kind of setting. Using a program like Personify, you can create a shared digital space for meetings or chats with friends. You’ll spend hours just creating the perfect hangout space for all your buds.
4. Take Out the Background
Get rid of unnecessary clutter by deleting the space behind you. With Intel® RealSense™ technology, you can cut yourself out of the original picture to minimize distractions.
5. Add New Backgrounds
Once you remove your old background, you’re free to add a new one. You can make it appear like you’re calling from anywhere in the world—or even outer space. The change of scenery will add a whole new layer to your conversation; your location in the middle of the jungle is sure to be a conversation topic.
6. Use Avatars
Ever want to look like a pirate? Thanks to facial recognition technology, you can communicate with a totally different face. The Intel® Pocket Avatars app records your facial expressions and maps them onto a variety of different characters. All the movements your face makes, the avatar will make, so it will be just like you’re actually a talking cow.
7. Bring Up Models
When working on something like interior design, you can bring up models and blueprints to better communicate your ideas. With Intel RealSense technology, you can interact with 3D models with the sweep of your hand.
8. Send Pictures
Pull the pictures right onto the screen for fast and interactive sharing. Now your friends can see pictures from your last vacation while you describe it—just like a virtual slideshow.
9. Share Your Screen
If you need help with something on your computer, hand the controls over to a friend. Screen sharing is great when the person assisting you is too far away to do it in person. You can also use it to help illustrate your point, or show what’s going on on your computer.
10. Put on a Disguise
Some video chat platforms give you options to dress up conversation by giving yourself a digital makeover. With Google Hangouts, for instance, you can access props that you can “wear” on the screen. The next time you talk with friends, you can wear a monocle or cowboy hat to mix things up.
11. Send Videos
Instead of the annoying process of sending links and opening new windows, send videos right through webchat. You can even super-impose yourself over the videos and pretend to react to whatever’s going on. Picture pretending to be underwater, or in the Wild West.
From reconnecting with family to keeping in touch with friends, the immersive video chat options made possible by Intel® RealSense™ technology are poised to change the way we communicate. Learn more here.