The Best (and Worst) Movie Talk Apps for Android OS Devices – Best Movie Talk Apps for Android OS: Part Two
The Best (and Worst) Movie Talk Apps for Android OS Devices
Tango is effectively the “naked bones” choice for movie calling. Alone out of all of the apps discussed here, it has no options for VoIP to standard phone numbers. You can only call other Tango users.
Tango also strips out group movie calling, and even IM via text. The only choices are movie calling, voice calling, and “movie messages” (sort of like a form of movie email, in that the other party doesn't need to be present to get the message).
This app's plainness gives it a much less mercenary feel than you get from most of its competitors. Lacking some of the higher end features, Tango isn't permanently upselling you on “premium” memberships, credits, and recurring fees.
It does suggest a few petite premium options — to send cartoons or to expand your movie message inbox, for example — but they're hardly necessary for liking the app or for using its basic features.
Qik is different from most of these other apps in that it's not primarily a movie talk application. It can do that, true, but its concentrate lies elsewhere. The main purpose of Qik is broad dissemination of movie.
The app is chiefly designed to let you record and upload your movies to Qik servers, or to sync them to your desktop. Qik also boasts about the capability to stream live movie, and to upload or stream through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Unluckily, however, there are some big drawbacks. For one, Qik's self-proclaimed compatibility is fairly dodgy. Not only is there no desktop client, Qik is also limited in its support for Android devices. T-Mobile users need not apply for the regular app. (Qik is only available on T-Mo as the carrier's branded “T-Mobile Movie Talk” service, and then only for an added fee.)
Qik also lacks support entirely for many popular Android devices, including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Motorola XOOM, Motorola Droid Bionic, and Motorola Photon. Also, it doesn't support any devices which don't have a built-in cellular internet connection, such as the Samsung Galaxy Player Five.
Worse, even if your device is listed as compatible, there's no assure that Qik will work correctly. On the Samsung Stratosphere which is my individual phone, an attempt to record and upload even a few seconds of movie was met with inexplicable and total failure. Someone else might have a different practice. However, I for one don't want an app that I can't use.
Last on the list is Paltalk. Like Qik, it attempts to distinguish itself with an individual spin. In addition to featuring basic movie calling, Paltalk intensely emphasizes a number of movie “talk rooms,” where you can log in, talk with others, and share your camera's movie if you want.
Unluckily, as you might expect, I wouldn't exactly call that much of a selling point. Mixing the anonymous intellectual vapidity of Internet talk rooms with displaying your face to strangers seems only likely to appeal to socially starved agoraphobics.
The rest of Paltalk's features don't compensate. Its UI is nothing special. Paltalk fails to keep settings after you've chosen them, and you could wait forever attempting to log in to the service. Like Qik, Paltalk strikes me as a gimmick which isn't well backed up by solid features.
As in any field where lots of contenders are attempting to make names for themselves, movie talk apps are fraught with hits and misses. All in all, it's clear why Skype proceeds to predominate the market.
However, ooVoo does make a compelling alternative for those who want something identically full-featured. Meantime, you can get even lower rates for VoIP calls with Fring, if you can put up with the UI. I would certainly give a healthy recommendation to Tango, which offers a nice, easy-to-use movie talk app and doesn't keep attempting to jiggle more money out of you. But you should skip Qik and Paltalk, at least until the bugs are worked out and the feature sets get better balanced.