If video calling is so good why aren’t we all using it?

Many years ago when video calls were first introduced on mobile phones it was mooted, much like it had been for its forerunners text messaging (SMS) and picture messaging (MMS), to be the next big thing. The use of SMS has continued to grown and MMS (on those networks that allow it) has now become popular. Video calling, on the other hand, is hardly ever used.

Nokia E71 Smart Phone

The slow take-up was initially due to very few phones supporting it, then there was the cost. It is now available on the majority of modern phones, however, and the costs, while still high, have dropped. The most recent batches of smart phones can also run the likes of Skype so if you’re connected via Wi-Fi video calls are free. Still, I don’t know anyone who has made one.

I think there is another reason for this. You see the age of doing one thing at a time has gone. Now we listen to music when we drive, we watch TV while we eat. At the moment video calls take us in the opposite direction, offering something we have to exclude everything else to do. Voice calls, on the other hand, we can do while we walk around, cook or garden. It’s the same reason why it’s easier to listen to an audio book than read the electronic version.

Business conferencing and web cam’s are still going to be the places where video is used, but for the majority of calls on mobile phones video still fails to add any value. Cameras in glasses or eyes will change this but they are many years away. In the meantime the camera mounted on the face of your phone will, I suspect, remain unused.