Mobile phones are now commonplace, and it’s allowed us to do things that landlines would never have let us. Apart from making phone calls, there is a whole world wide web at our fingertips to do what we want to do. One of the best innovations was being able to have video calls.
You are now merely relying on someone’s voice to engage with them. You can see their facial expression and other non-verbal cues, adding to the conversational experience.
It, therefore, only makes sense for people to want to get more out of their mobile phones.
More people wish to know how they can get to enjoy video conferencing from the palm of their hands even when they don’t have a machine close by. You don’t want to talk to one person merely, but more people for a more enjoyable experience.
There are quite a few apps that can help with that, but we’ll look at how to do it overall.
1. Have high-speed internet
If you don’t enjoy buffering, then surely you don’t want lost video signal and the like when you have a video conferencing call. You want the image on your screen to be of good quality so that you can get the best experience that you want.
Before you start your video conferencing call, have a high-speed broadband internet connection, so you don’t have a poor-quality call. There are more people on the screen, and you want to see them the same.
The challenge with video conferencing that you don’t get with other apps is the amount of data that has to get sent through to transmit a video call. Add in audio, and you’ll need to have both adequate data and speeds too even to get connected to a call in the first place.
The reason why you’ll have a harder time on your phone, realistically speaking, is that our cellphones still use radio signals and also have limited bandwidth.
2. Be aware of the quality distortion
Even with your high-speed connection, you won’t get something as perfect as you would over your laptop or any other screen for that matter.
When our mobile phones are sending video files, they tend to get compressed.
What that means is your phone reduced the amount of digital information getting sent out to make it small enough to get it to another phone. Once it’s on the other phone, it gets decoded.
If you’ve sent over a compressed photo, you know that the visual quality suffers, and that tends to be the same with videos too. Thankfully, experts are working on ways to change that.
You don’t have to suffer a poor quality image to have a video conference on your mobile phone. There are two approaches typically taken.
There is the block-based compression where the video image is broken down into pixels.
The other is object-based compression, where the compression focuses more on moving objects and spends less time on stationary objects that don’t move per frame.
If your background is stationary, then the other parties will get better quality images. Even with these technological aspects, you want to choose a video conferencing app that applies these or similar aspects to ensure that you have enhanced images.
Additionally, you also want to check the company supplying you with the data. For example, Japan and other European countries have been ahead of the States when it comes to 4G and 5G.
Therefore, it’s not merely about upgrading your phone to these; it’s about looking at if you have cellphone towers in your area that can provide you with that.
Struggling with inaudibility and distortions? Try these conference call apps.
3. Have a conducive environment
Video conferencing your grandparents or even coworkers is fantastic, but not so much when you’re on the sidewalk or any other public space. You might have your earphones plugged in, but talking at a screen is still not something that’s typically done with strangers around.
It helps to be in a place where you can have a physical space to settle and have a conference call.
Something to keep in mind is that it doesn’t have to be a professional set up. You can also have a video call with your friends or family. Even so, something to remember is the concept, and the use is the same.
Even that, you can expect the standard of video quality on mobile phones on average to be 360p and 720p. There are also apps like Zoom that will allow you to have even as many as 25 people on a conference call even when you’re using a tablet.
You can also put in the HP option where you can. It helps to have a screen where, where possible, you can see what’s being presented on your end.
Your mobile phone might have a small screen, so if you know that you’re going to have presentations, then a tablet or something with a larger screen would make more sense.
4. Getting the right app
Google Meets, Google Duo, WhatsApp, and Microsoft Zoom are some of the applications that you can use to do video conferencing. What might help you, though, is working with apps that already have the mobile consideration in mind.
Their software is built to make sure that you have a good experience on the app. Another example is Facetime; you can have the same concept as well.
What make it work is that you can do things across apps too.
Something there’s also to consider is Facebook and Instagram. Though they have a cap on the number of people you can see, they still have a similar concept.
On Instagram Live, you can talk to one person at a time, but you can see chats from multiple people. It doesn’t take the form of where you can see everyone that you’re reaching online, but it still a form of video conferencing.
Wrap up
There’s much that has changed about video conferencing and the number of people you can reach.
When you’re with colleagues or family, you want to see everyone involved, but you can achieve the same aspect as people you can’t see. As the world continues to change, technological experts are looking for ways to adapt. We who need the services can only be thankful for that.
