Google’s latest streaming media player, the $50 Chromecast with Google TV, is a superb and affordable media machine, but it also has an unadvertised (and unofficially supported) feature: You can buy a USB hub and use it to connect a USB webcam to the streaming dongle.įrom there, you simply load the Google Duo app from the Google Play store, and voila, you’ll now be able to make TV-based video calls with any other Google Duo user.
Google Chromecast with Google TV Caleb Denison/Digital Trends This solution doesn’t have the Portal TV’s fancy tracking smart camera (unless you buy a USB webcam that has this feature) and you’re limited to calling folks with Alexa devices, but if you already own a Fire TV Cube, or you were thinking of buying one, this is yet another benefit to owning one. You can use Alexa to initiate and end calls, as well as tell her you’d like to turn the camera on or off.
Amazon Fire TV Cube Bill Roberson/Digital TrendsĪmazon makes several great Fire TV streaming devices, but its $120 Fire TV Cube has one very cool feature that helps it stand out from the streaming device pack: You can buy an inexpensive USB webcam, hook it up to the Cube, and use the device to make free two-way video calls with anyone with an Alexa-equipped smartphone, tablet, Echo Show, or Echo Spot. Not everyone is going to be comfortable trusting a camera- and mic-equipped product from Facebook, but the Portal TV is a powerful video-calling device for TVs. Unfortunately, neither are Google Duo/Meet or Skype, which means that as clever as the Portal TV is, it’s not a flexible as we’d like. Curiously, even though Amazon Alexa is built into Portal TV, Alexa-based video calls are not supported.
Naturally, because it’s a Facebook product, you can also initiate calls over Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. You can use it to call other Facebook Portal devices, but it also works with other video-calling apps too, like Zoom, BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, or Webex.
The smart camera can automatically follow you as you move around the room, and built-in apps like Netflix and Spotify make it a handy alternative to other streaming devices.
The company’s $150 Portal TV is a device that incorporates a webcam and microphones and perches atop your TV. It’s weird to think that Facebook, a company better known for its massive social media and messaging presence than for its hardware, has one of the best ways to video chat on your TV, but it does.
Some are elegant, some are awkward, but none are perfect solutions. There are, however, several ways to get these calls onto a TV. And when I say ridiculous, I’m talking about how virtually none of the tech companies that make smart TVs, game consoles, or streaming media devices (yes, Microsoft, Apple, and Google, I’m looking at you) have stepped up to make video calling on a TV a task that’s as easy (and versatile) as doing it from a computer or smartphone. And even if we finally get back to “normal” once COVID-19 herd immunity has been achieved, there’s a very good chance that video calling will remain a key tool in both our careers and our personal lives.īut despite the prominence that video calling has gained, it’s remarkable that so few of us do this activity on the largest screens in the house: Our TVs. It’s hard to think of one technology that has been more central to our lives over the last year than video calling.