My wife and I get together with my in-laws, Robin’s sister, and her husband about once a month or so. During this virus time, we have not been able to do so. You see they live in Chesapeake, VA and we are in Harrisonburg, VA. It is about a four-hour trip. But travel is not something we are doing right now. So, we have not gotten together recently.
One evening last week, during one of the few nice nights out, one of us decided to call the other and shoot the breeze. After about ten minutes of me and the brother-in-law kibitzing on the ladies’ conversation, Robin’s sister had a great thought.
She said, “Hey, I read an article on the internet about using Zoom.” I said, “Hey I just wrote one on that.” Then she chastened me by saying she knew I wrote it, that was the article she read…oops! Embarrassment ensued.
At that point, I said I would set up and send her a Zoom.us meeting. At that moment my iPad toned then she said the tone I just got was the Facetime meeting she had already sent. Well, heck, sometimes us geeks are out-teched by the normal (non-geeky) people. She beat me, drat!
Facetime is the communications app built into all Apple devices. She almost immediately had a meeting going. The in-laws were on two separate phones one in their front yard the other inside the house. While my wife and I were sharing an iPad on the back deck. A three-device meeting set up in less than a minute by a non-technical person.
We talked about all the family stuff going on, kids, grandkids other relatives, when we will get together after this stuff is over and well you know…family minutiae. Almost, two hours later, after dark, we all said our goodbyes until next time. Which hopefully will be much sooner than the last time.
Two reasons for writing about this. One, you too can get together, almost face to face with your family and friends online. You only need a smartphone, tablet (my favorite), or a computer. And people you want to talk to and be with if only on a screen. The distance and the amount of time it takes to get there do not matter in the slightest. When we were talking to the family, we could see them sharp and clear and they could even see me making goofy faces at them. Just like real life. Yes, I know, no hugging, kissing, shaking hands, and the other things we need as humans but a lot better than the old scratchy, expensive, long-distance call (for those of you old enough to remember those times).
The second thing I would like to bring to your attention is the ease with which they are started. I just tested my timing. From the time I started downloading Zoom (yes, another app) to my Android phone to the time I had a meeting started took less than 2 minutes. Keep in mind, if you already have it downloaded it takes much less time.
I guess a third point should be added here. There are many alternatives to choose from in the video meeting type of apps; Discord, Duo, Facetime, Google Meet (which just went free this past week), Hangouts, Jitsi, RingCentral, Slack, Teams, and Zoom to name a few off the top of my head. Most all of them have a free offering that may have some limits but are still great ways to get together in our temporary new world.
