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Have you ever found yourself at a distance from friends or loved ones, wishing you could
talk to them, face-to-face, from afar?
That’s where Google video chat comes in.
Google video chat lets you see people while you talk to them, using your computer, for
free. I’m going to walk you through 3 steps to get started.
But before we do that, let’s review what you’ll need: 1. a webcam, 2. speakers or
earphones, 3. a microphone, and 4. a Gmail account. Take a moment to make sure you
have all of this.
Great. Let’s get cookin’
First, you’ll need to download a piece of software so that your computer will know how
to videochat. This is called Voice & Video Chat Plug-In. Click here to download it.
Once you’ve installed this plugin, it’ll ask you to restart your browser. This should
only take a minute.
After your browser opens up again, go ahead and log-in to Gmail at www.gmail.com.
Next, take a look at the Chat section on the left hand side of your screen.
To add a contact, type in their Gmail address. Or if you’ve already added them, click
their name to start chatting with them.
Finally, click the video icon in the chat window to start a video chat. Once they
accept, a video will appear above the chat box. For a bigger view, you can pop out
the window by clicking the arrow in the corner.
Well, that’s about it. Now you know how to video chat in Gmail! For a handy printable
guide of these instructions, click here.
And for more information, visit google.com/chat/video.