Skype or FaceTime

Hi -

Just got my parents a new Mac. They live in Ireland and we chat via Skype at the moment (their currently on a PC) - wondering if Facetime would be better?

I’ve never used FaceTime, any thoughts out there by way of comparison?

Thanks

The great thing about FaceTime is that it can be used on iOS devices without additional software.
Call from your Mac to iPhone/iPad or other Mac. Don’t work on Windows though :confused:

My girlfriend use it to call her sister everyday without issues as long as they both aren’t on a 3G network. If they are its laggy from time to time.

Other than the deeper integration of FaceTime in the Mac and iOS devices there doesn’t seem to be any big advantage but no obvious disadvantage either. Skype is an all in one solution, video, voice and message, you can also screen-share which may help if you need to show them something. Skype works with non-Apple hardware so it is good if your parents want to communicate with other people who may not have Apple devices or if you parents have non-Apple smartphones.

My children use FaceTime to contact me sometimes, for work I use Skype (and WebEx but that is too heavyweight for parent communication)

If it was me trying to choose and I was sure that they would only ever need to communicate with me from only their Mac - I could choose FaceTime. If I thought that things may change in the future, like they want to communicate with other friends and family or like they may want to communicate from another location and didn’t have their Mac available - I would probably encourage them to stay with Skype.

I am sure that they are happy with their new Mac either way.

HTH

We have Skype installed on iPads so thats not a problem.

Was wondering if there was a compelling reason to go to FaceTime - seems not… Thanks all.

facetime has a much better quality than skype.

FaceTime also works better with home routers. On MY parent’s Mac, FaceTime is the only protocol that works reliably. :stuck_out_tongue:

That is Strange As Skype has the same option to get through firewalls. As i understood, They use the same method. Port 80 or port 443 to access internet if they Can not connect to higher port. It could be that Skype is more known and has provided Companies an option to blok Skype.

Buy them a better router Greg. :slight_smile: Next anniversary, buy them a newer uPnP router and configure it correctly to avoid external attacks. :wink:

We tried that, no dice. I think the problem is actually upstream.

In my experience, the video quality is significantly better on Facetime than Skype.

I agree FaceTime is much better with video quality.
But, tell me if I’m wrong but I think that FaceTime doesn’t work without a camera (only sound calls).
And, Skype has upload and chat features that FaceTime don’t.
That said, I’m using Skype for professional use and FaceTime for personnal video calls (with people having iOS devices mostly)

Try Facetime from a Android device, a TV, a Windows or Linux PC, or game console. If you want universality, Facetime is not the guy. :slight_smile:

or Macs Valery