Christmas is around the corner and there is a festive fervour in the air. Streets are all lit up and there is music and cheer on every block. The Holidays are here, making it the perfect time to connect with family and friends. But what will you do if most of your close people are in far-flung places? Don’t let geographical distance come in the way of connecting with family and friends. Use technology to bridge the distance.

With a plethora of video chatting options available in today’s technology-ridden world, you can easily and instantly connect with your close circle of people spread across the world. All you have to do is download a suitable video chatting app with good features and premium privacy setting features. In fact, you can go beyond just chatting and calling using video chatting portals. With the latest features in most apps you can now make your Christmas holiday complete with entertainment and enjoyment. Read on to find out the latest trends that have amped up the popularity charts of video chatting portals.

1. Chat rooms

Many of the chatting portals have a feature of adding multiple people onto a video call. This is a great way to connect with your gang of friends or the family group. But what is trending on video chatting portals are chat rooms. These are public chat rooms. They have been formed for a specific purpose. For instance, Camfrog has numerous chat rooms for various reasons like music, movies, travels and more. You can log onto them and join a discussion or share your ideas. You can also share pictures, interesting video and audio clippings. These chat rooms become an excellent way to network for jobs too.

Camfrog has also come up with another exciting feature as an addition to the chat rooms called the Roomcast. These are special messages sent through the portal to notify all the room members of the latest event. All the paid subscribers can avail of this feature.

You can also create your own chat room and invite people to join it. You can make it a theme-based chat room and have discussions and sharing on varied topics. It is best to stay away from controversial topics like religion and politics. Since Christmas is around the corner, you can join a choir group or carol singing chat room or create one yourself. This will add a lovely festive cheer to the otherwise cold and dreary winter.

 2. Video and audio filters

Some popular video chatting portals like Camfrog also have interesting video and audio filters that make chatting a whole lot of fun. The video filters can change the way you look. For instance, you can add a filter to get you dressed up for a conference, add proper makeup and do up the hair neatly. You can also add some theme-based filters like beach look, glitz and glam and a lot more. With Christmas in less than a month you could wear bright makeup or dress up as Santa Claus or his helpers and have a fun party.

In addition to video filters, many of the apps also have audio filters. Here you can tweak your voice to have some fun during video calls. Video chatting portals like SnapChat have some exciting video and audio filters for you to fiddle around with. These filters can make any video call so much more engaging and entertaining, especially when you want to have a virtual party or even to play a prank on somebody.

3. Virtual gifts and stickers

Can’t give your best friend a Christmas gift because of the geographical distance? Don’t worry! Now video chatting portals like Camfrog have bonus features for paid members like a variety of virtual gifts that can be sent to friends and family with a click of a button. You can also send these virtual gifts as an icebreaker to start a conversation with a stranger.

Some of these portals also have interactive and engaging emojis and stickers that make for fun conversation starters. Incorporate them in your chats and enjoy every moment.

4. Innovative backgrounds

Bored of the same old backdrop while chatting on a video call? Fret not; now video chatting portals have interesting IM backgrounds that can be used to add some colour and life to your conversations. You can use many theme-based backdrops during a virtual party. For instance, if you want to have an online beach party, add a beach backdrop with azure blue waters of the ocean and sandy beaches. It will give you the feel and vibe of a Caribbean island even though you may be in the cold, harsh snowy winter of Canada.

These backgrounds also act as a good camouflage if you are room or the setting is messy. For work calls, these backgrounds add to the official vibe and make the setting more serious. So choose the backdrop you want and add a layer of fun to your conversation.

5. For music connoisseurs

Nowadays, you don’t have to wait for your favorite artists to come to town for a concert. You can easily enjoy a concert sitting in your home using video chatting portals. So if you love music and want to enjoy a musical night with friends and family, make your favorite playlist and share it with your friends and listen to the music together over drinks and snacks.

If you like singing, you can also have a virtual karaoke night where you and your friends can croon to music through video chatting portals. Portals like Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. You will need to find the karaoke version of the song on YouTube and reduce the volume on the YouTube video to 30-40%. When it is your turn to sing, click the share screen and share it on your computer sound for everyone to hear and sing along!

 6. Enjoy movie nights this Christmas

It is great to get together with family and friends to enjoy a late-night movie or binge- watch a TV series, especially in the winter. But if you have friends and family in far-flung places, you have to resort to the virtual medium for such entertainment.

Technology and video chatting portals have made it easy to enjoy virtual movie binging sessions through portals like Netflix and YouTube. You can choose the movie you want to watch and sync the time and share the screen to watch it together.

There are other movie viewing portals, too, like Chrome extension scener. You can watch videos and movies from YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, Alamo, and more after setting up a chat room. You can watch your friend’s faces too while seeing the movie as they appear in the right-hand pane. YouTube Sync is another popular choice when it comes to film party nights. It embeds any YouTube video of your choice into a lobby, where you can invite your friends. Share the URL to the lobby with your friends and watch the same video at the same time. Isn’t that brilliant! So these Christmas holidays, download some fun Christmas movies and watch them with your near and dear ones through the online medium.

7. Virtual travel the world

Enjoy armchair travel thanks to technology that lets you explore the world from your home. YouTube is the best platform to roam around the world. From going deep into the Great Barrier Reef to climbing the Himalayan mountain range without mountaineering gear and swimming with the sharks without the danger of drowning and getting eaten. All this is possible through technology. So don’t let the pandemic or the harsh winter come in the way of your travel plans.

Plan a trip anywhere in the world thanks to video chatting portals and virtual travel videos. Take your friends and family along and make this Christmas an exciting time to see the world.

8. Party to your heart’s content

With the Christmas holidays starting soon, you might want to connect and meet up with friends. But what about those who live across the world? Even if you can’t reach out to them physically, you surely can meet them virtually and party all night. Video chatting apps like Houseparty and Netflixparty are made for precisely that purpose.

You can use these portals to play games, dance to your favorite songs, or simply watch movies together. Houseparty was made during the social distancing times to host large groups of people via video chats. You can share your screen with friends and also play games directly through the app. Some of the popular games are Heads Up! and Chips & Guac. These video chatting apps are truly the next best thing to hanging out in person. So block your virtual happy hour right away and make your Christmas holidays fun and exciting.

Many portals have classic board games too. So if you love board games and are far away from friends to play with, try out some board games apps and add them as an extension to your video chatting portals. For instance, Bord Game is a no-registration way to play board games online on a video call. It has all-time favorite games like Ludo, Snakes & Ladders, Chess and many more.

Checklist to get the best video chatting portal

Now that you know the latest trends and features of video chatting portals, it is only prudent to download a few of them based on the below-mentioned checklist. This is a foolproof way to protect yourself from any fraud and yet find the most cost-effective and feature-heavy video chatting app to enjoy this Christmas.

1. Safety and security

First and foremost, look out for the safety feature of any video chatting portal. Ensure that the app has strict privacy policies and firewalls that can restrict any unwarranted movement. All the chats should be end-to-end encrypted. Some of the better video chatting portal’s like Camfrog follow Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation or California’s Consumer Privacy Act. These ensure transparency and also that the data cannot be collected by third parties.

Read through the privacy policy carefully and look through the fine print with a magnifying glass, as many of the apps have hidden costs and terms in small print. It would be a good idea to read user reviews before signing into an app.

2. Cost-effectiveness

Read through the charges of different video chatting portals before deciding on the one that you want to download. Many of them have good features in the free version too. You could try out these before signing up for a paid subscription. In some portals, you are given a 14-day free trial period of the paid version. These are the best portals as you can experience all the features before paying up for them.

3. Compatibility with devices

Look out for a video chatting portal compatible with different platforms like Android, Windows, iOS and Linux. This is a much-needed feature as you will want to change your device and its OS in the future. It is also essential to update the app to the latest version as it will take less space and be much faster.

4. Multilingual support

Most of the video chatting portals are available in the universal language – English. However, if you are not comfortable with English, lookout for a video chatting app that supports different languages. It will allow you to interact with ease and give the option of reaching out to people from different countries and regions. Camfrog offers this feature and hence is hugely popular all over the world.

Takeaway

With such entertaining features that good video chatting portals like Camfrog offer, video chatting is sure to be a fun activity to keep yourselves engaged this Christmas vacation. Ensure you download a safe and feature-heavy video chatting app that can not only connect you with known people but also with strangers. Cheers to celebrating Christmas with people near and far thanks to video chatting apps.