At lunch today, Matt commented how he had this fancy smart phone with video call functionality but had never once made a video call and couldn’t see why anyone would possibly want to make a video call. Well, I couldn’t just let things go on that way. And, as it turns out, I also have a fancy smart phone with video call functionality that I have never used to make a video call.

I suggested that we should try a video call as we both sat on opposite ends of the table. Matt was up for the experience, so I keyed in his number and anxiously clicked the make video call button, unsure of what would happen. The phone rang, Matt answered, and after a few second pause to buffer the video, we had a video call streaming the tens of inches that separated us.

The video quality was surprisingly good, considering how underpowered phones can be. There was a noticeable delay of a few seconds between when words were spoken and when they were heard at the other end, which is a bit strange when you’re standing so close together.

I’m not sure if I will necessarily ever have a need to repeat this, but a good time was had by all—as several coworkers gathered behind either me or Matt to view this display of technological wizardry. But I have no idea how much this little experiment is going to cost on next month’s phone bill. 6 years ago