Does This Mean I Need to Wear Make-Up?: Gmail Launches Voice and Video Chat!

Straight from our brilliant friends at Google, today they launched Gmail voice and video chat! That's husband Sam and my peace fingers!

From Google's blog:
"Today we're launching voice and video chat -- right inside Gmail. We've tried to make this an easy-to-use, seamless experience, with high-quality audio and video -- all for free. All you have to do is download and install the voice and video plugin and we take care of the rest. And in the spirit of open communications, we designed this feature using Internet standards such as XMPP, RTP, and H.264, which means that third-party applications and networks can choose to interoperate with Gmail voice and video chat.

Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the "Video & more" menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose "Start video chat." You'll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it's ringing, and then you'll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail. You can click the "pop-out" icon to make the video larger, or click the fullscreen icon in the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience. See this all in action in the video below:


Free and easy to use!

All you need is a webcam. Have fun!