Audio and video calls
Communicating in the digital age means more than text messages.
You can use Jitsi to make audio and video calls to one user or to several users on both SIP and XMPP networks. While this works flawlessly if all contacts are on a Linux machine, the tool was unable to send video to its Windows counterpart. Apart from chat backups, the program supports making an MP3 backup of your audio conversations.
GNURing supports its native Ring as well as SIP accounts and you can use either to connect with your contacts. As soon as you initiate a video call, the chat window is replaced with a webcam capture. Clicking the Adjust Video Quality button present a slider, not unlike the volume control common to all desktops. You can alter this slider’s position to enhance the video quality, if your internet connection permits it. However, the controller doesn’t depict the resolution or size of the video transmission.
You can also choose to record the audio of the conversation. Note that the tool only supports one outgoing call at a time, and will automatically put on hold a call if you initiate calls with another user.
As with GNURing and Jitsi, OpenMeetings also provides excellent audio/video transmission. Whereas GNURing takes a long time to connect with fellow users, for OpenMeetings you must properly configure the email components, so that you can send invitations to users. The tool automatically keeps the window sizes small so as to enable multiple users to connect without cluttering the interface. Users must create a unique account on your OpenMeetings installation and can’t connect using accounts on services such as XMPP, SIP and so on.
If you’re exploring the tabs and receive an incoming call from a contact, uTox doesn’t automatically jump to the relevant contact to enable you to answer or reject the call. The program also doesn’t show any notifications by default, except for the default ringtone to announce incoming calls. You must manually navigate to the contacts list and answer the call.
You also can’t do conference calls with uTox. The feature however is supported by Tox, and is offered by some other under development alternative Tox clients. While uTox supports sharing snapshots of your desktop and even files with your contacts, the said feature doesn’t work on the current version of the desktop app. Interestingly enough, the software has no difficulty accepting incoming transfers from the Android Antox client.