Not everyone is going to be comfortable trusting a camera- and mic-equipped product from Facebook, but the Portal TV is a powerful video-calling device for TVs. Unfortunately, neither are Google Duo/Meet nor Skype, which means that as clever as the Portal TV is, it’s not as flexible as we’d like. Naturally, because it’s a Facebook product, you can also initiate calls over Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.Ĭuriously, even though Amazon Alexa is built into Portal TV, Alexa-based video calls are not supported. You can use it to call other Facebook Portal devices, but it also works with other video-calling apps, too, like Zoom, BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, or Webex. The smart camera can automatically follow you as you move around the room, and built-in apps like Netflix and Spotify make it a handy alternative to other streaming devices. The company’s $100 Portal TV is a device that incorporates a webcam and microphones and perches atop your TV. It’s weird to think that Facebook, a company better known for its massive social media and messaging presence than for its hardware, has one of the best ways to video chat on your TV, but it does. How to make a video call on Facebook Portal TV The one catch is that, for the moment, the Duo app seems to be restricted to outgoing calls only.īecause the Chromecast with Google TV runs a version of Android TV, this little trick should work with any video-calling app that you can find on the Play Store, and possibly apps that can be sideloaded onto the device, but don’t count on it - as I said, none of this is officially supported by Google. From there, you simply load the Google Duo app from the Google Play store, and voila, you’ll now be able to make TV-based video calls with any other Google Duo user.

You can buy a USB hub and use it to connect a USB webcam to the streaming dongle. Google’s latest streaming media player, the $50 Chromecast with Google TV, is a superb and affordable media machine, but it also has an unadvertised (and unofficially supported) feature. Some are elegant, some are awkward, and none are perfect solutions.Ĭaleb Denison/Digital Trends How to make a video call on Google Chromecast with Google TV There are, however, several ways to get these calls onto a TV. And when I say ridiculous, I’m talking about how virtually none of the tech companies that make smart TVs, game consoles, or streaming media devices (yes, Microsoft, Apple, and Google, I’m looking at you) have stepped up to make video calling on a TV a task that’s as easy (and versatile) as doing it from a computer or smartphone. Smart TV, game console, or other streaming media deviceīut despite the prominence that video calling has gained, it’s remarkable that so few of us do this activity on the largest screens in the house: Our TVs.

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