Video E-Mail

Video news feeds, movie trailers, streaming audio and video websites are all becoming a normal part of our web surfing experience.

If you want to see it, Google it and you’re on your way to visual satisfaction. With so much streaming media already in place, it may seem hard to imagine that anything has been missed.

Voice read email is already common, whereby emails can be read to you by specialised programs.

Some services even translate text and call your mobile or landline number to deliver your messages. But technology now offers the option to both see and hear those who email you.

The concept itself isn’t new. Its first rendition was in the idea of video phone calls, which came and went mostly due to weak back-end server systems which couldn’t sustain multiple simultaneous transmissions and the cost of equipment for both the sender and receiver to use these services.

And you may think that video emails would be superfluous since video chats have been in the mainstream since the 1990’s.

But what makes video email different is that technology has caught up to our imaginations. And with the aid of a webcam, microphone and some spare change, you can send personal video messages which don’t require your recipient to be online at the same time you are.

How it works:

It’s that simple.

But in order to choose the right service provider, several factors should be considered, the first being cost.

Reasonable services will charge in the range of £0.50 to £2.50 per message and are largely based on how long your video message is: the longer the message, the longer it will take to view, in terms of the recipient downloading the video plus playback length.

And the old saying that ‘you get what you pay for’ applies strongly with video email service providers. A provider may seem appealing in terms of cost, but outdated servers will create more headache than value since slow server response time will frustrate viewers. Therefore, you should the prospective service provider what their hardware specs are before paying money for their streaming email services.

Ease of use should also be factored in to your decision. If the software provided is complicated or even worse ‘buggy’, you will be less likely to use it regularly. So, test out a few different video email providers to avoid any nasty surprises.

Though video email might seem frivolous to some of us, it can provide an important means of connection between distant loved ones who are separated not only by miles but also by time zones. Overall, the service can create an important sense of personality in the otherwise bland, black and white world of regular email.