A video call where you can see the face
Answer and make a video call on the tablet, sit it somewhere the camera flatters you, and know which button ends it and which one only mutes it.
A video call on a phone gives you a face about the size of a matchbox, held at arm’s length, wobbling. The same call on a propped-up tablet gives you a head roughly life-size, sitting still on the table while you have your tea.
That difference is not a small one. It is the difference between a call that feels like a duty and one that feels like a visit. It is also the single strongest reason to own a tablet at all.
Key points
- Answer a video call, or decline it without feeling rude
- Mute yourself and hide your picture mid-call, and put both back
- Turn the other person up when you cannot quite hear them
- Set the tablet to ring when it is asleep, and put your people at the top of the list
What to remember
- The row of buttons along the bottom is the same in every calling app: microphone, camera, speaker, and the red one at the end.
- Camera off is the polite pause. The call stays up, the conversation stays alive, and nothing has to be started again.
- Putting two or three people in Favorites is what turns "I must call her sometime" into a call actually made.
Try this
Prop your own tablet on something at eye height with a window or lamp in front of you, and ring one person for five minutes. Notice how much larger the face is than on a phone. That is the whole argument for the tablet.
Practice: A video call where you can see the face. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.