CamDip Free Group Video Chat
CamDip is a Free Group video chat application, that anyone can use.
There is no download or installation required for the application to be used, everything happens directly inside the web browser. Just fire up your web browser and you’re all set!
The application needs Adobe Flash Player 10.3 to be installed on the user’s computer, because it leverages the latest acoustic echo cancellation feature included in this version of Adobe Flash Player. This enables anyone to have great quality audio calls without having to use a headset. You can in fact use the microphone built in your webcam and still keep the echo to a minimum, if not completely eliminated.
How it works?
The idea of the application is very simple: one connects to the application, starts it if it doesn’t start automatically (the user has the option to make the application to start automatically on a successive load), creates a new group (when the application start automatically, a new group is also created, making this step redundant) and send the link of the group to the other users, which in turn they’ll use it to merely load the url’s (links) in their web browsers. They will be automatically be connected to the group.
The application interface is quite simple, but it offers a lot of features and settings.
A very nice new addition is the possibility for one to connect with his Facebook account (Note that this is not required nor any other authentication method is required in order to use CamDip). This integration with Facebook was added to simplify the process of inviting friends (sending the group’s link) to one’s created group. Once a group was created, the link can be send to Facebook friends directly from within the application, and they can connect be simply clicking the Accept button on the invitation inside Facebook.
The User Interface
The User Interface is very simple and arranged in such a way that anything is within 1 or 2 mouse clicks away.
There are 2 main sections: the top section, containing all the menus, small notification area, Username are and the bottom section, containing the main interest zone – chat and video camera displays.
The Main Menu, situated on the top-right of the site, allows the user to control the application entirely. This is where the language can be selected, currently only 3 languages are supported – English, Italian and Romanian, also the Facebook Login button is here which after logging in it turns into a friends invite button. Create group and Join group buttons do exactly as their labels suggest, create a new group or join an existing group respectively. Get group link button allows you to copy the current group’s link. The Share link button allows one user that is authenticated using his Facebook account to send the link of the group as an invite to his Facebook friends. You’ve got anything to say to CamDip, a feature request, how they can improve it, or just want to get in touch with them, send them an email using the Feedback button. The Help (?) and FullScreen buttons are also situated here.
The Main content area (the bottom section)
This is where all the action happens, where you can see who’s joined the group, chat with the entire group using the Chat panel, choose who’s camera to watch and/or who’s audio to listen to.
The Users list is on the left, here you can see all the users currently in the group, hide/show one’s camera or mute/unmute one’s audio feed. You can hide this panel by using the “x” button.
Next is your own camera. You can stop sharing your camera with everyone in the group by clicking the Stop sharing camera button which appears when you move your mouse over your camera. You can also mute or change your microphone’s volume here and access the Settings section by clicking the Settings button.
To the right of your camera is the Chat panel, which just as the Users list panel, you can hide it by clicking the “x” button, or you can pop it out as a floating window, which you can move wherever you’d like to, or resize it to whatever fits your needs.
To the bottom is where you can see the other cameras in the group. This zone auto adjusts to fit all the cameras currently active in the group. There is currently no limit on how many users can join in the group or how many cameras you can view at a time. You can enlarge one’s video by using the Maximize button which appears when you move your mouse over his camera. You can also mute or change his volume, or hide it. You can show it back anytime you want from the Users list panel.
http://camdip.com is entirely free and for anyone to use. It is designed with the ease of use in mind, it’s light and very easy to use. Teams can use it to communicate with each other while working on their projects by having group video conferences, friends can stay in touch with each other by having group video meetings and families can stay close with each other easier and shorten the distances even when members are abroad. The entire service is completely free, the traffic is peer to peer (p2p), meaning that connections are established directly between members of the chat, there is no server in between.
There are no public rooms (groups), everything is private, what happens inside the group stays in the group. CamDip does not record or store any session, in fact there is not server of any kind, everything happens directly between peers (users).
