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Chat services take wait-and-see approach to adopting Apple's FaceTime

After Apple this week announced its new open standard for video calling, dubbed FaceTime, major online chat providers have expressed interest in the new standards-based technology, but do not yet have plans to adopt it in their own services.

Announced on Monday, FaceTime will allow iPhone 4 users to video chat over Wi-Fi using the cameras on Apple's latest handset. Apple will make FaceTime an open industry standard, allowing communication with other devices and services.

It's the open, standards-based nature of FaceTime that most interests existing Internet communications providers like Skype. But that doesn't mean the company is already willing to embrace Apple's creation.

A Skype spokesperson contacted by AppleInsider on Wednesday downplayed earlier reports which suggested the voice-over-IP company would "welcome the chance to work with Apple" and planned on adopting the FaceTime standard in its own products.

"Just to be clear, we are not considering FaceTime as a technological platform for video calling in our own products," the spokesperson said. "Based on Apple's statement about FaceTime being open platform, we are looking forward to see how this process unfolds."

The company said it will continue to work with Apple in providing the Skype service through its own existing applications for the Mac OS X desktop and iOS devices.

Google, too, acknowledged the open nature of FaceTime when asked for comment. The search giant runs the Google Chat service, which operates in the browser for Gmail users, and is also accessible through the Google Talk desktop application for Windows only.

"Our solutions are built on top of open standards and platforms and we will continue to strive for openness in our communication platforms," a Google spokesperson said. The company declined to offer any information on future plans, or speak specifically about potential integration of FaceTime in its products.

A spokesperson for Microsoft, which is responsible for the popular MSN Messenger service, said the company has nothing to share regarding Apple's FaceTime. Requests to AOL, Fring, and Yahoo were not answered Wednesday.

For more on FaceTime, see the AppleInsider feature Inside iPhone 4: FaceTime video calling.



43 Comments

originalmacrat 20 Years · 298 comments

Apple had better get it integrated into iChat if they want credibility.

postulant 17 Years · 1268 comments

Wait, Apple announced this feature Monday and as of Wednesday no company had fully adopted it yet? lol

nagromme 23 Years · 2831 comments

With or without FaceTime, Skype and others can make video chatting work, now the the iPhone has a webcam. I don?t much care what protocol they use, just get it working ASAP please

(I wish Meebo supported audio and video.)

anonymouse 16 Years · 7017 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by nagromme

With or without FaceTime, Skype and others can make video chatting work, now the the iPhone has a webcam. I don?t much care what protocol they use, just get it working ASAP please

(I wish Meebo supported audio and video.)

I think there's two sides to the issue. If they all adopt the same protocol(s), then anyone can chat with anyone, and you don't have to make sure they have the same service. On the other hand, Skype, for instance, would prefer that people use Skype, so they might not see it in their interests to be interoperable. If FaceTime turns out to be a big hit, and a few others adopt it, it may cause pressure for everyone to.

maccherry 15 Years · 924 comments

if Apple was so behind the ball in video chatting then why the heck don't we see this feature being advertised by all them cheesy Android phones? LOL!
I keep hearing people say they had this feature years ago. Where is it? Cause last time I ventured onto other tech sites I didn't see Droid does video chat. Meh!

Apple changes the game all over again.