I already had Skype, Zoom and Google Hangouts installed. Now there's Houseparty too.
Global lockdowns have forced people to investigate different apps that let a group of friends have a chat together. I read about Houseparty only yesterday, when browsing through articles on TechRadar. Well, blow me - this morning Jo sent me a text pointing me at this very app for our upcoming five-way midday meetup with Jackie, Sue and Valerie.
I wasn't going to use Houseparty if it was just another Social Media creature owned by Facebook. Facebook and all its works can roast forever in all the fires of Hell, so far as I am concerned. But I was reassured after some Internet research. So I popped it onto my phone, and Jackie and I had an immediate video chat, which demonstrated how easy it was to use. (Jackie lives next door - but of course under current social distancing measures, we cannot meet)
Soon Jo joined us, and then Sue. Jackie was sitting inside her motorhome (i.e. a tin box) and Sue lives even further out in the sticks, so both had intermittent connection problems arising from the poor 4G signal reaching their phones. As for Valerie, she had to give up installation of the app on this occasion because of a technical hitch she didn't understand, and would try again later. So it was just the four of us on-screen.
The green blobs signify 'connection issue'.
One thing you'll notice straight away - which makes Houseparty rather better than Hangouts - is that everyone at the party gets a fair share of the screen space, at least if the body count is an even number. Here's what you see in Hangouts - it was our Friday meetup last week:
Houseparty has a special trick up its sleeve. Can you see the dice in the top right of the screen, as here?
Well, this is the way into the various 'party games' inside the app. One was a General Knowledge Quiz that we all played together. It wasn't all that easy. But fortunately we are all extraordinarily cerebral, and knew most of the answers. Jackie won both games.
All this was no substitute for the real thing. But much, much better than nothing in these strange times. As you can see, I found it amusing, and I'm not exactly a party animal.
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