portal

This is an old thread revived by jemit who is advertising something. Obviously not as "with it" as they think they are.

Are you on Facebook? If so it's really easy to do a video call - no need for invitations or anything. You just select the person from your contacts and click on the video camera. We use it every week to chat with our family in New Zealand and the quality is almost always great.

You could try the free version of the app MarcoPolo , very easy to use. Or if you are comfortable with Alexa technology like the Echo dot you can get an Alexa Show with an 8 inch screen . You get a split screen when you’re calling then - you’re little and they take up the rest of the screen. Works to other Alexa Show devices or to an app on a phone.

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We've got a portal, it's great, we get to see our GD regularly, 4 years old, she sings, dances, tells us stories. I live it.
We also got to meet DS new puppy.
We also speak to DS in Australia regularly, she even showed us round their new bungalow, I'm green with envy.
We wouldn't be without our portal.

I was given a portal for Mother’s Day...quite frankly, I hardly use it. I don’t think it’s much different than a Videocall via any other source, like WhatsApp, FaceTime etc. However, it does have Alexa built in and that’s pretty good to get music, news play games/ quizzes etc etc . I use Alexa quite a bit. It’s surprising how much Alexa knows !!!!

My friend has a portal which she really likes. She says it moves as you move so the children dont need to sit still.

My DGD has the Stars Messaging app on her tablet (supposed to be safer for children to use) and I use it on my phone. You can message, talk or videocall with it. She takes photos and sends them, too, all quite independent of adults. Even at 5 your grandson should be able to work some of the aspects of it, like answering a videocall request.

With the adults in the family we use WhatsApp but that's too complicated for a 5 year old.

Zoom is so easy to do that you will soon no longer be saying that you "don't know how to do Zoom" Can you get someone to invite YOU to a Zoom meeting, so that you can experience it? The other video calling apps are not difficult to use, either. The one you mention sounds expensive and as though it needs to be on TVs at both ends of the connection. A mobile phone with one of the free apps would connect you to him.

The simplest app you can find will be best for 5-yr-old grandson (as well as for you!) and some practice before he is admited to hospital is essential, so that you are both used to it. Will his parents be using it too? You all need to collaborate on this.

It costs £119 per unit. Unless you had it installed on a TV in the hospital, you would not be able to use it to see a wider picture, and anyway to look at other patients and the staff would be breaching confidentiality, and I think the hospital would soon put a stop to that. Why not persevere with Skype, or Face Time, or WhatsApp or Signal, they all do video calling?

It costs £119 per unit. Unless you had it installed on a TV in the hospital, you would not be able to use it to see a wider picture, and anyway to look at other patients and the staff would be breaching confidentiality, and I think the hospital would soon put a stop to that. Why not persevere with Skype, or Face Time, or WhatsApp or Signal, they all do video calling?