Staying Connected – Social Apps Houseparty & Zoom proving popular to catch up with family & friends
During times of home isolation and social distancing during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, staying away from our family and friends has been incredibly difficult. Fortunately we do live in the age of advanced digital technology, which is one thing we can be extremely grateful for.
Houseparty
Houseparty, a face to face social network, is currently the number one social app on the App Store with over 2 million downloads in the past week. Owned by Epic Games (owner of Fortnite) Houseparty is the go to for kids to chat and for Mums to catch up over a ‘virtual wine’ together. Grandparents can video chat with their grandchildren and it’s great for families who don’t all live under the same roof. The app is free to download on your phone or computer, and will alert you when your ‘friends’ are in the ‘house’ and ready to chat. You can ‘lock’ the room once everyone you want to include is there to prevent others from gatecrashing your party.
The Carly Ryan Foundation have put together a helpful Houseparty app Fact Sheet which you can download from their website here (also check out their other fact sheets such as Tik Tok and Snapchat)
For more information visit the Houseparty website.
Zoom
Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems.
Zoom offers a full-featured basic plan for free with unlimited meetings which you can try for as long as you like – there is no trial period. The basic plan has a 40 minute time limit on meetings with three or more total participants.
Visit the Zoom website here for more information.
Other social apps you can try are Skype, FaceTime, Messenger, Hangouts, Snapchat and WhatsApp (some age restrictions apply).
Messenger Kids app is also now available in Australia – designed for kids as a safer alternative to the current ‘Messenger’ app – click here for more information.
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
Image Source: Play & Go, Carly Ryan Foundation
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