ooVoo was a

video chat Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Ency ...

and a

messaging A message is a discrete unit of communication intended by the source for consumption by some recipient or group of recipients. A message may be delivered by various means, including courier, telegraphy, carrier pigeon and electronic bus. ...

app developed by ooVoo LLC and owned by Krush Technologies, LLC. ooVoo had applications for Android,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

, Microsoft Windows,

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design l ...

, and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

. The original Microsoft Windows app was released in 2007. It was discontinued on November 25, 2017.

Features

ooVoo allowed users to communicate through free messaging, voice, and video chat. ooVoo video conferencing technology enabled high-quality video and audio calls with up to twelve participants simultaneously, HD video and desktop sharing.

History

ooVoo was founded in 2006 by Philippe Schwartz and Ohio entrepreneur Clay Mathile based on technology developed at Arel Communications and Software (Formerly NASDAQ:ARLCF). Arel was founded in 1982 and specialized in remote e-learning and collaboration solutions. On March 13, 2006, Arel Communications was taken private by its current owners and relaunched as ooVoo. In June 2007, ooVoo for Microsoft Windows launched, allowing high-quality video chat from anywhere in the world. In February 2008, video call recording and phone calling were introduced. In May 2008, ooVoo for Apple's OS X launched, creating cross-platform capabilities for video chat. In February 2009, ooVoo 2.0 launched and featured browser-based video chat rooms and video chat through a web link with no download required. An open

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

was also launched with version 2.0, and allowed developers to build customized applications and widgets. In May 2009, ooVoo introduced the first air-to-ground three-way video conversation. ooVoo version 2.2 was launched in July 2009, and introduced business plans geared for multiple seats and desktop sharing. New pay-as-you-go options and international phone calling were also introduced. In January 2010, ooVoo released its app for Android mobile devices. On 2 June 2011, ooVoo launched its social video chat service on Apple's iPhone (and other iOS devices), making its free HD Video chat service cross platforms, including: PC, Mac, Android and iPhone. On July 22, 2013, ooVoo released a Software Development Kit (SDK), allowing other applications to leverage its video chat technology (current apps leveraging the ooVoo SDK: Flinch, Heystax). On June 10, 2014, ooVoo released its app for Windows Phone devices. On September 9, 2014, ooVoo released its Video SDK for WebRTC. On November 25, 2017, ooVoo announced via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that it will be shutting down, citing a lack of profit.

Accolades

* ooVoo won ''PC Magazines Software Innovation "Best in Show" Award at the DigitalLife Expo in September 2007. * In March 2008, ooVoo won the "Webware 100" award for Communication. * ooVoo won '' PC Magazines Best Mobile Product of 2011 in the Android Category * ooVoo won the Tabby Award in the Social category for its Android app in August 2013. * ooVoo was a nominee and finalist for a Mobby Award in the Business Collaboration category for its Android app in September 2015. * ooVoo was honored in 2016 with a Mobile Excellence Award for Best Social Community. * 2016 CES Innovation Award Honoree.

References

{{Instant messaging VoIP software MacOS instant messaging clients Windows instant messaging clients Software development kits Videotelephony 2007 software Webcams Universal Windows Platform apps Defunct instant messaging clients