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Right, and for those of us who don't want to use a Facebook account? The world is lacking good, adopted implementations of open networking.

I've used Jitsi Meet self-hosted style.

It's not trivial to setup, but it's not the worst thing either. It worked really well afterward.

https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/

Also there are WebRTC based sites that don't require logins

appear.in

rabb.it

Everyone is hooked on the big names and their requirements, when alternatives exist.

Jitsi also runs one that you can use without an account. From jitsi.org's "Try Jitsi" button: https://meet.jit.si

You can also make up random links and jump straight into a room, like: https://meet.jit.si/CleverPhrase

What's wrong with just making a disposable single use facebook account.

They generally ask for a phone number nowadays for new accounts, so you'd need a new number for each one (or reuse the same one, which defeats the purpose of the disposable accounts).

Profiling, I'd rather not give any datapoints to FB besides, they could add to my shadow profile.

> So if they can make it so all they need is a Facebook account and now they can video chat with us or any of their friends and family? That would be perfect for my grandparents.

You can already do that, though. Facebook has built-in videochat on all platforms. I'm not clear how this device is substantially better than videochatting on your laptop.

> I'm not clear how this device is substantially better than videochatting on your laptop.

That's because you're knowledgable about technology. My grandparents are incredibly smart people but doing anything on the laptop, mobile devices; pretty much they always find a way to go down the wrong path. Always.

But a device like Echo Show (once it's setup) or a dedicate Facebook chat device? That's push button, done. Easy. No update process to deal with, no random dialogs, no spammy bloatware from terrible software vendors to confuse, etc.

For those still in society but do not have the firmest grasp of technology do still want to participate where they can. Sometimes it's not made easy enough to do, in my opinion and experience and one of the best reasons for a dedicated device such as this.

My impression is that even thumbfingered old grannies have mostly figured out Facebook, though. I'm sure there's a market for people who want to use videochat but can't manage even the very simplest of computer operations; I'm just not sure it's a very large market.

I suppose I wish them luck, in any case, if it can make a few people's lives better.

Why do you/your grandparents think you need this? I would never go though such pain for any kind of online service.

We live across the country from them so we wanted to setup an easy to use way to video chat with them. We had setup Skype for them before we left but every single time they had issues with audio not working and other various problems.

With the Echo Show they simply say "Call BinaryIdiot" and it works. That's it.

So yes the setup was awful but we wanted a way for them, who are not tech savvy in the least, to be able to quickly and easily video call us whenever they wanted.

Question, just out of curiosity: now that it is setup will either your parents or you use it to chat with someone else or will it remain a point-to-point thing whose main attractive was it worked smoothly for your parents?