There’s no doubt that Apple’s new iPhone 4-only FaceTime feature is great, and the company is letting everyone know about it with an avalanche of new television commercials. But whether you’re stuck on an older iPhone or you don’t have any iPhone 4-toting friends to video chat with, there are thankfully some free App Store alternatives to FaceTime--if you know where to look.

Oh, and did we mention these are all free?

fring

The app that most closely resembles the functionality of FaceTime is fring. Developer fringland Ltd. was the first to bring one-way video calls to the iPhone in a previous version, allowing at least computer users with webcams to be seen on the handset. Thanks to an update last week, free two-way video calls have now been added to the mix, and they actually one-up FaceTime by allowing such calls over both Wi-Fi as well as 3G.

Of course, you’ll need an iPhone 4 to take advantage of that two-way calling, but it also works between the new handset and an older iPhone -- thanks to the front-facing camera, they can see you, but you won’t be able to see them. There’s also an Android version of fring, which means two-way calling works between platforms--say, for instance, between an iPhone 4 and an HTC EVO 4G, which both have the required front camera.

fring operates as its own chat and video calling service, but also includes chat-only IM capabilities for AIM, MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk, ICQ and Yahoo as well as social connections with Twitter and Facebook. SIP calls are also supported through a number of different services, including the popular Gizmo, as well as Sipnet, VoipCheap, VoipBuster and others. Previously, both chat and video calls had also been possible with Skype, but the developer has had to remove the service from its add-on offerings (for now) over a terms of use dispute with the VoIP giant (fringland Ltd. claims Skype has blocked them with a legal threat, but Skype counters that fringland pulled their service voluntarily).

That said, does fring actually deliver what it promises? Sort of. We used our iPhone 4 to call an iPhone 3GS and the results over both Wi-Fi and 3G were choppy and certainly not FaceTime quality. For now, however, it’s the only true FaceTime alternative--video calling is buggy, but functional. On the first few calls, both parties could see each other just fine--including, for some inexplicable reason, the video streaming from the back of the 3GS! On a later try, fring then correctly recognized that the 3GS has no front camera and reported it as such, which we figure is the proper way to handle it.

Those kinks aside, the latest version of fring also uses iOS 4 multitasking, which means it’s always available for incoming calls. That’s a big plus from the previous versions which leveraged only push notifications to announce such calls (as this latest version continues to do), which were usually missed entirely because of how long it took to load the app and actually accept the incoming call.

We’re guessing that fring’s video call quality will likely improve over time, and who knows--since the technology behind FaceTime is open-source, maybe they’ll even leverage that in the future and allow video calls to non-FaceTime devices.



Knocking Live Video

The next best choice for video calling on the iPhone is Knocking Live Video from developer Pointy Heads LLC. The app became legendary after being blessed with approval by none other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself, and for older devices such as the iPhone 3G and 3GS that can’t use FaceTime, it’s a great way to share memories one way.

Knocking Live does an admirable job of streaming video between devices, but it does so at the expense of audio--you can see what the other party is doing, but you won’t be able to hear them. Thankfully, there’s an easy workaround for that problem: If you place a call to the receiving party while using 3G service, you can then put the call on speaker, press the Home button to keep it going in the background, open Knocking Live Video and “knock” the same receiver. Once they accept, you’ll have audio courtesy of your cellular connection, with live streaming video arriving over either the same 3G connection or Wi-Fi, if available.

In addition to having a more fluid streaming experience than fring, the video on Knocking Live also fills most of the iPhone’s display, compared to fring’s choppy video, which is a small box in the center of the screen. Knocking Live Video hasn’t yet been updated to take advantage of the iPhone 4’s front-facing camera or even iOS 4’s multitasking, but the app uses push notifications to let you know when somebody comes “knocking.”

While Knocking Live isn’t a universal app, it does indeed work just fine on the iPad as well, enabling you to at least receive “knocks” from friends on your list, just like you can on the iPhone. Like fring, there’s also an Android version of Knocking Live Video, so you can even “knock” between platforms. The company says that a Blackberry version is also on the way.

Ustream Live Broadcaster

If device-to-device video calls are too limited and you want to share the live streaming video from your iPhone with a broader audience, you have a couple of options. One of them is Ustream Live Broadcaster, which leverages the popular Ustream.tv service to share your live memories (up to 320x240 size) via Wi-Fi or 3G, direct to your own Ustream page--the address for which is clearly displayed as your video is being recorded so that you can share the URL with friends and become accessible from any web browser.

Ustream video feeds are only one-way, but they’re perfect for sharing a special event with far-away loved ones, complete with audio and video. You can record the stream to your device as it’s being sent, ready to immediately post to Ustream, YouTube, Twitter or Facebook as soon as you’re done, or record your video on the go and upload it when it’s more convenient (for instance, when you don’t have access to a strong 3G signal or fast Wi-Fi).

Ustream Live Broadcaster is also available for Android and select Nokia devices; the iPhone version hasn’t yet been updated to take advantage of the iPhone 4’s front-facing camera, so for now it’s more about sharing what people around you are doing rather than including yourself in the action.

Qik Live

Similar to Ustream, Qik Live also allows you to record video and share with the world, or stream it live to your page at Qik.com. Both audio and video are streamed, but you have the option of muting the audio as well as showing your location and posting videos to Facebook, Twitter or YouTube with the click of a button.

One advantage of Qik Live is that your live video is added immediately to both your Qik online account (ready to viewed again, right away) as well as being saved on your handset to share elsewhere. Videos can be tagged public or private and even posted quickly to any website or blog, including Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr and Posterous. You can also send and receive text messages with people viewing your video live on your Qik web page.

Maybe This Is Not the Device You’re Seeking

Once you step outside of Steve Jobs’ infamous “reality distortion field” so prevalent at his keynote addresses, you may realize that FaceTime’s video calling is actually not as “revolutionary” as Apple might have you believe.

For instance, Nokia’s N800 Internet Tablet has had a front-facing camera and video chat ability four years before the iPhone 4 arrived. Likewise, Nokia showed off their video chat-enabled N97 at the AllThingsD:D7 conference in June, 2008, just prior to the iPhone 3G hitting the streets.

HTC’s new EVO 4G is also capable of video chat, but it’s a BYOS situation (that’s Bring Your Own Software) -- you’ll have to download the Android version of fring or Qik from the Android Marketplace to get any use out of the handset’s front camera.

We’re Living in the Future

The real beauty of Apple’s FaceTime is that it all just works, assuming that you have a strong Wi-Fi connection on both ends. That will be the hardest act to follow for the developers who try to ape the technology, because the stuff that’s out there -- while it “kinda” works -- lacks the polish and ease of use that Apple is providing.

You can bet there will be plenty more FaceTime alternatives in the future, but given that Apple is allowing open-source development of the technology, we may actually see the real thing adopted faster than you might expect. There are already rumors of FaceTime-enabled iPod touches coming in September, and it seems a natural that the next iteration of the iPad will also include a front-facing camera, which many feel the first generation device should have had already. Steve Jobs promised that FaceTime would be on millions of devices by year’s end, so there should be some exciting days ahead.

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