8 Simple Ways to Keep in Touch With Family Abroad
Living abroad and studying abroad are opportunities and experiences of a lifetime. New cultures, languages, people, and seeing the world from a different perspective. However, having these opportunities and life experiences also come with some challenges. Most notably, living far from family. Speaking from experience, creating and following a plan to keep in touch with family abroad is critical to maximizing enjoyment while minimizing the stress and guilt of being so far away.
What follows below are our recommendations for 8 ways to stay connected and keep in touch while living abroad.
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#1 Use the Power of Social Media
We have been living abroad since 2012 and have learned over the years how important it is to stay connected to friends and loved ones back home. Utilizing social media tools is truly the best way to keep in touch with family abroad.
Facebook can be utilized to share your day-to-day life and also keep up to speed with the lives of your friends and family abroad. Sharing pictures, videos, and stories is a great way for your loved ones to learn and follow your new expat adventures. In addition to that, it’s a fun way to document your life and have it show up every year in the ‘memories’ feature of Facebook.
Instagram is a popular photo sharing app. Utilize this app to share pictures of your day-to-day life and make creative photos and short videos of your new expat life.
#2 Utilize the Free Video Chat Apps
The power and convenience of today’s technology makes it possible to video chat between nearly any smart device. For expats trying to keep in touch with family abroad, there are a slew of different messaging and video apps to choose from to stay connected.
The big question here: What is the best video chat app to keep in touch with family abroad?
Take a look below at the summary of popular video chat apps and consider what might work best for you and your friends and family.
Facebook Messenger
The best video chat for families with multi-platform compatibility.
Facebook Messenger is what we use 95% of the time to keep in touch with family abroad. It became the default video chat app simply because nearly everyone has it. Even if you have a deactivated Facebook account, you can still use Messenger. Accessible on mobile devices or on the web and allows a maximum of 50 people on a call - for free!
Facebook Messenger tops our list of the best video chat app for expat families living abroad due to three reasons.
The first is the ability to add masks, filters and effects. For young kids (and adults) video chatting with family abroad, it can add a lot more fun and entertainment and create a more memorable experience overall.
The second is Messenger Kids. This messenger is created exclusively for kids, so it is easy for them to video chat with family abroad with just a click on a smart device. And it comes with parental controls, offering more peace of mind for you.
The third reason is Facebook Portal TV. This product mounts above your home TV and turns it into a video conference monitor. The wide angle camera on the device will track and pan people in a room and zoom in on faces. You even can fit your entire family within the lens of the camera and easily chat with your friends and family back home.
Skype
Best for landline/cell phone calls and good multi-platform video chat compatibility.
Microsoft owned Skype was one of the original video chatting apps. It’s user friendly and available on every modern device. Although not our go-to video chat app, it does have an attractive feature to help keep in touch with family abroad who cannot video chat.
For expats/immigrants calling family overseas, international calling rates can become quite expensive. Skype has an alternative feature which we love. Skype supports international calling and texting, which is perfect for grandparents who do not have the ability to video chat. The costs range from free to a small fee depending on the country you are connected to. Go here to learn more.
Another popular and commonly used video chat.
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and is another popular chatting app. Anyone can join with just a phone number and it’s incredibly easy to use. Unfortunately with this app, video chats are only allowed on mobile devices. On the plus side, like Facebook Messenger, it does allow 50 people on one video chat.
FaceTime
Best video chat for iPhone.
Owned and developed by Apple, it is no surprise that FaceTime would be the best video chat app for iPhone/iPad/Macs. The app comes preinstalled on all Apple products and is extremely easy for anyone to use. 32 people can be on a single call and it allows the seamless use of fun Memojis, Animojis, and stickers.
The main challenge with using Facetime to stay in touch with family abroad is it’s exclusive to Apple products. If your friend or family is using an Android phone, you will need a different solution.
GoogleDuo
Best video chat for Android.
GoogleDuo is a fabulous video chat app that comes preinstalled on all Android devices. Unlike some of the other video chat apps, GoogleDuo has a fun feature that allows recording video calls and sending them to friends and family if they are not available. This is a great feature to allow children to stay connected with family living overseas in different time zones.
Unlike Apple FaceTime, GoogleDuo is available for download on Apple devices in addition to Android. This multi-platform compatibility makes it more practical and easier to keep in touch with family abroad.
Zoom
Popular business group video chat.
Zoom is a very popular video chat app for professional environments but also becoming popular for more simple family chats. It has an intuitive interface and end to end encryption to keep calls secure.
For the free version, the app is limited to only 3 people. However, the app is available for all mobile devices, desktop, and web.
Signal
Best encrypted video and chat.
Signal has become a popular alternative to WhatsApp for its end to end encryption and easy to use interface.
#3 Buy a Facebook Portal
As mentioned above, Facebook Messenger is our go-to messaging and video app to keep in touch with family abroad. However, no matter what video chat app you use, you are still limited by the screen and lens on your device. If you’re trying to fit an entire family in your phone’s camera lens held out at arms length, you may not have the best experience. This can be frustrating and often make it more difficult to keep in touch with family overseas.
Fortunately, Facebook developed several products to solve this problem and make this experience much more enjoyable for family use.
This product comes in four versions: Portal TV, Portal, Portal+, and Portal Mini.
Facebook Portal TV:
Facebook Portal TV turns your home TV into a video conference screen with an integrated camera. The wide angle smart camera mounts on top of your TV and can pan and zoom, keeping everyone in frame while you’re moving around and allows you to talk freely. If you’re an expat family living abroad, this is really the best way to include your entire family in video chats.
Portal TV makes it extremely easy to video chat with friends and family through a Messenger or WhatsApp account, even if they don’t have Portal. One of the best features on Portal TV allows you to become some of your children’s favorite storybook characters while reading along with their favorite stories, complete with animation and AR effects. For expat families living abroad, this is a fabulous feature to allow your children to stay connected with family.
We love using Facebook Portal TV so much, we bought it for our parents as well.
Facebook Portal, Portal+, Portal Mini:
Portal+, Portal, and Portal Mini range in size from 15.6 inches, 10 inches, and 8 inches, respectively. These portable versions are even better for Story Time and are a great solution if you or your children want to carry it from room to room. Like the Portal TV, the wide angle smart camera will pan and zoom to keep everyone in frame.
We think the Facebook Portal TV is the best product for expats/immigrants who want to keep in touch with family abroad.
It is important noting, however, that these products are not approved to be sold and are not supported in every country. This means that Facebook cannot guarantee functionality of the Portal taken out of the eligible country. In our case of being immigrants in Germany, the Portal is unavailable and unsupported. We took a risk and ordered from an eligible country and still use it in Germany without any problems.
#4 Schedule Recurring Video Chats
Being separated by countries and time zones can make it difficult to catch your family at a reasonable time. It is important to schedule and plan on recurring calls with your friends and loved ones overseas. Using a Facebook Portal TV can make the recurring video chats feel like you’re in the same room, relieving some of the stress of being separated by such a large distance.
We set up a call with our parents every Sunday and have been following the same schedule for years. We highly recommend expats/immigrants stay connected with family by setting up these types of recurring video chats.
#5 Set up family group chats
An informal family group chat can be a fun way to stay in touch with family overseas and share day-to-day stories and activities, or even special holidays. Take a look above and see which chat app would best suit your friends and family.
#6 Share pictures and videos day to day
This is pretty closely tied to #1 & #5 above, but we want to emphasize how important it is to share pictures with your friends and families overseas.
Utilize your social media platforms and group chats to share pictures, videos, and stories of your families day-to-day life so that it makes your friend and family feel like they are there with you. Remind others why you decided to take this opportunity to move abroad and share the adventure with them. Sharing these types of experiences regularly goes a long way.
#7 Gift a Plane Ticket
If you are an expat who lives overseas, chances are you may only be flying home once or twice a year. Flying your entire family home with this type of regular schedule can cost a small fortune. An alternative option is buying a plane ticket or two for family members to come to you instead. Because let’s face it, many people would love to leave home and travel abroad for a vacation, especially if it means spending time with their family living overseas. This is another opportunity to share your adventure with others.
We have done this several times. Instead of using cash, we utilize our accumulated points from our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card and also miles we have built with our airline partner.
#8 Buy a shared digital picture frame
Parents and grandparents love having pictures around the house, especially when their family is living abroad. Instead of ordering physical prints, consider buying a shared digital picture frame.
By using the app, a shared digital picture frame can be updated with photos from anywhere in the world. Did you just take a new family picture and want to put it on display at a family member's house immediately? Upload the picture directly to this digital picture frame and share it.
Feelcare has several sizes available; 7 inch, 10.1 inch, and 15.6 inches. Full HD 1920/180 IPS touchscreen display with 16GB internal memory. The app is free and easy to use on iOS and Android.
