At WWDC, Apple formally announced FaceTime, its take on video calling and a feature that really highlights to dual-cameras on the iPhone 4. The big surprise with FaceTime is that it only works over Wi-Fi (for now) but will let you make free video-to-video calls to other iPhone 4 users all over the world.

While video calling is hardly new — technology and telephony companies have been trying to shove the stuff down our throats since at least the 1960s — the implementation certainly is. While it’s far too early to make any hard or fast predictions about FaceTime and video calling in general, we have to say, after spending some time with FaceTime, we’re impressed.

I had my first FaceTime call within about 15 minutes of getting home with my iPhone 4. I’ve had several subsequent chats throughout the afternoon and I have to say, each time, it seems less and less like a novelty and more and more like a really natural way to communicate.

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Drop-Dead Simple to Use

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While video chat over web cams using services like Skype or iChat or Windows Messenger is a pretty common activity, video calls from handsets remains a rarity. And not for lack of trying. I can think of at least half a dozen failed attempts at selling video calling to consumers at the retail level from the last decade, and that’s just off the top of my head.

While video calling has lots of hurdles, one of its biggest is ease of use. Making sure each party has matching or compatible handsets, confirming that the video stream is active, making sure the microphones are shielded so you don’t have echo and interference, and that’s before you even make the call.

FaceTime is extremely, extremely simple. Just click on a contact in your address book and make sure that you have their iPhone 4 phone number as one of the contact points. Then hit the FaceTime button on their entry. That’s it. The phone will make its connection over Wi-Fi and on the other end, your friend will receive a call and an alert that you are requesting a FaceTime chat. As soon as they accept, they are dropped right into the video interface.

That’s it.

From that point, you can talk directly to your screen, where you will see the person on the other line, as well as a small image of your own camera. One of the coolest features it that you can seamlessly switch to the higher resolution camera on the back of your phone to take someone on a video tour or show them what you are looking at. You can also rotate the phone and have the video image update itself automatically.

This is the way video calling should be. No messing with settings, no worrying about making sure the camera is on or active, just choose FaceTime from your contact’s page. If you’re already on a voice call with someone on their iPhone 4, you can switch to a FaceTime chat mid-call and you won’t even use any of your voice minutes.

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But How’s the Quality?

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Another issue that other video phone solutions have had is overall quality of audio and video streams. While video from the front camera isn’t high definition, it is easy to see, of decent quality, and most importantly, in sync with the person’s voice.

Voice quality was actually what I was most surprised about. I didn’t have any headphones on and my volume for the phone speaker was at the default volume, yet I had no problem hearing my friends and they had no problem hearing me.

What really impressed me was how good the quality was, even overseas. When I spoke with my friend Nik Fletcher all the way over in the United Kingdom, the call and video quality totally held up. Likewise, my friend Sang Tang in San Diego came in clear and his voice quality was tremendous.

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Will This Work?

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No matter how cool and how easy FaceTime is to use, it’s still a gamble. However, as a long-time skeptic of video calling, I think that FaceTime has the chance to really re-ignite the video telephony world for a a few reasons:

• The experience feels natural. I was expecting the fact that I would have to hold my phone up and talk directly into the mic to be distracting and cumbersome. On the contrary, I found myself getting completely engrossed in my conversations that I wasn’t even thinking about how I was holding the phone.
• Wi-Fi means better connections and free international calls. Frankly, the Wi-Fi-only factor actually works to FaceTime’s advantage because it raises the odds of having a strong connection on both sides. International calling for free is what has made Skype such a success. Having an iPhone-drieven version of that is very compelling.
• Camera switching is a grandparent’s dream. I’m not a parent (and I have no plans to be one), but I couldn’t help but think of how great it would have been if my mom could have talked to her parents via FaceTime when my older sister and I were growing up. The ability to share the other half of the camera literally means you can make real-time home movie video calls with very little effort.

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Areas for Improvement

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While I haven’t had any technical problems with FaceTime, there are always places for improvement. Apple has said it is opening up its FaceTime API for other services — and we hope that means that other applications or other platforms can get in on the fun.

Additionally, because there are so many great opportunities for cool things to happen over FaceTime, it would be nice if there was a way to record the video stream or conversation that you are having. This might be too hardware intensive for current cell phones, but how great would it be for grandma and grandpa to be able to save that call from their grandchildren to watch back later?