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"It was a perennial technology of the future. [...] But then out of nowhere the videophone was suddenly just here."
Paleofuture at Smithsonian.com

An extremely common trope found in any stories told in future or high-tech settings (and, to a lesser extent, spy and espionage stories), a Video Phone (sometimes also referred to as a VidPhone) is a telecommunications device that functions exactly like a telephone but distinctly comes with a video screen which allows for the individuals on both ends of the call (and the audience) to see each other.

In some depictions, such a device may make use of an ordinary telephone receiver in order to speak to and hear the person on the other end, but most often characters usually just talk to the screen.

Like Flying Cars, Ray Guns, and, of course, Jet Packs, this is one of the most frequently observed tropes in depictions of The Future and originally popularized in the Raygun Gothic era of Science Fiction, but where most of these ubiquitous genre tropes remain absent from our reality, the Video Phone has been publicly available in one form or another since 1936; the German government ran public videophone booths prior to WWII, though these early trial services were disrupted by the war. AT&T opened the first public videophone booth in the US in 1964.

Despite this constant attention and the relative simplicity of the technology involved (Alexander Graham Bell himself talked about the possibility), lack of consumer interest kept it from going anywhere; the honest truth was that it seemed that despite all the sci-fi attention it received, the public didn't really want videophones, at least not at any significant price (apparently, those who wanted to see video phones in common use didn't bother to consider the fact that having the other person not being able to see your facial expression or any rude gesture you might feel like showing is arguably one of the more useful features of a regular phone). They only became broadly successful in the modern era once they became a secondary feature of mainstream computer technology, and even then, many argued that they would remain little more than a novelty outside of the porn business and people in long-distance relationships.

It wasn't until the late 2000s that video-conferencing eventually found its market niche in business communications, thanks in part to the rise of tele-commuting which made managers develop a need to see their telecommuting subordinates face to face, and in part because even the most expensive multi-thousand-dollar videoconferencing hardware is cheaper for global megacorporations than extracting their executives from all over the world and flying them into a single place, with lots of newcoming companies such as Zoom, Bluejeans or Ringcentral as well as products from existing companies like Cisco Webex, Microsoft Skype for Business or IBM Sametime offering this form of communication.

The COVID Pandemic of 2020 made use of this technology much more widespread, because it suddenly became a necessity for business, education, entertainment, and maintaining social contact.

Their main relation to Zeerust is in a meta reasoning — when somebody wrote the movie before 2008 or so, a video-phone even in the future would be considered an impossible pinnacle of technology but in fact has become common in its use.

Compare: Comm Links, for another Sci-Fi phone equivalent. For a breakdown on how such devices tend to operate in fiction, see Hollywood Web Cam. For embarrassing snafus related with this technology, see Video Call Fail.

Note: Given this trope's increased existence in Real Life, please refrain from listing work examples that use existing technologies in contemporary, early-21st-century settings. If a work example of a Video Phone is based on an existing consumer product, please only list the product as a real-life example, if it's not listed there already.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • These show up almost everywhere a regular phone would in Pokémon: The Series.
  • Commonly used in the original Bubblegum Crisis. Most notably, they had video payphones.
  • Cowboy Bebop's in-universe equivalent to the cell phone uses video feeds on both ends of a call.
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • One of the problems of this trope is averted in the episode "¥€$". Aramaki is talking via wallscreen to a contact. Although the screen shows the man in military uniform, he's actually in a bathrobe cutting his toenails.
    • Everyone in Section 9 is apparently capable of doing this without even needing a phone or video screen, thanks to their cyberbrains allowing them to send and receive wireless signals, but usually it's just limited to showing the head of the person they're talking to in their Augmented Reality vision.
  • Doraemon: One episode features one of these using the house's television. The video feed was also (obviously) one-way.
  • In Code Geass, the royals and military officials use these, complete with a large, fancy-framed screen in the palace for the Viceroy to video-chat with the Emperor on. Notably, the normal characters, like the students, are never seen using them, just voice phones.
  • Video phones are used in the 1980s version of Gigantor, The New Adventures Of Gigantor. It's set in the 21st century.

    Comic Books 
  • Commonplace in Judge Dredd and its Spin-Off stories where they're frequently called VidPhones. Models vary, sometimes having mic stands, ordinary phone receivers, or no visible microphones or speakers at all.
  • Archie Comics: In an alternate future story, Veronica gets one installed, only to switch back to normal phones because her friends called while she was doing face masks or when she'd just gotten up.
  • The Blake and Mortimer adventure "The Time Trap" depicts a dystopian far future in which communication takes place via camera-equipped wrist phones, for those who can afford them anyway.
  • Marvel 2099 takes it to the next stage with the holo-phone. The first issue of Spider-Man 2099 opens with Miguel checking his messages:
    Gabriel: Hi, Miguel, it's me.
    Miguel: I know it's you, Gabe. Holo-phone, remember?
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe: A story had Donald and Daisy in the late 20th century trying out a video phone invented by Gyro Gearloose. One of the things Donald discovered while using the phone was that he could spy on Daisy putting on her makeup and doing her morning exercises without her knowing about it. That, and the expense of using such a phone, were among the reasons that Donald and Daisy gave up on using it.
  • A Richie Rich comic book story from the late 20th century had Richie contact his girlfriend Gloria Glad through a video phone on a camping trip she was on with her father. Being the sneaky fellow that he is, he also projects a video of himself speaking to Gloria through the ray of a flashlight.
  • Atari Force, published in the early 1980s, depicts a near-future world where video phones would be in use, even in the universe of New Earth where the series' second team would have their adventures.
  • Supergirl Adventures Girl Of Steel: Kara uses a video phone (featuring a bulky control panel as well as a huge monochrome green-tinted monitor despite her civilization being highly advanced) to have a videoconference with her friend Pala, who is on another planet.
  • Superman:
    • In 1973 story Let My People Grow!, Superman communicates with the Kandorians via videoconference, using devices which are bulky and clunky by 21st century Earth standards, even though Kryptonian technology is supposed to be clearly superior.
    • In 1968 story arc The Leper from Krypton, Supergirl talks to the Kandorians via video-link, using a real bulky monitor.
  • Wonder Woman (1942): While the way the Amazons' Mental Radio worked was inconsistent, the lunchbox-sized, phone-like device always included a small screen and was fairly transportable.

    Comic Strips 
  • Dick Tracy has a "2-Way Wrist TV" that carries the same function and used to communicate with police headquarters.
  • Dilbert: One strip involves Dilbert being the first person in the city to own a videophone. He then sits next to the phone, waiting for someone else to buy one so he can call them.
  • MAD once did an article showing pulldown backdrops - a glamorous resort one at a fleabag motel to con clients, a sickroom backdrop at the ballpark for calling your boss, an office one at the bar for calling your wife, and so on...

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • In Rocket Saves the Day, Bella and her sister Ella use one to communicate between Rocket's hometown and Letter Land. It somehow allows Rocket to see what's going in town from Letter Land, despite actually being a Tin-Can Telephone.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Back to the Future Part II: The Future McFly household's video phone is connected to the television set. Personal information about the individual on the other end of the line is scrolled through on screen, including name, age, occupation, home address, spouse, children, and assorted hobbies and preferences. Video calling is also sponsored by AT&T. According to the novelization, Marty's daughter Marlena had special video glasses that also acted as a phone.
  • Johnny Mnemonic opens with the main character making a call on a video phone that also doubles as a television and an alarm clock, all of which can be operated by remote control. Another such phone shows up in the back of a future taxi cab, and the Street Preacher has one hidden in his Bible (or whatever Holy Book equivalent he has). Video phone screens are also branded with AT&T's company logo, AT&T having tried to develop such technology since the 1960s.
  • In Blade Runner, Deckard has a vidphone in his car, which he uses to call Sebastian's residence, only for his call to be answered by Pris. He also uses a public vidphone at Taffey Lewis' bar to place a call to Rachael, which is hilarious because a) public telephones barely exist anymore, let alone vidphones and b) it costs $1.25 for a call that barely lasts one minute.
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey featured a videophone in a phone booth, in a rotating space station. At the end, it indicates a call from the Moon to the Earth, taking several minutes, costs a mere $1.85. As so many others, the call is sponsored by AT&T.
  • In Starship Troopers, Johnny Rico is talking to his parents in Buenos Aires via Video Phone when the Bug asteroid hits the city.. This call is also sponsored by AT&T.
  • A video phone appears in the 1929 silent movie High Treason.
  • Austin Powers has one in his car. Very helpful for Basil Exposition to talk to him.
  • Ro-Man in Robot Monster uses a video linkup to make contact with the last surviving enclave of humans on Earth, as well as Great Guidance on the planet Ro-Man.
  • These are used in the original Total Recall a lot. In the movie, talking to someone on Mars was as easy as phoning them up on Earth. In fact, Cohaagen (when on Mars) uses his vid phone to call Richter (on Earth) without any technical difficulties. Until Richter pulls the Fake Static trick, blaming sunspot interference.
  • Aliens: Burke leaves My Card in case Ripley changes her mind about going on the mission to find out what happened to the colony on LV426. After her next Catapult Nightmare, Ripley sticks the card in her videophone where it automatically connects her to a sleepy Burke.
  • They appear in Demolition Man. John Spartan gets a wrong number from a topless chick.
  • The Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle The 6th Day interestingly showcased a video phone call with an automated machine... for 911 Emergencies.
  • Seen in Metropolis which, made in 1927, is a likely candidate for being the Ur-Example.
  • Spaceballs:
    Barf: I'll just put it on audio. That way they won't see ya. (activates a switch) 'Yello.
    Vinnie: (appearing on video screen) Hello, Lone Starr.
    Barf: Sorry, wrong switch.
    • Also when President Skroob is in the toilet and the mirror in front of him suddenly turns into a wallscreen. He is not amused, especially when his female Number Two tricks him into exposing himself while giving the Spaceball salute.
  • Some of the only dialogue in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times comes from the factory boss pestering people via videophone, including when poor Charlie tries to take a badly needed break.
    "Hey! Get back to work!"
  • This Island Earth: The protagonists get sent the components of an "interocitor" which they assemble as a secret test of their intelligence. On being assembled the interocitor turns out to be this trope when Exeter speaks to them live. As they are in The '50s a live high-resolution color TV image is regarded as incredible (and otherworldly, as it turns out) technology.
  • Parodied in the second Airplane! movie. Someone on the moonbase turns on a screen and after some static and wavy lines appear is able to get through to William Shatner. There's a brief conversation, then Shatner opens the door in front of him to reveal he was talking to the man through a window.
  • In Casino Royale (1967), Sir James Bond calls Vesper on the video Shoe Phone while she's getting dressed. She indignantly covers the camera until she hears Bond signing off, only to remove her hand to see Bond looking downwards expectantly.
  • Seven Days in May: The White House and Pentagon use video teleconferencing in their 20 Minutes into the Future world.
  • Project Moonbase: The female President of the United States speaks to the brave astronauts who've just landed on the moon via a hole in the wall.
  • The Crazies (1973): A video link is set up with the President of the United States so he can, if required, authorize the use of nuclear weapons to contain the virus. As the President spends the entire conversation sitting with his back to the camera, one wonders why George Romero didn't just have him talking over a telephone speaker.
  • In 1935's Transatlantic Tunnel, video phones are accepted as standard communication.
  • Star Wars has holographic technology that transmit a full body image of who's talking.
  • Played with in The Osterman Weekend. A Coincidental Broadcast (actually a video feed) on the illicit use of Swiss bank accounts appears on television as part of the Mind Screw tactics being used against an alleged ring of traitors. At one point, the CIA agent in charge uses the video feed to speak directly to the protagonist (who is working for him), only to have an Oh, Crap! moment when the link won't turn off when someone else enters the room. The CIA man then pretends he's an anchorman giving a news report.
  • Video phone booths appear in the futuristic Los Angeles of The Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe's War.
  • In Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, a video phone appears in a dream sequence, depicting a future where the title characters continue their argument with each other from their high school reunion into old age.
  • In RoboCop 3, video phones appear in use by the citizens of old Detroit in the near-future world.
  • All the Troubles of the World. Chairman Gulliman and officer Hammond both have small boxes at their desks that can connect at the push of a button to convey video and sound between their offices.
  • The groundbreaking 1957 Russian science-fiction movie Road to the Stars features videophones being used on a Space Station.
  • These Are the Damned: The nine children who the British government keep in an underground facility express their unhappiness over the fact that Bernard and their other teachers only talk to them via a wallscreen instead of face-to-face because the children are a radioactive Walking Wasteland.
  • Barbarella: After the famous Title Sequence involving the heroine doing a zero-G striptease, the President of Earth calls on the Subspace Ansible and Barbarella answers the call while still naked. She offers to put something on but he tells her not to bother as he has an urgent matter of state to discuss. Yeah, right.

    Literature 
  • These are a standard part of future technology in Robert A. Heinlein's novels.
  • Mocked in a passage in Infinite Jest which describes how widespread videophone use made people increasingly concerned about their physical appearance, leading to most people wearing elaborate masks whenever they used the phone (and, later, just switching back to normal phones).
  • The Alice, Girl from the Future series sees all characters use these—and only these—phones.
  • The Ear, the Eye and the Arm has "holo-phones", owned by all but the most destitute characters.
  • A minor plot point in Shepherd Mead's The Big Ball Of Wax is that by "now" (1999) videophones have colour but aren't stereoscopic — yet. (Some TV game shows operate on a phone-in basis, so this is a minor annoyance to producers and viewers alike.)
  • These are ubiquitous in the Moreau Series
  • These are common in Noon Universe by Strugatsky Brothers. In some occasions characters use them without turning on video option.
  • In the short story Die Fernschule ("The Long-Distance School") by Kurd Laßwitz, published in 1902 and set in 1999, the video phone or Fernlehrapparat ("Long-Distance Teaching Device") is used for education.
  • Damon Knight's novella Dio/The Dying Man takes place in a far-off almost-utopian future. We have videophones, still called phones. They appear to be stand-alone consoles with built-in light-up phonebooks where you choose the sector, group and name of the person you're calling. Operators have been replaced by robots called autosecs. Because most people move around a lot, frequent updates of your registration are important.
  • The Patchwork Girl. As Luna's culture doesn't have a nudity taboo, Gil Hamilton has to always check that his videophone is audio only if he's in the bath before answering. Once he's pleasantly surprised to get a call from a stark-naked Luna Fair Cop who messed up the 'audio only' command, but he decides it would be polite not to mention it. Until she mentions it, explaining that it wasn't an accident.
  • Isaac Asimov:
    • The Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr:
    • "I'm in Marsport Without Hilda": Max uses a video booth, which is a public video phone box that costs more than sending a spacegram. He gets in contact with an old ex-girlfriend because he has a few days away from his wife and wants to relive old memories.
    • "The Imaginary": The telecasters on the desks of the Humanoid Aliens allow for planetary communication at least.
    • "It's Such a Beautiful Day": Most places appear to be equipped with "visiphones", devices with a manual dial. Mrs Hanshaw uses one for contacting her neighbors, the school, and Dr Sloane. They're used to see the person you're talking to.
    • "The Mayors": Terminus has public visiphones, which High Priest (Ambassador) Poly Verisof uses to schedule an appointment with Mayor Hardin.
    • "Mirror Image": Detective Baley is expected to resolve a conflict between two Spacer mathematicians by interviewing their personal assistants; R (obot) Preston and R (obot) Idda. Daneel has a micro-receiver and projector that he uses to turn a nearby wall into a video display, since their owners would never allow them to set foot on Earth.
    • "Mother Earth": Certain walls have a community-wave, which is a wall that provides such a high-definition picture that looks like you could reach out and physically touch the person you're in contact with. The people of the Outer Worlds prefer to conduct all of their business via community-wave and only meet in-person if they must.
    • "My Son, the Physicist": The mother mentions video-phones and stratowire as alternatives to face-to-face conversations. They aren't used in the story, just Narrative Filigree to establish that this story is set 20 Minutes into the Future.
    • The Naked Sun: In a scene set on an Earth colony planet, Detective Baley interviews a female witness by videophone. She casually steps out of the shower to take the call, oblivious to his embarrassment: when this is pointed out to her she explains that she wouldn't dream of doing such a thing were he with her in person, but her society distinguishes between seeing (being physically present) and viewing (by phone).
    • Galley Slave: Ninheimer was called by Speidell, who was displayed on a "visiplate" (shortened as "'plate"), when he first he heard of EZ-27's corrections.
      But Speidell had flashed off with a force that had the 'plate glowing with after-images for fifteen seconds.
    • The Stars, Like Dust: The novel (written in 1951, and set thousands of years into the future) opens with the protagonist, Biron Farrill, receiving a visiphone call. (The phone doesn't work, as Farrill is the victim of an elaborate plot which evidently included sabotaging the visiphone in his college dorm room—Farrill can both hear and see the caller, but the person on the other end of the line can neither see nor hear Farrill.)
  • The Harry Potter series has a magical equivalent of this in the Floo network of fireplaces. If your fireplace is on the Floo network, you can stick your head in the fire, and your head will appear in a different Floo fireplace, allowing you to see and talk to the person on the other end. You can even get a piece of toast from the other end to eat while talking.
  • The Night Mayor: When Susan's agent calls her at the beginning of this 1989 book, his face appears in a window on her computer screen.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Pee-wee Herman's Picturephone on Pee-wee's Playhouse played with the idea of "two cans on a string" found on old-fashioned playhouses/treehouses by depicting the receiver as a tin can on a telephone cord. Amusingly, in Pee-Wee's world, everyone has a Picturephone.
  • In The Star Wars Holiday Special, Chewbacca's family uses one of these hidden in some kind of dresser to contact the other characters associated with the Rebel Alliance—Luke and R2-D2, Leia and C-3PO, etc.—to ask about Chewie and Han Solo's whereabouts. In a separate instance, Chewie's wife, Mala, contacts Art Carney with a device that doubles as a television which Carney's character refers to as a "wall screen."
  • Max Headroom featured many video phone conversations.
  • In Knight Rider, KITT is equipped with one. KI3T can use the windshield to project a multipart videoconference, to a similar effect.
  • Made sporadic appearances in the second season of War of the Worlds (1988).
  • The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Duplicate Man" has video phones with rotary dials.
  • Warehouse 13 has a very Diesel Punk version, made by and named after Philo Farnsworth, one of the inventors of TV.
  • Seemed commonplace in Robocop The Series.
  • General Beckman's interchanges with the Chuck team mostly happen through one of these, as do liaisons between the 'Castle' and various field operatives.
  • Everyone in Earth: Final Conflict has a Global, a cellphone-sized device with an ejectable touchscreen that allows face-to-face video chats. It is also a GPS and has several other functions. Pretty much a modern smartphone.
  • These were one of the few indications that most of the early-1970s Doctor Who UNIT stories were meant to be 20 Minutes into the Future.
  • UFO (1970):
    • Multiple examples in the episode "The Dalotek Affair".
      • Commander Straker is called on one of these by Blake, the president of the Dalotek corporation.
      • Commander Straker talks to Colonel Foster on the Moon using one.
      • The Dalotek base on the Moon uses one when Blake calls them.
      • SHADO operatives communicate through one between their Earth HQ and their moonbase.
    • "The Responsibility Seat" has another Moon-Earth conversation, this time between Colonel Foster and Colonel Freeman.
  • In the various Star Trek series, the characters communicate with visual communication links as often as they use audio only. The main difference is that in the Original Series, the crew itself typically communicates with each other with a visual element only when there is something that one of the respondents should see, such as the mysterious probe in "The Corbomite Maneuver."
  • Star Trek: Voyager:
    • B'Elanna Torres has one in her sonic shower for no logical reason, and is understandably annoyed when the Emergency Medical Hologram calls her there in the episode "Drone".
      EMH: I'm a doctor, not a peeping Tom. It's nothing I haven't seen before.
    • This trope saves Neelix's life in "Investigations". Jonas is sneaking up behind Neelix with a laser welder, when the EMH happens to make a call. As the EMH can see everything in the room, Jonas quickly stops what he's doing.
    • The imagizers in "Bride of Chaotica!", an Affectionate Parody of Flash Gordon, use the same activation sound effect as the video phones in that series.
  • Total Recall 2070: Ubiquitous in the future setting, usually with the detectives communicating with each other this way while they each go off on separate assignments.
  • Raumpatrouille made use of video phones a lot. You could also disable the video function if you wanted to.
  • The Man in the High Castle: Particularly in season 3, high-ranking characters frequently communicate with each other through black and white video phones.
  • The Outer Limits (1995): In "The Haven", Caleb Vance has a video cell phone.
  • Moonbase 3: A commonly used technology on both the moonbases and Earth in the series' version of 2003.
  • The Twilight Zone (1959): In "The Trade-Ins", the New Life Corporation receptionist tells Mr. Vance that there is a call for him on the video phone.
  • The Twilight Zone (1985):
    • In "To See the Invisible Man", Mitchell Chaplin calls MedEm over a video phone in order to receive medical assistance after being hit by a car. The nurse immediately hangs up when she sees the invisibility implant on Mitchell's forehead.
    • In "The Cold Equations", Captain Thomas Barton communicates with Commander Delhart and the Ship's Records clerk over a video phone. Marilyn Lee Cross later uses it to talk to her brother Gerry.
    • In "The Mind of Simon Foster", the title character uses one to talk to a counselor at the unemployment agency several times, including twice for job interviews.
  • The American version of The Challenge showed one of these when one of the contestants was talking to someone at his job. The machine did not look like a '2022' video call (The year this was first aired) but more like the machine booth in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  • The SeaQuest DSV is equipped with visual telecoms with a variety of connection methods, and judging by the range of people they contact across all three seasons, video communications are about as commonplace as they ended up becoming in real life in the same time frame.
  • Friends: Monica's season three boyfriend Pete Becker has videophones in his office and home. As the show is from the late 1990s, when this technology wasn't widely available, it's a way of establishing just how rich Pete is thanks to his software company.
  • All of the Pelemots of Pelemar in Through the Dragon's Eye have one. Gorwen's detaches from his scales, while Boris's is in his cap. This enables the search party in Widge to keep in contact with the Veetacore House to see how things are getting on. Unfortunately, due to the Veetacore exploding and the increased distance between the characters, the Video Phones are prone to static and interference, before they stop working entirely.

    Puppet Shows 
  • In eposide 69 of the German muppet show Hallo Spencer, Spencer has the so-called Visophon installed which allows him to communicate with the other inhabitants of the village, including the possibility of video conferences. One could say it's a modern-day video chat app on dedicated hardware, more than three decades early. Back then, the technology had to be Hand Waved. Interestingly, however, all we actually get to see of the Visophon is that it's integrated in the video screen that can be lowered behind Spencer in his studio, also because all Visophon calls are always only shown from his point of view.
  • Thunderbirds: The most prominent use was the family portraits in the lounge area, which could switch from a static image that appeared to be a photograph to a live video feed (how Brains solved the problem of screen burn-in is a mystery for the ages), but occasionally commercial units about the size of a payphone showed up. Also, in Day of Disaster, Brains makes a video call from his watchnote . The reboot, Thunderbirds Are Go, upgraded to holographic displays.

    Radio 
  • Journey into Space:
    • In The World in Peril, the control rooms of the asteroid ships are equipped with one way vision phones which are used for surveillance as well as communication.
    • In The Return from Mars, the crew's living quarters in Talia is equipped with a video phone operated by an artificial intelligence.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theatre 
  • Alan Ayckbourn's sci-fi play Henceforward features a video phone, though it's never answered; people just leave messages.

    Video Games 
  • ANNO: Mutationem: Video Phone calls are displayed as the image of both caller and receiver appear on the screen to the sides and are only audible to the ones being contacted.
  • Half-Life 2 features several Video Phone calls, notably between Alyx and her father. Extra points for touching the screen to emphasize the separation.
  • In Dead Space, Isaac has an ultra-hi-tech video phone with a projected holographic screen as part of the RIG suit's Comm Link. While the transmission is monochrome blue in Dead Space, the more advanced systems is Dead Space 2 are in full-color. Fun fact: the videophone's camera location is not Hand Waved like one would expect with a holographic Video Phone. In all communications, it's either on the wrist of the characters, or, more frequently, embedded into one of the nearby walls. Which means that the RIG is constantly on-line with the station/ship that Isaac is on.
  • In the Science Fiction Visual Novel Bionic Heart, video phones are common. Luke is seen using a smaller version in his apartment, then a large-screened version that fills an entire room at his office.
  • Holographic video phones exist throughout the Deus Ex series and seem to be as common as a house phone by the last (chronological) game, Deus Ex: Invisible War.
  • In The Day the World Broke, this is your means of contact with Julius and Bud while inside the Earth's core.
  • Players have a handheld one in Total Distortion, called the "DataBrick", which folds out into three screens. It is used to talk to multiple people back on Earth, upload music videos to buyers, and purchase items from various online stores.
  • In Myst IV: Revelation, Atrus' Crystal Viewer allows one to see and hear Ages remotely using crystals. This trope comes into play when the player briefly contacts Atrus in the Age of Rime, where he is simultaneously using another viewer there to reach you during an electromagnetic storm.
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel games, the characters use their ARCUS units, which let them cast Magic from Technology, as phones. Cold Steel III introduces the "Round of Seven" app, which lets the members of the old Class VII communicate with each other, complete with video phone. Later on, they begin communicating with other characters that have ARCUS by video phone as well.

    Web Comics 
  • Far Out There features video phones capable of communicating across vast interstellar distances. However, the technology doesn't seem to be quite as commonplace as other sci-fi settings. Only a few quarters on board The Exposition come equipped with their own private video phone, most passengers have to use the public phones. Further evidence suggests that most homes or ships only have one.
  • Leif & Thorn has spelltech which includes magic Skype.

    Web Originals 
  • The Journal Entries has a form commonly used for communicating between organics and androids of organic appearance (and Ken has a standing directive that the AIs managing his end are to put a noticeable image degradation in so that the image isn't uncomfortably real for him). Fixed AIs (for ships, buildings, regions, etc.) usually either just talk as a voice out of the air (most commonly the sky or ceiling, as most organics tend to look upward when speaking to AIs) or use a holographic projection (of the sort of body they would like if they were an organic) as a point of reference.

    Western Animation 
  • Batman Beyond: Future Gotham has plenty of video technology that's shared all over the city with callers seeing each other on the other end.
  • In C.O.P.S. (1988), videophones are the norm to the point that even public phone booths have screens; they are, after all, fighting crime in a future time. And yes, cell phones pretty much don't exist.
  • Danger Mouse has a video communication wall in his pillar box headquarters. He also has one in his car.
  • Videophone technology is available in Futurama; the main characters often also use cellular phones which resemble more modern phones but with built-in video.
  • Inspector Gadget: Penny could use her watch as one of these to communicate with her dog, Brain, who had a phone hidden in his collar.
  • Frequently seen in The Jetsons, fitting the show's Raygun Gothic aesthetic. The drawbacks are sometimes used for laughs such as the women having morning masks which are supposed to be quickly put on in case of calls coming in before they have made themselves up.
  • In ReBoot, this is how most calls are made, either by opening a vidwindow or over a device like Glitch's or Dot's organizer, which includes a 'communicator' among its functions. Voice-only communication is uncommon, but does happen occasionally.
  • One episode of The Simpsons taking place in the future, "Lisa's Wedding", showcases a conversation between Lisa and Marge using a "picture phone". Marge keeps forgetting that Lisa can see her over the phone, and her body language makes it more obvious when she's lying.
  • In The Smurfs (1981) episodes "The Smurfette" and "Smurfette Unmade", Smurfette and Gargamel use Magic Mirrors in this particular fashion when Smurfette was an "un-Smurf". Smurfette had hers hidden in a compact, making it look like a flip-top cell phone.
  • The Superfriends' TroubAlert has video communications technology that national leaders and even their enemies, the Legion of Doom, have made use of to contact them.
  • The title protagonists of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) have "turtle communicators", which resemble flip-top cellphones, only shaped like a turtle shell, and containing a video screen and camera.

    Real Life 
  • Most laptop computers now come with in-built webcams. Fancy-pants video streaming software, such as Skype or Google Talk, turns it into a Video Phone:
  • Pretty much every smartphone allows for two people with the phone to engage face-to-face calls, incorporating both the device's camera and speakerphone capabilities. Interoperability, however, is another matternote .
  • There are several phone apps that allow for video communications regardless of platform or provider, such as Skype for Android/iPhone or Snapchat.
  • Some 3G feature phonesnote  can do video calls, using the ITU 3G video call specification. On that note, ITU 3G video call compatibility is a standard feature on many Japanese and South Korean 3G Phones due to their culture demanding formal conversations be held eye-to-eye.
  • Business video conferencing systems, which record video and sound of an entire meeting room and project it on a big screen to allow people at other locations to join in.
  • Cisco Systems has produced several telecommunication devices which make long-distance face-to-face conversations possible that the company has notably been showcasing in an advertisement campaign with Elliot Page.
  • CUE NET and similar devices.
  • As described above and in The Other Wiki, the German Reichspost ran a public videophone service in 1936, though it was shut down due to WWII.
  • AT&T opened its first public videophone booths in the US — the Picturephone Mod I — in 1964, and was predicting a landline based/dedicated-hardware videophone as late as 1993. These were even on the market for a while in the US, but too few people wanted them for it to be commercially viable in the long term and they mostly just faded away.
  • The COVID-19 Pandemic caused a huge demand for teleconferencing programs due to the number of people working from home or streaming public events, leading to incidents like people being Underdressed for the Occasion which would have gone unnoticed without video.

 
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Video Example(s):

Alternative Title(s): Vid Phone, Wall Screen Call, TV Phone

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Ring Ring Ring

"Ring ring ring, this is the tin can phone!" The phone in "Rocket Saves the Day" is a tin can telephone. This is somehow the case despite it stretching from one town to another. Not only this, but it's also somehow a video phone despite being this.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (1 votes)

Example of:

Main / TinCanTelephone

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