At Virtual Health Partners, all our client interaction involves the internet, whether that’s smartphone, tablet, or computers. Because of this, we’re always looking at the trends in technology. While it’s clear that most people own a smartphone, what’s harder to judge can be tablet ownership. iPads and growing competitors like Microsoft’s tablet – the Surface – are getting into the hands of more Americans every year. While only 4% of American adults owned a tablet in 2010, that number spiked at the end of 2016 to more than half of the population owning one.
It’s not only tablet use that’s growing, but video chat as well. While video chat is popular on tablets, many are using software like WhatsApp and facetime on their phones and computers too. WhatsApp – a leader in messaging and video – released their data showing their users are spending a total of 340 million minutes every day on video chat. This number does not include other popular videochat software like Facetime and Skype. While Facetime has not released their usage stats in the past few years, in 2013 they announced there were 15 – 20 million Facetime calls made per day. In 2015, Skype reportedly managed 3 billion minutes of user calls every day.
Although teens tend to be the most comfortable with video chat, adults are increasing their usage as well. According to Gartner research, over 50 million adults in the US use their smartphones for video calling.
Virtual Health Partner’s platform allows for 1 on 1 nutritionist appointments, either over video chat or phone calls. We’ve found that a majority of our users choose video for their appointments. While the phone can be great for calls done from a car, or on a walk between meetings, some people feel that the video chat aspect of the platform gives them an even more personal connection to their nutritionist.
While it may sound intimidating at first, all age groups are now embracing the video feature on both tablets & phones. If you are a client of Virtual Health Partners, and have never done a video chat appointment, we’re happy to walk you through the process; it’s worth trying!
