Qik for iOS Lets iPhone, Android Users Converse

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Apple and Google’s smartphone rivalry doesn’t mean iPhone and Android users can’t video chat. Qik’s new iPhone app provides another way to do it.

Qik Video Connect for iPhone, fourth-generation iPod Touch and iPad 2 is available from the App Store now for $3. It includes video editing for conversations, live visual effects, HD video and quick syncing to the iPhone camera roll. A free version, without these extra features, is pending Apple’s approval.

Qik isn’t the first iPhone app to allow cross-platform video chat — Fring has offered this service since last July — but Qik comes pre-installed on a bunch of Android devices, including the HTC Evo 4G, T-Mobile MyTouch 4G, Samsung Epic 4G and Samsung Galaxy Tab. It’s also available in the Android Market for Motorola’s Atrix 4G.

In January, Skype announced plans to acquire Qik, raising questions of whether Qik would continue to operate as its own service. The new iPhone app suggests that Qik isn’t going away anytime soon, and that’s great because Skype doesn’t support video chat on Android phones. With another video chat option available to both iPhone and Android users, Facetime needn’t be the only way to have emotional family moments from a distance.