Video chat and elderly relatives was a pain point in my life for a few years. I spent quite a lot of time finding a solution (spoiler: it's FaceTime and 4G iPad

Video chat and elderly relatives was a pain point in my life for a few years. I spent quite a lot of time finding a solution (spoiler: it's FaceTime and 4G iPads). Things I tried: - Initially, I tried Skype on a Windows laptop (around 2011). This was a nightmare for everyone. There were too many points of failure (wifi would disconnect and require a support phone call, Windows would update and require a phonecall to log back in, Skype would require an update and trigger a support call, etc). - Around 2013, I tried an Android tablet with the Skype App over wifi. This was just as bad as a laptop (the app was also pretty unstable. - I switched to Google Hangouts. The UI was an issue and was also unstable. - In 2014/2015, I gifted an old Macbook Air. I set this up with Facetime and also Skype. My relatives preferred Skype initially (since they had experience with the app), but I showed them how to make and answer FaceTime calls over a Christmas weekend and they picked it up in less than an hour. The MacBook setup was great, but it died in 2016. - In 2016, I gifted them an iPad with 4G. We continued communicating with FaceTime (and iMessage). This has been flawless for the past 4 years. I update the iPad each year over Christmas. I've only had one support call to install Snapchat (so my grandparents can keep in contact with a great-grandchild). If the iPad dies anytime soon, I would consider Facebook Portal as an alternative.