How Do You Communicate and Keep In Touch with 'Home'

[Pilotman]

I loath social media, but it's a necessity to keep in touch with family and friends at 'home'.  But I wonder how many of us have ditched Facebook for other means to stay in touch?  I use WhatsApp, Viber and Blue Jeans for calls to the kids and fiends  and e mail to pass on long messages.  Mrs P is of course addicted to bloody FB and so passes on pics etc to a thousand people, many of whom she doesn't even know.   I just don't get the attraction.  I have asked her in the strongest terms not to include references to me, or pics of me, on her FB page, I value my privacy too much. 

[Sujo]

I am a little lucky. I have fb but use it sparingly, its a pain and i dont like it.

 

My gf has her own fb and own friends. We do not have the same friends and deny mutual friends. Im lucky in that regard.

 

I just call my mother every few months to see if she is still alive. I am never in contact with my brothers unless my mother is sick.

 

I dont even have the phone numbers of my btothers, they message thru on messenger.

 

My life is in asia, my familys life is in australia. Im not overly interested. Im selfish like that.

 

Like you, its whatsapp etc for any contact.

[2 is 1]

I use WhatsApp for vdo call's whit my son. Same way txt/call's whit my fried's back in Finland. Whit my mom i call normal calls. And other "need to call" Finland. Phone bill last month (in Finnish sim) was 660€ (24k bth). I don't have Facebook nomore, delete that many years ago! I don't think it's necessary to know every second what other's are doing.

[tomazbodner]

Line messenger mostly. Hardest part is getting anyone outside Asia to install it.

[Sujo]

3 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

Line messenger mostly. Hardest part is getting anyone outside Asia to install it.

True that.

I think thailand loves line and viber. Malaysia we use whatsapp and to a lesser extent wechat.

 

I do like whatsapp.

[poohy]

Whatsapp mainly , but sometimes Facebook

I do have Line but its mostly  unheard of in  UK

[Davo369]

Smoke signals 

[bert bloggs]

use whatsapp and line ,use facebook to look but dont post,not interested ,also have a cat card if i have to call a landline .

[Pattaya Spotter]

Primarily Whats App for both text and video communication, along with Messenger [FB] for a couple friends who are partial to that platform. There is a new Google video chat platform, Duo, which you may want to try if you are partial to Google products. I believe you can video link for free with anyone with another Google account (G-Mail account).

Edited August 18, 2020 by Pattaya Spotter

[AhFarangJa]

How Do You Communicate and Keep In Touch with 'Home'

I just wait for the Wife or Son to come up for air from their mobiles, then ask if everything is ok.........

[scorecard]

28 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

Line messenger mostly. Hardest part is getting anyone outside Asia to install it.

My family all have LINE installed on their phone and some also on the notebooks. We use LINE videochat often, totally simple and easy to operate, and free. 

 

My sons' buddy abroad was convinced it couldn't / wouldn't work across countries then we showed him myself in Sydney talking to my son and his kids in Chiang Mai.

 

He was convinced and 30 minutes later made his first call from Europe to Chiang Mai. Excellent video and audio quality. He's since got many in his family in several countries to install LINE. All delighted with the quality, super easy operation and free

 

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by scorecard

[toofarnorth]

My son in law on a visit a year ago gave me a laptop.  I only use it for skype , I think that is why he gave it to me.  So I skype once a month and my TW keeps pics. coming and stuff on her wassup/line/sit on my face book things.  My 12 yo Nokia can't do this stuff.

[stouricks]

Skype still works fine. Google Duo, Messenger, WhatsApp, Zoom all work and are FREE to use.

Last Sunday we had a Family Quiz night with relatives in UK, Wales!, Los Angeles, Dubai and me in Thailand. Worked a treat. 

[Keyser Soze666]

Keep in touch with family and friends back home? Ha ha good one. Why would you want to do that? No one gives a monkies about us over here. We are just a bit weird ending up over here posting on forums for most of the day. You left, so you need to stop thinking too much, Pilot.

[DrTuner]

Skype calls, as it has been for last 15y or so. No need to be connected 24/7.

[PatOngo]

Courier pigeon!

[connda]

Facebook.  It's really all it's good for.  Posting pictures of food and pets and keeping up with the family who are posting pictures of food and pets and keeping up with family. 

[northsouthdevide]

3 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

just wait for the Wife or Son to come up for air from their mobiles, then ask if everything is ok.........

I usually just shout loudly from my bed room...... Mother!!! 

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

FaceTime with the daughter and granddaughter, WhatsApp with the son .

 

Use Facebook to keep in touch with some old friends back home and ex work colleagues but that is slowly getting more infrequent, could delete fb right now and not be missed ????

[Keyser Soze666]

13 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

 

 

Use Facebook to keep in touch with some old friends back home and ex work colleagues but that is slowly getting more infrequent, could delete fb right now and not be missed ????

You may as well, believe me nobody back 'home' gives a hoot at what you might be up to. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Keyser Soze666

[ColeBOzbourne]

I use Beta Versions of Hybrid apps to interconnect my iPhone-15 and my Android with Application Programming Interfaces in Artificial Intelligence and APP Provisioning on iOS platforms linked to FaceTime through WhatsApp and Skype in the airplane mode of my 3D Touch i-Cloud app downloaded from Google Duo. Or sometimes I just scribble something on a postcard and send it by regular mail.

[DrTuner]

21 minutes ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

I use Beta Versions of Hybrid apps to interconnect my iPhone-15 and my Android with Application Programming Interfaces in Artificial Intelligence and APP Provisioning on iOS platforms linked to FaceTime through WhatsApp and Skype in the airplane mode of my 3D Touch i-Cloud app downloaded from Google Duo. Or sometimes I just scribble something on a postcard and send it by regular mail.

You could send messages using the RFC 1149 protocol.

 

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149

[dsj]

I still have a mobile phone and # from my home country, (Canada put in airplane mode and turn on wifi), with an unlimited minutes and SMS plan, so I  use WiFi calling. I also use Line and Whatsapp.

[Bender Rodriguez]

22 hours ago, Pilotman said:

bloody FB and so passes on pics etc to a thousand people, many of whom she doesn't even know.

ideal platform for narcissists... look at me, how good I pretend to be (better than you)

 

have an ex-MIL, only pics of herself & food & expensive hotels & trips

[phetphet]

FaceTime, Skype, Telegram, and AIS 003 cheap international call package for most. Occasionally LINE. 

 

There are many other apps such as Signal, recommended by Edward Snowden as the most secure, Safe Swiss, Threema, Wire, and Wickr Me. The problem is only a few friends on each.

 

WhatsApp seems to be the one that everyone uses, but that uses Signals software, and is only more popular because it is connected to FaceBook. I don't use either FB or WhatsApp.

Edited August 19, 2020 by phetphet

[4MyEgo]

21 hours ago, Sujo said:

I am a little lucky. I have fb but use it sparingly, its a pain and i dont like it.

 

My gf has her own fb and own friends. We do not have the same friends and deny mutual friends. Im lucky in that regard.

 

I just call my mother every few months to see if she is still alive. I am never in contact with my brothers unless my mother is sick.

 

I dont even have the phone numbers of my btothers, they message thru on messenger.

 

My life is in asia, my familys life is in australia. Im not overly interested. Im selfish like that.

 

Like you, its whatsapp etc for any contact.

Pretty much the same as you, will call mum once a month, twice but that rare, but with her having dementia and being hard for her to hear it gets depressing, and I know she bluffs her way through the conversation, yes, yes it's good here, and how are you, that's good, call anytime you like, bye now is pretty much the same thing every month.

 

My daughter is usually on messenger or video call on LINE, and pretty much everyone else through messenger, although the handful of close friends are through LINE, WhatsApp being a rare message or two, emails, well for work mostly.

 

Like you my life and family is in Thailand, as for my brothers, never contact them unless there is a problem with mum and that is by email so I have a trail if they respond. 

 

Nothing wrong with being selfish, people make their beds, they lay in them, we plan our lives and have our own beds to sleep in so I won't feel guilty for their misplannings.

[BritManToo]

22 hours ago, Pilotman said:

But I wonder how many of us have ditched Facebook for other means to stay in touch?

 I use Facebook, but only a few distant relatives and past friends bother a couple of times a year.

Never heard from my 4 children since the divorce 12 years back.

[Pilotman]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

 I use Facebook, but only a few distant relatives and past friends bother a couple of times a year.

Never heard from my 4 children since the divorce 12 years back.

That is sad.  Losing touch with your kids is a tragedy.  Being so far away from our 3 children is the one very big downside for my wife and me of living here.  We discussed the move as a family some years back and if they had not agreed that it was workable, we would not have come to live here.   Covid will stop us all meeting up for this year's planned Christmas holiday and that makes us all very sad.  

[animalmagic]

22 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

use whatsapp and line ,use facebook to look but dont post,not interested ,also have a cat card if i have to call a landline .

Pardon my stupidity but what is a CAT card?  I used to use prepaid calling cards from 7-11 but they are not available any more.

Dear old mum is not too hot on technology, and Godmum hates it.

[spetersen]

Skype, WhatsApp and FaceTime ( FT req. Apple device) and all of them are free...