History Main / VideoPhone

* In a future-set ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' 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.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: 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.

* One ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' 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.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E96TheTradeIns The Trade-Ins]]", the New Life Corporation receptionist tells Mr. Vance that there is a call for him on the video phone.

** 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 Series/SeaQuestDSV 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.

!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Some were seen in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'' 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.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', TheFuture [=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 [[ProductPlacement sponsored by AT&T]].
** According to the novelization, Marty's daughter Marlena had special video glasses that also acted as a phone.

* Featured in ''Film/UntilTheEndOfTheWorld''. Video payphones also take credit cards.

* Film/AustinPowers has one in his car. Very helpful for [[MisterExposition Basil Exposition]] to talk to him.

* These are used in the original ''{{Film/Total Recall|1990}}'' 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 FakeStatic trick, blaming sunspot interference.
* ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. Burke leaves MyCard in case Ripley changes her mind about going on the mission to find out what happened to the colony on [=LV426=]. After her next CatapultNightmare, Ripley sticks the card in her videophone where it automatically connects her to a sleepy Burke.

* ''Film/ThisIslandEarth''. The protagonists get sent the components of an "interocitor" which they assemble as a [[OnlySmartPeopleMayPass 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 TheFifties a live high-resolution color TV image is regarded as incredible (and [[AliensAmongUs otherworldly]], as it turns out) technology.

* In ''Franchise/DeadSpace'', Isaac has an ultra hi-tech video phone with a projected [[HolographicInterface holographic screen]] as part of the RIG suit's [[CommLinks Comm Link]]. While the transmission is monochrome blue in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'', the more advanced systems is ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' are in full-color. Fun fact: the videophone's camera location is ''not'' {{Hand Wave}}d 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 [[EverythingIsOnline the RIG is constantly on-line]] with the station/ship that Isaac is on.

* In the ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' games, the characters use their [=ARCUS=] units, which let them cast MagicFromTechnology, 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.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' taking place in the future, "Lisa's Wedding," showcased a conversation between Lisa and Marge using a "picture phone." Marge kept forgetting that Lisa could see her over the phone, and her body language made it more obvious to tell when she was lying.

* In ''WesternAnimation/COPSAnimatedSeries'', 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.

* These show up almost everywhere a regular phone would in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''.

* ''Series/TotalRecall2070'': Ubiquitous in the future setting, usually with the detectives communicating with each other this way while they each go off on seperate assignments.

* A ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' fan-made reboot has every home, business and government building use futuristic video phones akin to the Picture Phone from ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'' but with the sci-GI appearance and viewscreens one can expect from the former's Mobius.

* A ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' fan-made reboot has every home, business and government building use futuristic video phones akin to the Picture Phone from ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'' but with the sci-gi appearance and viewscreens one can expect from the former's Mobius.

* A ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' fan-made reboot has every home, business and government byulding use futuristic video phones akin to the Picture Phone from ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'' but with the sci-gi appearance and viewscreens one can expect from the former's Mobius.

--->'''EMH:''' [[ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder I'm a doctor, not a peeping Tom]]. It's nothing I haven't seen before."

* ''JohnnyMnemonic'' 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 [[Literature/TheBible Bible]] (or whatever Holy Book equivalent he has). Video phone screens are also branded with [[ProductPlacement AT&T's company logo]], AT&T having tried to develop such technology since the 1960s.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "The Haven", Caleb Vance has a video cell phone.

* Frequently seen in ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', fitting the show's RaygunGothic aesthetic. The drawbacks are sometimes used for laughs such as the women have morning masks which are supposed to be quickly put on in case of calls coming in before they have made themselves up.

* The Challenge USA : a competition reality show (basically a version of the challenge with cbs formal reality competition contestants.) 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 Space Odyssey 2001. It was definitely not consume model at the very least. This event happened season 1 of the show.

* The Challenge USA : a competition reality show (basically a version of the challenge with cbs formal reality competition contestants.) 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 Space Odyssey 2001. This event happened season 1 of the show.

* ''Series/{{UFO}}''

** "The Responsibility Seat". Another Moon-Earth conversation, this time between Colonel Foster and Colonel Freeman.

* ''{{Series/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 ([[FridgeLogic 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. The reboot, ''Film/ThunderbirdsAreGo'', upgraded to holographic displays.

->''"It was a perennial technology of the future. [...] But then out of nowhere the videophone was suddenly just here."''

* Spoofed in the second ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' movie. Someone on the moonbase turns on a screen and after some static and wavy lines appear is able to get through to Creator/WilliamShatner. 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 ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'' movie Sir James Bond calls Vesper on the video ShoePhone 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.
* ''Literature/SevenDaysInMay''. The White House and Pentagon use video teleconferencing in their TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture world.
* ''Film/ProjectMoonbase''. The female President of the United States speaks to the brave astronauts who've just landed on the moon via a [[SpecialEffectsFailure hole in the wall]].
* ''Film/TheCrazies1973''. 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 [[InvisiblePresident sitting with his back to the camera]], one wonders why Creator/GeorgeRomero didn't just have him talking over a telephone speaker.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' have holographic technology that transmit a full body image of who's talking.
* Played with in ''The Osterman Weekend''. A CoincidentalBroadcast (actually a video feed) on the illicit use of Swiss bank accounts appears on television as part of the MindScrew 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 OhCrap 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.

* ''Film/TheseAreTheDamned'' (1963). The nine children that 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 [[spoiler:because the children are a radioactive WalkingWasteland.]]
* ''Film/{{Barbarella}}''. After the famous TitleSequence involving the heroine doing a zero-G striptease, the President of Earth calls on the SubspaceAnsible and Barbarella answers the call [[InnocentFanserviceGirl 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, [[CovertPervert right.]]

[[caption-width-right:324:It's the wave of the future, but it's a shame the bad guys had it first.]]

[[caption-width-right:324:It's the wave of the future, but it's a shame [[{{Zeerust}} we couldn't find ways to improve those rotary dials or black-and-white cathode ray display]].]]

* Holographic video phones exist throughout the VideoGame/DeusEx series and seem to be as common as a house phone by the last (chronological) game, VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar.

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 [[TheInternetIsForPorn outside of the porn business]] and people in long-distance relationships.

[[folder:Film]]