Start a video call: tap Video in the chat or your friend's profile. Or, during a voice call with a friend, tap Video to switch the call to video.
The video screen:
- Their video fills the screen, and yours is small in the corner — drag it to either side.
- At the top: their name, the timer, 🔒 Encrypted and their local time.
- Bottom bar: Mute, Speaker, Camera (off/on), Flip (front and back), Translate, More, and end.
- Side buttons (floating at the side of the screen): React, Draw, Effects and Show me the place.
- If they turn their camera off you see their sky and photo instead. If they mute themselves you see "Muted".
React: tap to send a ❤️ that flies across both screens. Long-press for a row of more reactions.
Effects: tap Effects to open a strip with two tabs:
- Filters: None, Blur (blurs your background), Soft look, Brighten (for a dark room) and 14 colour filters — Warm, Cool, Cinematic, Teal & orange, Dramatic, Night, Black & white, Noir, Old film, Faded, Sunset, Dawn, Golden hour and Sky.
- Lenses: playful effects that follow your face — Star crown, Sunglasses, Clouds, Rosy cheeks, Party hat and Sky arc. The first time you choose a lens, Tellu downloads a small face model (about 4 MB) once.
- Every call starts fresh: filters and lenses aren't remembered, so a new call begins without them.
Gesture reactions (off by default — turn them on in More): make a gesture to the camera and Tellu sends the reaction for you:
- Heart with your hands
- Thumbs up
- Both hands up
- Hand kiss: fingertips to your lips, then open your hand — sends 💋
- Lip kiss: pucker your lips like a kiss — sends 💋
The first time you turn them on, Tellu downloads the gesture and face models (about 12 MB) once — Wi-Fi is best.
Draw: tap Draw and draw with your finger on the video to point at something. You both see it, and it fades after 4 seconds.
Show me the place: ask the other person to show you where they are. If they tap Allow, their back camera turns on so you see what's around them, and their face stays small in the corner. They can stop showing at any time.
More: Noise removal (sends only your voice), Follow me (keeps your face centred as you move), Gesture reactions, Translation languages and the call settings.
Smart suggestions: at most once per call, Tellu may suggest something useful — Brighten when it's dark, Noise removal when it's noisy around you, and gesture reactions on your first video call. Don't want them? Turn off Tips during video calls in settings.
Incoming video call: you see your own camera behind the ringing screen before you answer (only you — nothing is sent before you answer), even with your phone locked. And you can:
- Answer with voice only — without turning your camera on.
- Turn camera off before answering.
Translation in video shows like movie subtitles over the picture: their words translated in large letters, and what you said below. When one of you turns it on, it turns on for both of you (see 3.2).
Privacy: all video effects — filters, blur, lenses and gestures — run only on your phone: no picture is sent to Tellu for them, and the points of your face are never stored or sent. A direct call between the two phones means the other person can see your internet (IP) address, as on WhatsApp. Don't want that? More → Privacy → Protect my address in calls — all your calls go through Tellu's server (slightly lower quality).
You need: Camera and microphone permission (Tellu asks the first time), and good internet — Wi-Fi is best.