Thanks Joan. I have weChat. it is interesting but i don't know enough Mandarin to understand what's there. I have a lot to learn... [I have 3 friends there, which is more than i expected. Two of which have invited me to visit them when i go there.] Facebook? Its not exactly good, here... I would rather trust weChat. Thanks again. 再见

Hi Russ! The iOS app for italki should be released within a few months. This will make using the community features easier for you. Your lessons will still take place over Skype, or you can find a teacher that can use Facetime which is a great program for iPad and iPhone. If you are learning Mandarin, make sure to download 微信 (weixin) The english version is called WeChat and you can get it for free in the App store. Wechat is what everyone uses to communicate in China instead of text messaging or calling. When you make Chinese friends, it will be much easier to keep in touch with them if you have a WeChat account! Happy learning! 加油！

Sadly there is no such app. Skype is pretty good though. Almost all of the italki teachers use it. Skype is engineered for simplicity, reliability and performance, and you can instant message, voice call, video call, screen share, etc. And works on all devices :) I'd be interested to hear what the perceived difficulties are.

HelloTalk is pretty close, and though it's for any language, it was created initially for Chinese learners. Voice messages, text messages with correction or translations, voice and video chatting. And it's free! Whaa!