Eyeball Chat allows text message exchanges with individuals or conferences, and with AIM, Google Talk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo!

[5] At its introduction in October 2000, features of the software included "proprietary media delivery technology", a contact list to monitor online and offline status and to enable a one-click video chat session, control of picture size, frame rate, and audio performance, and other "media quality attributes".

"[9] Upon its release, the software was described in The Washington Post as "the first Web video chat service I've tested that seems easy to use" and "similar to videoconferencing programs from Microsoft and other companies, but simpler, and it provides high-quality images.

"[10] Beta version 0.9 of Eyeball Chat LE was reviewed in Internet Telephony Magazine, which stated, "the video and audio quality can be very good, especially with a first-rate camera.

[13] The PC Magazine May 2001 review of Eyeball Chat LE v1.21 approved of the product's "breadth of control", including image resizing, automatic or manual frame rate and quality adjustments, and its management features for call blocking, information privacy, and text chatting or video answering of calls.

The program's connectivity to AIM, MSN, and Yahoo for sending recorded video messages, real-time video with other Eyeball users, and its installation simplicity were all listed as "pros", but its "hyped-to-the-hilt video-message delivery service"'s inability to interoperate from behind a firewall, lack of ICQ support, no private chat rooms, and "nearly nonexistent" technical support were listed as "cons".

[18] In its May 2011 review of Eyeball Chat 3.1, BSTDownload.com gave the software 4.5/5 stars, stating that it can "import buddies from other services like Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and MSN", "supports drag-and-drop file sharing and video conferencing (5 simultaneous users maximum)," has picture-in-picture, and snapshots during video chat, can make audio-only PC to PC calls, has an "embedded address book," and supports custom avatars.

[20] The Dutch Personal Computer Magazine gave the software 2.5 (of 5) stars, called its microphone operation "slow" and the process of adding a contact "clumsy", disliked that the incoming call window is not automatically moved to the front of other windows, and that since Eyeball Chat does not use invitations (like Skype), it's not possible to see who is adding you to their contacts list.