Just 19 percent of U.S. adults have ever tried video calling of any kind, according to the survey of 3,001 adults. Perhaps not surprisingly, Internet users in the 18-29 age group were most likely to have done so, but only 29 percent of them had, Pew said.

"I think the adoption process is going to be relatively slow," Bajarin said. "If it does get adopted as a mainstream form of communication, I think it will be led by Gen Y," he said, referring to the group typically defined as the children of the Baby Boomers, now in their 20s or younger.

To some degree, video will make the case for itself as more people experience it, said Andrew Davis, also an analyst at Wainhouse.

"Once you get used to video calls, you realize how intimate it is, and how personal, and how rich video is," Davis said. "There are lots and lots of cases where video is inappropriate, but I do think that when it hits the cell phone and it's literally as easy as making a voice call, I think it will be a lot more prevalent."