Yeah I actually came to the grid layout by starting with the camera. We made the camera a circle because we saw that crop + the top placement focuses your eye on the the camera. A lot of video chat has the user staring downwards, which was awkward. And with the circle shape, we got to the Pop metaphor, and then I nerded out on comic books and thought it'd be cool to have every conversations be on one screen in panels.
We're starting out with a simple focus - just video - and see where we can with that. I'm a big fan of obvious solutions to obvious problems... and the problem now is that phone calls, texting and video chat all have drawbacks.
Hipmunk