Video calls (also known as videoconferencing) between patients and professionals located in different places is now established healthcare practice. For people with life-shortening illnesses, video calls are a way to receive emotional support, like counselling, arts therapies, psychology, chaplaincy or social work. There are advantages and challenges to providing such help by video when people only see each other on a computer or smartphone screen. Patients and professionals have differing opinions about the value of videoconferencing. Some welcome spending less time and money travelling to appointments when these can happen in their own homes. Others worry that video calls may reach more people but reduce the quality of care provided. Video calls require equipment and skills to use it, excluding people who lack these. This qualitative case study research investigates how, why, in which circumstances and who is helped by successfully using video calls for emotional support in palliative care. Observations and interviews with a range of staff and service users of three adult palliative care organisations will be compared to existing research findings and theories to gain an understanding of the conditions needed for palliative care organisations to successfully meet the emotional needs of patients and loved ones in their final phase of life.