Top 5 video conferencing tools and its features

Dharshana Kathiresan, INN/Chennai, @Infodeaofficial 

Technological progression has upgraded our digital space with the aim of improvising the connection between people. Ample techniques have been incorporated via digital applications that enhance the experience of users and bring maximum accessibility to them.

This lockdown period has forced us to move towards video conferencing apps in order to process communication. The majority of the apps have been updated to bring new and efficient features for its users. Here are the top five video conferencing tools and their features.

Zoom

The rate of downloads and usage of the app Zoom has expanded since lockdown began, from friends catching up to governments holding cabinet meetings. Anecdotal evidence suggests that people simply find Zoom easy to use. The free version of Zoom allows you to invite up to 100 people to your meeting and up to 49 can appear on the screen. Attendees can join via the app, their web browser, or a traditional phone call.

You can hold unlimited meetings with video up to 720p quality and you can record your meetings locally. There’s also 24/7 online support for the users to approach. If you want to add a touch of color to your meetings, you can also use Zoom backgrounds, which happens to be a current trend right now.

In recent weeks, Zoom has been operating to tighten up their security issues and introduced new measures such as password-protect entry to meetings.

Google Hangouts

Most companies who restrict themselves from using zoom turn up to Google as it has its own platform for video conferencing. For starters, you can conduct video calls with up to 10 people via its own, free, instant messaging platform, Google Hangouts. Interactive Meetings and Webinars with small group members can be carried out through the app.

It is integrated with all the other main Google apps, such as Gmail and Google Calendar, and is very easy to use. You can set up a meeting and start chatting to people with just a few clicks, either in your web browser or via the Android, iOS, or Chrome apps. It keeps the interface really simple and the video, audio, and messenger conversations make it efficient for its users. The screen sharing and hangout session recording features are an addition.

GoToMeeting

While some apps like Zoom and Google Hangouts are broadly aimed at anyone wanting to organize a group chat, GoToMeeting is highly focused on being a serious tool for business. Supporting between 150 to 3,000 invitees, depending on your pricing plan, this service is packed with features to make your meetings organized and professional.

These include HD video, screen sharing, automatic transcription, unlimited cloud recording, whiteboard capabilities, support for note-taking, and 24/7 phone support. Hosts can launch meetings via their smartphones and can even pass over control to another person. Participants can join meetings via their browser, apps for Android, iOS, or a phone call. Starting at £9.50 a month there’s no free version of GoToMeeting, but users can take a free trial.

Skype

One of the original video chat apps, Microsoft’s Skype is still going strong, and the main benefit of using the platform for video conferencing is that most invitees are well familiar with it. Skype’s new addition ‘Meet Now’ offers some great video conferencing features, even in its free version. These include group calls to up to 50 people, screen sharing options, and most notably, the ability to automatically blur backgrounds. You can also record calls and add live subtitles to conversations. Participants can access Skype via the web browser or the desktop and mobile apps.

Also note that if you’re an Office 365 user, then you can also get access to Skype for Business, which allows you to invite up to 250 people and has some nice integrations with the Office 365 suite.

Slack

Today, Slack is one of the most popular team chat apps and it’s taken chats beyond just text and images. Slack added one to one voice calls to its desktop and mobile apps in 2016, following up by adding video to those calls.

To call a colleague in Slack, just open a channel or direct message and click the phone icon, then the call will start in a new window and a notification to the chat gets added. Calls feel a bit more like a normal phone call with video added on (tap the video icon to turn on video). Up to 15 people can join the call, but you can only make video calls from the desktop app, not mobile. You can also share your screen with others and they can annotate it—though there’s no dedicated whiteboard option.