With most office workers still stuck at home due to, y’know, the apocalypse, many startups and small businesses have resorted to using video conferencing apps to conduct their meetings and other workplace functions.
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The quarantine has provided fertile ground for video chat apps to proliferate. With so many to choose from, finding the one that will work best for your team might seem daunting, but we’re here to help.
All of the apps we’re going to discuss here are feature-rich, robust, and trustworthy. Certain issues aside, you can rest assured that any information you send on these services is secure.
They’re also all capable of features such as file sharing and screen sharing. Certain features, such as additional storage, additional security benefits, and live customer support, are only available on the paid or enterprise-level versions of these apps.
Zoom is easily the most popular and well-known video conferencing application today, likely due to its prominence in culture and the media at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some fast facts about Zoom.
Use Zoom if you want to keep things simple or have a big team. Zoom has perhaps the best interface of all of the video conferencing services, and can host the most participants. In addition, if you want to away from the eye of mega-corporations like Microsoft and Google, Zoom will probably be your best bet.
Skype is the OG of video chat platforms, and has certainly had the most time to build itself up. It still might have the perception of being that old tool you used to video chat with your grandparents in the pre-smartphone era, but since it’s purchase by Microsoft in 2011, it has evolved into a robust video conferencing tool.
With its “Meet Now” feature, you can video chat with up to 50 people with no time limits on meetings. It’s not particularly well-advertised, resulting in it not being used as much at the small business level, but its fairly high capacity of users and its integration with Outlook should entice any team.
There is also a paid version of Skype (Skype for Business) that adds additional enterprise features such as file sharing, but it’s set to be integrated into Microsoft Teams by 2021, so you’re probably better off choosing between Skype or Teams.
Use Skype if you won’t need too many enterprise features and have a tight-knit team. Skype isn’t exactly barebones, but if you know you’ll need additional security features or Microsoft Office integration, you should look into Microsoft’s other video conference offering, Teams, discussed below.
If you know that you won’t need those tools and are wondering of Microsoft Teams’ recent updates on its capacity and video chat length cap will revert like Google Meet’s post-pandemic, it might be worth your time to get your team set on Skype.
Teams is another Microsoft video conferencing product that, up until recently, has primarily targeted enterprise users. With a recent update due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft bumped their maximum users in a Teams chat from 20 to 250, and the app’s 24 hour cap on conference calls was similarly ousted.
Most of the key features a startup or small business will need to use can be found in the free version of Teams, though if you know you will need more file storage, meeting recordings, and guaranteed uptime, the paid version can be yours for as low as $5, with costs increasing as your data needs do.
Use Microsoft Teams if you need the Microsoft Office and Office 365 integration. While some of these features are available sporadically in Skype and Skype Business, Teams will be the way to go to guarantee that you will have access to all of the features you might need.
Google Meet is currently providing its entire feature set for free until September 30th. Until that deadline comes, Meet can give you 300 hour-long meetings with up to 250 participants, and you also have full access to try the app’s deep set of security features.
Use Google Meet if your team uses Gmail and Google Drive. If you’re already deep into Google’s infrastructure, Google Meet will certainly meet all of your needs. Gmail already has Google Meet built right in, and if you need to record your chats, the Enterprise Essentials edition can save your recordings directly into your Google Drive.
When scheduling an appointment, Qbitt automatically creates rooms in your favorite video conferencing apps like Zoom and Google Meet. See what else Qbitt can do for you on iOS, Android, and in your web browser!
