Let's Get Ready to Rumble... About Video Conferencing Software!
If anything good came out of the COVID era (aside from a more pants-optional lifestyle), it was the widespread adoption of virtual meeting platforms. They had been around for years before 2020, but taking a Zoom meeting was definitely the exception in the Before Times. Let’s compare our options!
Does ZOOM MEET the Needs of Your TEAMS?
See what I did there? Anyway, the office tech competition used to be whether you were an Apple or a PC person, but that has shifted a bit to video conferencing software. Now you get a meeting invite from someone you work with, and if it’s not what you’re used to, your reaction can range from a smile, to a scoff, to frustration that you need to download yet another new program.
There’s no longer room for skepticism or delaying the adoption of video conferencing software. With an increasingly distributed workforce, if you aren’t willing to at least sometimes use one of the many options out there, you’re certainly losing out on some new connections and opportunities. Let’s take a look at the three most popular options and how they compare.
Zoom
Zoom combines simplicity with a feature-packed interface that can work for a quick call or a webinar of 1,000+ folks. There are a ton of options you can select like: Q&A, raising a virtual hand, breakout rooms, registration, AI assistance, captioning, polls, group note-taking, shared whiteboards, spotlighting, a robust chat... and probably more since I started working on this newsletter. One that always seems to get people excited is you can use the space bar to unmute yourself temporarily. Seriously, it's almost too much.
Plus the video quality of recordings is pretty great.
The free tier of Zoom has some limitations, like only being able to meet for 40 minutes and limiting attendees to 100. Beyond that you’ll need to sign up for one of their paid plans, which gives you essentially unlimited meeting time (okay, 30 hours). The Pro plan will run you $15.99 per user, and going up to the $19.99 Business plan lets you invite up to 300 attendees. And you can go over that if you're willing to pay.
Because of the flexibility we need from a quick call in a personal Zoom room to a 300 person two day event with a landing page to sign up, multiple presenters, etc., Zoom works well for the Bureau. But it ain't cheap and they are changing things constantly which can be frustrating.
Google Meet
The biggest advantage of Google Meet is probably its integration into the Google ecosystem. If your office is already using their products, it’s a natural extension of what you’re used to. If you’ve used Google Chat, you’re ready to use Meet. It’s really simple to use, with less of a learning curve than Zoom (at least, if you’re on gmail), but it doesn’t offer as many bells and whistles as Zoom.
Google Meet has a free basic plan that gives you access to 60-minute meetings, so a little more than Zoom. You get 30 GB of storage per user and basic security controls. Again, it lets you invite up to 100 participants. Beyond that, there are three paid tiers starting at $6 per month, per user, with a one-year commitment required. For that the time limit is removed, but for more users you’ll have to go up to at least $12.
So it's definitely cheaper, integrates well and as meetings get shorter the free version is a solid option. But if you're doing bigger events versus video calls, it can be a little clunky and limiting.
Microsoft Teams
For the Microsoft fans out there (I know two personally!), Teams is another contender. It’s more of a full collaboration tool, and beyond hosting meetings it’s simple to share resources and notes, and you can even get live captioning in multiple languages. Some of the chat features are only available to people within your organization, but you also get access to robust chat features including GIFs and customizable stickers.
The free version of Teams lets you schedule meetings for up to an hour, and unlimited 1:1 meetings, as well as 5 GB free storage and data encryption. Upgrading to the Essential plan opens up the participants to 300 for $4 per month per user and doubles the storage. For $6 you get 1 TB of cloud storage and custom email domains.
Teams seems to get knocked the most for requiring people to download an update. So if this is your jam, you know to tell people to show up a little early or you may just be patient knowing they got held up at the door.
There are dozens of other options, and some like Slack are handling the quick call need pretty easily with features like huddles. Whatever you choose, focus on the experience of the person joining you.
Meetings aren’t always productive, but signing up for the right conferencing solution can at least give you a head start on the experience side. Even if you have something in place, I recommend you keep looking at other options to see if you’re missing anything that would make things better for you and your team.
And to be completely transparent, all three we recommended have one chronic issue. We can’t hear you when you're muted!