4 video conferencing tools we've tried: Pros & Cons

"Hello, can you hear me?" "I can hear you, can you hear me?" " Yes, yes I hear-"

With teams working remotely, a lot of the working day now happens in video calls. These are the four tools we have used most, with what we liked and didn't like about each, so you can work out which suits you.

1. Google Meet

Time limit: None

User limit:

• Regular = 100
• G Suite Business = 150
• G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education = 250

Pros:

• Works with other Google services like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive and Hangouts Chat. You can book a meeting in advance in Google Calendar, which generates the Google Meet link, and the invites go out to your participants through Gmail.
• For G Suite users given access by the admin, meetings can be recorded and automatically stored in Google Drive.
• Has a 'live caption' option which converts speech to text/subtitles.

Cons:

• No 2-way screen sharing. Only one participant can share their screen at a time.
• The grid shows only 16 participants at once.

You can try Google Meet here: https://meet.google.com/

2. Zoom

Time Limit:

• Free accounts = 40-minutes
• Paid accounts = 24 hours

User Limit: 100

Pros:

• Has a virtual background feature that allows you to display an image or video as your background during a meeting.
• Video webinars in Zoom scale from 100 to 10, 000 view-only attendees, with up to 100 interactive video participants.
• Features like cloud and local recording, Zoom meetings and Rooms, and integrated scheduling.

Cons:

• Zoom has had reported issues with security, non-encrypted communication, cloud vulnerabilities and the possibility of hacking.
• You can join calls without installing the Zoom desktop application, but the web version is limited. You cannot appear on video, and the interface is not very friendly.

You can try Zoom here: https://zoom.us/

3. Skype

Time Limit:

Maximum of

• 4 hours/individual video call
• 10 hours/ day
• 100 hours/month

User Limit: 50

Pros:

• Skype to Skype messaging, voice and video calls are free. Calling mobiles and landlines from Skype needs a subscription.
• Has live subtitles, which help if your speakers aren't loud enough.
• Can record calls.
• Has a "blur background" feature that hides the clutter in your office or home.

Cons:

• The user limit of 50 makes it good for small businesses and classes only.

You can try Skype here: https://www.skype.com/en/

4. BlueJeans

Time Limit: Unlimited

User Limit:

• Standard = 50
• Pro = 75
• Enterprise = 100

Pros:

• User interface is friendly.
• Extra call features like Facebook live integration, "Annotation", "Whiteboard", "Breakout Session" and meeting highlights. All of them except FB live are in the desktop app.
• Can record calls.

Cons:

• Paid tool, with 7-day free trial.
• The interface is heavy and takes a while to install and load.

You can try BlueJeans here: https://www.bluejeans.com/

If you have found other tools that are not on this list, tell us about them. We also wrote a post with practical tips to stay productive while working from home.