APPS / MEETING SPECIAL .....You’ll never be late to meetings with these conferencing apps

You’ll never be late to meetings with these conferencing apps

Making video calls while on the move has never been so easy and inexpensive as it is now. You only need to invest in a decent headset before connecting with your peers, colleagues or business partners. Even for corporates and those requiring reliable services, there are tools that make video conferencing an affordable application.

Sure, Skype is one of the most popular applications that comes with a lot of momentum and popularity. But it is still lagging in terms of video. Only one-to-one communication is allowed, unless there are some third-party plugins. Here are some other video conferencing apps that can make video conferencing a cakewalk:

ezTalks Free Cloud Meeting

If you have a web meeting, conference call, whiteboard meeting or online meeting scheduled while you are still travelling, then ezTalks is your app. It lets you share videos, documents, audio and connect with 100 participants, once you integrate it to your company portal. If you land up in a no-internet zone, ezTalks Meetings service also offers a Telephone Dial-in feature to continue with your online meetings.

Cisco Webex Meetings

Don’t let being away from the office slow your business down. The Cisco Webex Meetings app lets you experience productive meetings from wherever you are. It allows screen sharing, chat, and more. Other features include joining a meeting with a single tap, customisable video layouts, and you can schedule meetings directly from the app. While the app itself is a little clunky, the video quality is decent and stable. Pricing varies. You may need to contact Cisco for the exact pricing.

GoToMeeting

It is another popular app in the video conferencing space that lets you take your work with you on the road and across the globe. It supports 15 participants in the lowest subscription tier and 25 in the higher tiers. The app lets you join or host a meeting on any Android phone or tablet, share your full device screen with everyone in your meeting, hand-off presentation control to other attendees to view presentations, mockups, reports, see all your upcoming meetings and join with a single tap, and receive alerts when a meeting is about to start.

Hangouts Meet

Tech giant Google gave up on Hangouts as a consumer product. But the application is still popular as a business software (G Suite). Meet takes the headaches out of joining a video call at work. Just set up a meeting and share a link. No worrying about whether teammates, clients, or customers have the right accounts or plug-ins. With a fast interface and smart participant management, multi-person video calls are a breeze here. However, you must be locked into Google’s ecosystem to use this app while most other apps are standalone services.

Zoom Cloud Meetings

The Zoom Cloud Meetings lets you stay connected wherever you go – start or join a 100-person meeting with clear, face-to-face video, and high-quality screen sharing and more. It also comes with audio-only, and text chat feature. The free version is limited, but functional, while the subscription prices are reasonable for the number of participants allowed. The interface is designed to allow collaboration among teams and remote employees, as they can start and join a meeting instantly with just one touch of their mobile devices.

etpanache@timesgroup.com