Since work from home is the new norm, video conferencing has become an indispensable tool. However, there’s no dearth of video conferencing solutions and it can be a daunting task to use each and everyone and understand, which one will serve your business better. Two of the top video conferencing competitors right now are Zoom and Google Meet, both of which are being rapidly updated with new features.Â
Zoom has amassed over 300 million daily active participants and has been working on delivering better privacy and security for its users. Google, on the other hand, made Google Meet free for everyone. Now, both companies have pushed new notable updates to their respective apps. We take a look at both so that you can decide for yourself, which one is better suited for your business.
Zoom’s biggest update yet: End-to-end encrypted calls for everyone
Zoom is making a big new change, which will enable end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for everyone, even free users. Previously, the company offered E2EE only for paid accounts but considering privacy issues, it is now pushing an update that will enable the feature for everyone. The encryption will be added as a beta update in July but it won’t be enabled by default. One will have the option of enabling it on a per-meeting basis and it will be available at the account and group level for account administrators.
The reason why Zoom isn’t enabling E2EE by default is because it can cause some issues for users who access the service via traditional phone lines, and for certain conference-room systems. Users will need to sign up for enabling E2EE by providing one-time additional information, such as verifying a phone number via a text message.Â
Google Meet gets Gmail mobile integration
Google has updated Google Meet and it is now integrated with the Gmail Mobile app. This makes it much easier for users to join a video call on the go. The announcement comes soon after Google Meet and Gmail were integrated for the web version and were replaced by Hangouts. Gmail users on Android and iOS will now have an option to check Meet meetings from a new Meet tab.
The new integration also enables them to initiate a meeting or join one with a code, without opening the Google Meet standalone app. This means one less app on your phones since Meet can now work within Gmail. While Google is pretty confident in its services, there’s no end-to-end encryption service. However, Google encrypts all data in Meet while it’s being sent or received by default. However, if one joins a video meeting via their phones, the audio is said to use the cell carrier’s network and might not be encrypted.
