Video conferencing has always attracted a lot of users, owing to its qualities of comfort and accuracy. Various apps give excellent quality video calling, which can be used for corporate meetings, online tuitions, as well as for casual discussions. The usage of these apps has boomed in the past few months due to the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19. Thanks to these apps that the world can remain close and maintain contact even in the times of lockdown. Two of the top-rated and efficient apps in this league are Google Meet and Zoom.
In this post, we will dive deep into both of these to do a thorough analysis of Google Meet Vs Zoom, so you can choose the best-suited one for you. So, without delaying any further, let us get started-
More about Google Meet
Google is one of the most dominating companies in providing internet-based services. It has applications in most of the domains which are related to ordinary people as well as industry employees.
It is not a myth if you believe Google is the solution to everything.
Google Meet, earlier known as Google Hangouts Meet, is one such app of Google that can be used for conducting online video meetings. This app can be accessed by all those who have a G Suite account.
Launching the app is pretty simple, and one can schedule meetings and send invites through email. It is an excellent way of staying in contact with people who matter.
A Quick Glance of Zoom
In the times when people could not meet quickly during the lockdown, one more app which garnered a lot of popularity and business was Zoom.
It has become one of the most downloaded apps in recent times. Its quality of audio and video calling is excellent, giving the people all the right reasons to love it. It uses the webcam and the microphone of the laptop.
The best part of this app is that it can work on any platform. Be it Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, or Mac, you can use Zoom on all these operating systems.
Launching the app gets you to a new window which is a meeting room. If you are working on a multi-window setup, it is difficult to predict where the meeting room window will open.
Comparative Study of Google Meet Vs Zoom
Both of these apps have become the top favorites of many. So, here is a small comparison based on specific crucial points between Google Meet and Zoom.
- Limitations on meeting time and number of participants: While holding any meeting, be it virtual or real, the two most important points are the number of participants and the meeting time. For Zoom, the maximum meeting time for the free version of the app is 40 minutes, whereas the maximum time for the free version of Google Meet is 60 minutes. However, the limitation on the meeting time for Google Meet is yet to be brought into practice. Both of these apps have the maximum capacity of holding 100 participants in one meeting at any given point of time.
- Availability across different platforms: Earlier, when video conferencing was concerned, it was done only with the help of desktops and laptops. But, this is not the case today. With the emergence of smartphones having operating systems offering a variety of advanced features, it is required for these apps to be accessed across all platforms. And the good news is that they do! These apps can be downloaded and used on any operating system on a laptop, a desktop, or a smartphone. One needs to download the Zoom app, have an account with it, and start using it. But, Google Meet can be opened using any modern browser, including Google Chrome. If you have a G Suite account, you can access Google Meet.
- Screen-sharing with the participants: When you hold a real meeting, you generally give presentations using a projector and a screen or circulate essential documents for the participants to go through. But, in virtual meetings, this is not possible. It is quite tedious and uncomfortable to hold the documents in front of the camera and ask the participants to go through it. So, one can take the help of a feature called screen-sharing. On both these apps, one can share the screen. This screen can be a window or the whole screen. It is the user’s choice. The presenter can give presentations and share relevant documents with other participants. It is a great feature.
- Security features: In the virtual world, safety is of the utmost importance. If you have security threats, there can be a breach of confidentiality, theft, and subsequent loss of data and other such ill effects. In this quest for security, Google Meet wins. The Zoom app has been caught in some serious security issues. To tackle some of these issues, they have released Zoom 5.0. Still, Google Meet is better since it follows a two-step account verification process. The encryption is also better with Google Meet than Zoom.
- Recording of the meeting: Some crucial meetings need to be documented or recorded so that they can be used for guidance or as proof for various reasons. Now, it is possible to record virtual meetings as well. The Zoom app is better when it comes to filing a meeting. It records audios and videos in MP4 format. Google Meet, on the other hand, does not allow recording for the free version of the app. If you are buying the premium version, you have access to this feature.
- The interface of these apps: The interface determines the usability of an app. If the interface is easy to understand and navigate through, it makes things better for the user. Zoom allows the user to view 49 participants in one screen. The user can scroll through the pages of these tiles. In the case of Google Meet, there is an expanded tile layout. There can be as many as 16 tiles of participants which can be viewed at once. It has been observed that more users use Google Meet on Smartphones than on laptops and desktops. Hence, Google Meet now has an added feature of low-lighting mode, especially for the mobile phone version users. It adjusts the light of the video according to the view of the user’s surroundings using artificial intelligence.
Final Thoughts!
Zoom and Google Meet have their characteristics and advantages. The user can decide which one is better based on the parameters given above. In our opinion, Google Meet is better, more affordable, and more trustworthy than Zoom.
What are your thoughts about the usability of Google Meet Vs Zoom? Which one is your favorite?
