Google Meet

As a small, remote business(Authority Hacker) with less than 10 employees, we find ourselves using video conferences on a daily basis to keep in touch. That said, having been involved in calls with more people, it's clear there is no one size fits-all approach to this type of software and it really depends on your exact setup. For us though, I would love to share my insight working with a small team. We currently use Google Meets. This software is great for companies that have multiple small one on one meetings throughout the week. It's easy to set up meetings, there's no software to install and you don't need to create any accounts to get started. One of the most powerful features is that it links in with Google Calendar, so if you're using Google and create an invitation, it automatically generates a room code so you can jump right into the call without needing to setup a new meeting every time - it's a huge time saver. That said, it's still very limited in terms of large group features. There are limited privacy options, you can't display larger numbers of guests at once and their mobile app is extremely limited, lacking basic features like gallery view. For this reason, it's perfect for us in a small team environment, but for large enterprises, it may not be a perfect fit.

Here at Equilibrium, we use the Google Suite for it’s cloud based Drive, Calendar and Gmail capabilities so it was a natural choice for us to host our meetings (both internal and external) through Google Meet. The ease of being able to book a meeting through Google Calendar and providing a link to all involved is great, on top of being able to just make one on the fly. Google Meet allows us to create secure meetings within our organisation and notifies the members of a meeting if someone from outside Equilibrium wants to enter. Considering some of the data breaches that have happened over the past 12 months with other video conferencing providers, this provided peace of mind to both us and our clients. During the initial weeks of the team working from home brought on by COVID-19, the platform did have its downsides. Not being able to view in tile view made it challenging to engage with all members in a Google Meet and the inability to live stream brought on similar engagement challenges. Thankfully, these issues weren’t around for long with Google rectifying both limitations. The only feature not available with Google Meet that is on other comparable SaaS platforms is the ability to hide your messy home office with a virtual background. We use Snap Camera as a work around. Other features include Being able to record meetings Screen sharing Messaging (particularly helpful for asking questions when someone is presenting) Live captions provided by Google's Speech Recognition Overall the platform is easy to use, secure and full of great features. With the platform combining with google hangouts and offering most of its features for free to everyone, Equilibrium finds it hard to recommend another platform. 4.5 stars ⭐ Microsoft Teams is a relatively new entry to the video conferencing scene but with the backing of the tech giant that is Microsoft, it was a no brainer to jump on board and hold meetings on the platform. Feature wise, it is just as rich as you would expect from a Microsoft product, although to take full advantage, you need to jump onto the paid model. In saying that, there are more than enough features to just hold meetings whether it be interoffice or between yourself and a client on the free tier. You can share meetings with anyone you wish by providing them a link, they can then install the software or use their web browser for the meeting if they do not wish to do so. Not having to install the software is a great option, saving the hassle of the download for just one or two meetings.