Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most organizations have asked their employees to work from home. Due to this, companies are organizing virtual meetings to communicate with their employees. Zoom meetings app is one such meeting platform that allows its users to conduct virtual audio and video meetings. Zoom app is also one of the most downloaded apps from the play store in recent times.
Recently, the company had gone through a lot of criticism due to security issues and, even our government requested all the companies to avoid using the Zoom app as it tends to leak private information of users. Zoom addresses the issue by saying that they are working on a fix to make the app more secure. The government of India has also launched an app challenge to develop a more secure alternative to the Zoom.
If you are not willing to compromise on your privacy, then here are the top 3 zoom alternatives that are available right now.
Skype Meet Now is one of the best alternatives for Zoom. Skype Meet Now doesn't require sign-ups to make video calls and, it can connect with up to 50 users at a time. One of the best things about Skype Meet Now is that it is available for free and, it doesn't require any download.
Skype Meet Now comes with features like call recording which can be used for later reviews, background blur before entering the call, screen sharing, etc. Users can host a meeting by just creating a meeting link and, others can join by clicking that link.
If you are extensively using Microsoft office applications like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, etc., then Microsoft Teams is here to your rescue. Using Microsoft Teams, you can connect with up to 10000 users at a time. You can easily collaborate with Microsoft office applications if you have an Office 365 subscription. No need to worry if you don't have an office 365 subscription, Microsoft also introduced a free plan to help companies to conduct meetings during this lockdown.
The free plan allows users to make group chats, individual and group video calls. The free plan also includes 10 GB of team file storage and 2 GB of individual file storage. If you want to have a meeting with a large number of users then Microsoft Teams is a perfect one for you.
Cisco Webex Meeting is another video-conferencing application that made their service free during this pandemic. Webex Meeting comes without any time restrictions and you can connect with 100 users at a time. The user needs to sign in to host a meeting and participants can join the meeting just by entering the meeting ID. Cisco Webex Meetings also allows user to share their screen with others.
Besides, conducting the meetings, Webex also allows users to host webinars, provide online training, and remort support. In a nutshell, Cisco Webex Meeting is a great alternative with enhanced security features when compared to Zoom.
In addition to the above applications, users can also consider Google hangouts (available for free during the lockdown), Discord, and paid services like Zoho meetings.