Google Meet vs Zoom – Which one to consider

Introduction

When it comes to video conferencing these days Zoom has become the most popular option out there. But now that Google has announced that Google Meet is being made available for free. It’s time to compare which one you should consider for yourself. In fact, many of you may be wondering what is the fact to compare these conferencing applications? We all are here working from our homes many of you must be having online classes. These conferencing apps have been becoming are daily drivers for the time. So, it the real-time for us to make the proper decisions in choosing one perfect app.

Google Meet vs Zoom // Comparison

Google has been a part of the video conferencing industry. However, Zoom has been more focused on business conferencing for education and co-operatives, competing with other top-notch software from Cisco’s WebEx and recently added Jio Meet. Google’s first-ever video calling app called Hangouts to compete with Microsoft’s Skype. Over time Google has been working great on building a perfect communication product. One such application named Duo was also announced before.
Google Meet was finally released in 2017 targeting G Suite enterprise clients. Zoom took a lead in the top downloaded apps list in the world in a matter of days since the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is just because Zoom is much easier with simple options to use. Just as simple you need to download the app and there you click on Join meeting button. It is not necessary to create an account and can enter as a guest user. It offers great streaming quality. You can even lock your meeting once you are ready to go just to avoid any kind of disturbance. Zoom offers a 40-minute time limit for basic/free plan users. You can also upgrade to a paid plan for other features. While on the other hand, Google Meet has a time limit for 60 minutes for up to 100 participants which is basically the key difference. For getting into Google meet you need a Google account login which ensures full security.

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Zoom does have an app for a laptop that you may use. Zoom has browser mode though but there are quite a few features missing from the web client like gallery view recording a meeting scheduling a one-time or recurring meeting pulls live-streaming share and annotates a whiteboard and all chat contact and setting menu toggles. Google Meet works in any browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari there’s no need to download any app. It is also well integrated/synced with Google Calendar.

User Experience

Let’s make a deeper look at the user interface of Google Meet and Zoom. You see a simple screen and can immediately start a meeting or enter a meeting with a code. On the right-hand side to schedule a meeting when you fire up the zoom app on desktop you’re presented with a similar layout. A button to start a new meeting schedule an upcoming meeting or join an existing meeting and start sharing screen.

On the left side of the bottom bar, you have controls to turn on and off your video and microphone.  You now have a security button that when clicked gives you quick actions that you can take to enable a waiting room where people who want to join your meeting will wait until you approve them to enter the meeting. You can also toggle on and off whether or not you want to allow your participants to share their screen, rename themselves, or unmute themselves.

Zoom background replacement feature available on Mac – click on Zoom preferences and then virtual background here you can create a virtual background or use your own photo as a background.

While using Google Meet once you click on start a meeting, it brings you to a holding screen where you can double-check how your face looks and then decide whether or not you want to keep your camera and mic on before you enter the meeting. In Zoom the bottom left-hand corner shows you the meeting details which you can expand. Center on the bottom bar or the buttons to turn on and off your mic and camera as well as end the call you can click. The people icon in the top right-hand corner to see all of the participants in the meeting. You can also access the chat in this area of the UI as well you can send messages and links to all participants of your call but do note you cannot send messages to individual participants.

The interesting part is in the right corner of the bottom bar where you’ll see a captions button which you can enable to automatically do a live translation of whatever is said in the meeting which is something that Zoom currently cannot.

Verdict

Though more or less there is somewhat different between the two applications but there main aim is to make things work better. One thing I will conclude after this is that you must decide for yourself you think why? Because both of them work perfectly, but this decision can be taken once you see your current situation.

Now, if you need a video calling solution that has more advanced features like live-streaming or background replacement then I shall prefer to go with Zoom. We hope you liked this Google Meet vs Zoom comparison.