7 free other video conferencing apps to the Zoom video meeting software

The Zoom video meeting software has experienced a meteoric rise to massive popularity in early 2020, buoyed by the lockdown in various countries that saw an increase in work-from-home executions. However, the rise of zoom has been checkered by numerous claims and instances of security breaches. We share 7 alternatives to Zoom.

Zoom is very easy to use and this is partly what has spurred its increased popularity. As of December 2019, Zoom reportedly had about 10 million daily meeting participants. This had massively increased to about 300 million in April 2020 showing about 3000% user growth. It is heavily used for conducting business meetings, school classes, religious activities, social meetups and much more.

There have been numerous instances of breaches or so-called “zoo bombing” in addition to reports of more than 500,000 Zoom user login data being stolen and sold on the dark web for cheap.

Several government agencies and large corporations have outrightly banned the use of zoom and this has seen the rise of alternatives with major software communication services upgrading to support the ease of use that Zoom offers.

Some of the alternatives are below:

1. Skype Meet Now

As a way of competing directly with Zoom, Skype has launched a new feature known as Meet Now that enables anyone to start a video chat or meeting without having to signup for an account or download software – nor is it limited by time limits. Up to 50 people can be invited per meeting.

Features

The main features include the ability to:

• record calls – they are stored online for up to 30 days
• blur backgrounds – it helps with the privacy of the meeting location
• screen sharing – this is important for sharing presentations, work materials or designs during a conference call