Google rolls out a new video conferencing tool for G Suite business users

[Jos]

Google has launched a new video conferencing app called Meet by Google Hangouts, meant as a business-friendly alternative to the company’s consumer-focused Hangouts app. The web and mobile application is the latest addition to Google’s lineup of business products known as G Suite, allowing high-definition video meetings with up to 30 participants.

The service looks pretty straightforward judging from its landing page — it lets you join a meeting by entering a code and shows you scheduled meetings, but you can’t yet start a new conference from the site. For the iOS app you also have features like dial-in numbers for people who can’t access the video stream, as well as integration with Gmail and Google Calendar.

Google has yet to officially announce Meet, but it’s likely we’ll hear more about the service in coming days as the company is holding a major business user conference in San Francisco next week.

The service is a direct competitor of other videoconferencing services like Skype for Business, WebEx. Amazon also jumped into the increasingly crowded market a couple of weeks ago with Chime, its own take on video conferencing for business users, which goes from $2.50 to $15 per user per month.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/68348-google-rolls-out-new-video-conferencing-tool-g.html

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Plain Google Hangouts is supposed to be consumer focussed? That's news to me, I don't know anybody who uses it.

 

[Panda218]

Plain Google Hangouts is supposed to be consumer focussed? That's news to me, I don't know anybody who uses it.

I guess it depends on the consumers email account. All my friends that have a gmail account use Hangouts religiously to chat and video conference, but our friends outside of google prefer to using skype.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I guess it depends on the consumers email account. All my friends that have a gmail account use Hangouts religiously to chat and video conference, but our friends outside of google prefer to using skype.

I suppose it's different for everyone. Everyone I know uses Gmail but they also all use WhatsApp instead. If they used Hangouts, then I guess I would be forced to use it as well.

 

[Jos]

@Skidmarksdeluxe It depends on who you need to talk with, 99% of my contacts are on WhatsApp, but I also use Telegram with a few friends and family members.

Although I don't 'chat' with anyone on Hangouts, I use it for the free calls to the U.S. and Voice integration. I don't live in the U.S. so having the ability to make and receive calls/SMS using a U.S. number from abroad can come in handy.