During this lockdown, how do you optimize your telework during containment? There many video conferencing apps but, what is the best video chat app to keep in touch with your loved ones? Since the quarantine measures were taken around the world including here in Uganda, these are the questions being asked by many confined internet users.
Video conferencing apps and services have been very successful since the start of the social distancing lockdown. Analysis firm Priori Data has complied some figures which have been, retrieved by Statista, and they indicated the top three most downloaded apps on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store between March 16 and 22 are occupied by Discord, WhatsApp, and Zoom.
Lets look at a non-exhaustive and (not totally) arbitrary list of the best tools and apps for telework, fun, discuss, and socialize through your screen.
Apps Telework
Skype
No, you didn’t come back in 2007, as Skype have been seen a tool for old timers. Skype still exists and remains one of the benchmarks for video conferencing. It recently released its Meet Now, its own version of quick meetings without a need for a Skype account. Again, it’s free, easy to use and can bring up to 50 people together on video. A significant number of users use Skype and many others at least know its name. On a smartphone, it is necessary to install the Skype application, but it is not essential on a computer, Skype works via your web browser. There is also a Chrome extension.
Skype is so well known that I don’t think I need to spend too much time on it. Just remember that the tool allows you to chat as well as make group audio or video calls. The tool, which can also be used to send files, includes a screen-sharing module that allows your callers to see what your PC screen is displaying in real-time.
Google Hangouts
This is one of the most popular video apps used by firms who have GoogleSuite. A paid version of the service called Google Hangouts Meet also exists for companies but the free version is more than enough.
The big advantage of Hangouts is its simplicity. On the desktop, there is no software to install. All you need is a Google account to create a chat room. You can then generate a shareable link before sending it to the recipients of your choice. The recipients then simply click on the link to access the chat room. On a smartphone, however, you’ll have to go through the dedicated Google Hangouts application via the Play Store.
A living room can accommodate up to 25 people and display 10 at the same time on the screen. Unlike the free version of Zoom, Hangouts does not impose a time limit on your conversations. If you already use Google services like Gmail or Google Calendar, integrating appointments via Hangouts and sending them to your contacts is really intuitive.
Jitsi Meet
Jitsi Meet is a new tool for many, its a free video-conferencing software. The main selling point (the tool is free, rest assured) is that it does not belong to ‘FAMGA’ crew (Facebook, Apple, Microsoft,Google, Amazon). No need for an account, encryption by default, Jitsi Meet wants to be much more protective of your personal data. The service works on smartphone and tablet thanks to an application, or on a computer in a simple web browser.
Much less widespread and known than other services, it may take a bit of a struggle to get it adopted by your loved ones. But the service is very complete and rich in features. For example, you can choose to toggle the display of participants within a mosaic by clicking on the button with four squares, share your screen, access a chat, or even ‘Raise your hand’ to indicate that you wish to speak without interrupting your interlocutors.
You’ll also be able to blur the background, share a YouTube video that will be integrated directly into the video conversation, stream live to YouTube, or record your entire video meeting. And at least you’ll escape the sprawling clutches of web giants hungry for your personal data. All you need to give globalization a professional foothold!
For Fun and social connections
WhatsApp and Messenger
Those are probably the two apps on that list that I really don’t need to introduce you to. Both belong to Facebook. WhatsApp is one of the most used secure messaging applications in Uganda. It’s too limited for professional use but it’s more than enough for small group calls. To register and use it, a simple phone number is enough. Its video conferencing feature allows up to four people to communicate and is only available on smartphones and tablets, not computers.
Messenger is Facebook’s other very popular messenger. Less secure (conversations are not automatically encrypted). But it doesn’t impose the same limitations for video calls, which can involve up to eight people and works on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
Google Duo
Along with Gmail, Google Maps, and Chrome, Google Duo is one of the applications that Android manufacturers must install if they want to take advantage of the Google Play Store on their devices. Unless you have a recent Huawei phone (post-Mate 30 Pro), every Android smartphone has Google Duo pre-installed, which is the overwhelming majority of devices in the world.
To make a voice call, just enter the phone number or choose from your contacts the person(s) of your choice. Recently, Google Duo can accommodate up to 12 people in the same chat room at the same time.
It’s really the easiest way to make video calls on a smartphone. You don’t have any applications to install. But Duo is logically not pre-installed on iOS. However, the application is available for free on the Apple App Store.
Apps with security concerns
HouseParty
Houseparty is a video chat application that we hear a lot about in these times of lockdown. You’ve probably seen it mentioned in the lists of ‘best video conferencing apps’ that have been swarming online or in your WhatsApp groups since the government’s injunctions to stay home.
The operation of the app is very simple. It allows you to chat via video chat, in its virtual living rooms that can accommodate up to eight people. The special feature of Houseparty is that friends of friends can come and join in the video chats. You can, of course, make your lounge private, to exclude uninvited guests. Houseparty also offers a fairly limited range of built-in mini-games to be launched via the service (Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, etc).
But a simple glance at the application’s privacy policy, and you’re quickly fixed on the mass of data collected. If the requested access to your contacts hadn’t already tipped you off, the application will retrieve the IP address of the user, the IMEI number of his device, its operator… and more broadly, the name, location, gender, but also photos of its users. All this information can be cross-checked.
But the best part about the collection of your private data is that Houseparty “may use the content of all conversations held via the service, including any ideas, inventions, concepts, techniques or know-how for any purpose such as the development, design and/or marketing of products or services”.
Zoom
We have put this one last intentionally. The popular app has been a strong hold for telework in recent times. What makes people talk so much is the ability to have as many as 100 simultaneous participants in a single video call. ‘Only’ 49 of them can be displayed on the screen at the same time.
These are numbers that make you dizzy and force you to squint to see your callers trapped in one of the 49 tiny cells on the screen. Of course, chances are you won’t need that much space, but who knows? Either way, it’s good to have some room.
Zoombooming has been a popular term of late, as the app used to display the meeting ID to all people on the call, hackers have oflate used such loopholes to sneak adult content into a meeting. The company recently updated its app to rectify all the pain points that made it undesirable to some people especially government entities.
