Being together this Christmas will be a bit… Difficult. But what are online tools for? There is still time to choose the communicator (program, application) that you think is the easiest to use. Teach your loved ones how to use it and connect this Christmas.
We present our subjective choice. We recommend a few simple (in our opinion) solutions for online meetings.
Facebook Messenger
The king of free instant messaging. It enables not only text communication (enriched with a lot of GIFs or emoji icons), but also voice and video calls. It is possible to create an account in Messenger without creating a Facebook account.
- 6 people actively participating in the conversation; up to 50 people watching
- Learn how to start a video chat with a person or group in Messenger.
- For more information, visit messenger.com
Messenger Rooms by Facebook
In the spring of 2020, Facebook released a service called Messenger Rooms. It allows for video conferences with up to 50 people. Messenger Rooms gives Facebook and Messenger users the ability to create a virtual video chat room to which they can invite others. Importantly, the invited persons do not have to be users of any of the Internet giant’s services; They can join the conversation by clicking on the generated link. On Facebook, rooms can be created from the news feed, groups or events.
- Max. max. 50 persons
- All About Messenger Rooms
- See how to use Messenger Rooms
Google Meet
It’s easy to start a secure video call with Google Meet . Just join the meeting from any modern web browser or download the app to your phone. Anyone with a Google Account can create an online meeting with up to 100 participants. A single meeting can last up to 60 minutes.
You can send a meeting link or meeting code to everyone you want to talk to. In the free version of Google Meet, invitees will need to sign in to their Google Accounts to join the call, or if they don’t have one, create one for themselves.
- 100 people (free version)
- Google Meet Help
- See how to make video calls in Google Meet.
Skype
Skype is a proposal that could not be missing from the list. The communicator is identified with the ability to make voice calls and video conferences (including group ones), and although Microsoft systematically tries to change it, these functions invariably remain the most important. There are a lot of useful features, such as voicemail, the option to forward calls to a smartphone, and the option to contact people who don’t have Skype. Communication is encrypted, and the quality of both audio and video automatically adjusts to the current network bandwidth.
- Free online calls for max. max. 50 persons
- Free Online Calls
- Explore the power of Skype
- See a playlist on how to use Skype
Viber
A solid alternative to the above-mentioned programs is Viber, which offers not only voice calls but also video calls. Viber’s list of features is much longer and includes text communication, uploading photos, voice memos, video files. Here, too, communication with other users of the app is free, you only pay for calls to mobile numbers. Viber in mobile versions has a very intuitive interface, it strongly resembles the interface of modern smartphones.
- Viber allows you to have individual and group chats for up to 250 participants
- More about Viber
- Group video calls using Viber
What the uninitiated may not know is that WhatsApp has been owned by Facebook for a good few years. Initially, WhatsApp focused on text messaging, but the growing popularity of the app led to the emergence of video calling options in 2016. Interestingly, text conversations can be conducted in group chats (for more than 200 people) and you can send not only text, but also photos, videos and documents (up to 100 MB). WhatsApp is easy to use by integrating with your smartphone’s address book, and it also has location sharing and the option to sync chats between mobile devices and your computer.
If we are at our computer, we can save ourselves the trouble of reaching for a smartphone, because the service also works on a PC – as a separate application for Windows or in a browser. However, we need to pair our WhatsApp account with the computer.
- Group calls allow you to make WhatsApp video calls in groups of up to eight people
- More about WhatsApp
- 8 Practical Tips for WhatsApp
- Group Conversations on WhatsApp
Zoom
Zoom is great for video and audio conferencing. Although we can use Zoom from a web browser, it will be much easier for us to use the app. The simple app is available for both computers and mobile devices.
Zoom is a service that is available for free, but we can extend its functionality by choosing to pay for one of the subscription plans. In the free version of Zoom, we can host meetings of up to 100 people, but we are limited to a 40-minute meeting (after this time, we can reconnect with the interlocutors). The paid version provides unlimited connection time and the ability to organize meetings of up to 300 people.
Joining a Zoom meeting is very simple. First of all, the organizer must send us a link to the meeting – they can do it by e-mail, SMS, or on Messenger or WhatsApp. We click on this link and a browser window opens where we are asked if we want to open the Zoom application or if we want to join the meeting in the browser.
- Bloog Zoom
- Zoom – how to install and use?
- Zoom page
- How To Zoom?
And finally, a handful of suggestions from Computer World (including Discord and Microsoft Teams). See for yourself!
