Zoom
Zoom is one of the most popular video calling and virtual meeting applications. Available for multiple platforms, the program comes with a simple interface, letting you set up virtual meetings, webinars, and conferences with ease. The service offers variable pricing plans, and thus, has been getting popular among businesses and individual users alike. Whether you want to connect with friends, colleagues, or clients, Zoom download is an excellent choice for your Windows PC.
An easy-to-use platform for Windows PCs
- Zoom Will Open a Research and Development Center and Double the Capacity of its Co-Located Data CenterSAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Zoom Video Communications, Inc.
- What Is a Zoom Meeting? Though Zoom offers a lot of products and services to enterprise organizations, including Zoom Rooms (which are conference rooms running dedicated software to make conferencing easier), video webinars, and even phone systems, Zoom's core product and the way most people know the service is Zoom Meetings. Zoom Meetings are.
Zoom is available to all Duke University and Duke Health campus-based faculty, staff, and students. Duke Health may use Zoom for classes and meetings. Effective January 12, all Duke Zoom meetings must be secured. The simplest options are to use a passcode or enable a waiting room.
While the app comes with a wide range of features, Zoom Meetings has been the primary focus of the company. It lets you set up video calls and meetings in HD quality. Moreover, the communication tool lets you download textual transcripts of calls. Paying members can even record videos of meetings and conferences for easy offline access.
What about the interface?
Compared to other popular video conferencing programs, Zoom is easier to set up. When you launch the app, the ‘Home’ tab gives you various options, including Join a Meeting, New Meeting, Schedule, Share Screen, etc. Everything is displayed in large-sized icons, so you can easily access the options with the click of a button. There’s a ‘Meetings’ tab, where you can find all the scheduled meetings.
On starting or joining a meeting, a new window pops up on the screen. At the bottom of this window, you’ll be able to find different meeting controls. At the top, the video feed of the participants will be visible. In the center, Zoom automatically detects the person talking, and displays his or her footage.
What are the features?
While Zoom was designed as a communication tool to connect individuals in an informal manner, it has quickly become the leading choice of enterprises. Zoom download is preferred by businesses around the world to connect with teams remotely. The company offers affordable plans for small businesses and provides them with multiple features, including VoIP connectivity.
Zoom Us Join Meeting
During Zoom Meetings, participants can share their screens, making the app an ideal choice for collaboration on content projects. In terms of call quality, Zoom doesn’t disappoint. However, like every video conferencing app, you’ll need a stable internet connection. Most importantly, Zoom can be accessed via a browser, giving respite to participants without a standalone app downloaded on their Windows computer.
What about free usage?
Though businesses often look for paid subscription plans, the free account offers multiple useful features. For instance, with the free Zoom app, you can host virtual meetings with up to 100 participants. 49 people will be visible on the screen in a grid-style view. While the free calls are limited to 40 minutes, it’s a good enough time frame for most users. On the other hand, one-on-one video calls don’t impose any restrictions on time.
Zoom doesn’t even restrict the number of meetings you can host one after another. This makes the free version of the application a great choice for individual users. Having said that, it’s important to note that the free version doesn’t come with management controls, administrative controls, reports, and toll-free dial-in number service in the UK and US.
With the free Zoom account, you can’t store recorded virtual meetings and calls on the Cloud. However, you can still save them offline on your computer. Zoom is a feature-packed video conferencing, meeting, and calling solution for Windows, Android, iOS, and Mac devices. It’s a hassle-free way to connect with your team remotely.
Are there any alternatives?
While Zoom has been used as a communication tool around the world, there have been some privacy concerns regarding its usage in the US. As such, a lot of people look for alternatives to the program. If you’re looking for a reliable app, Skype for Business will be an ideal choice. For many years, it has been the standard for video calling on Windows PCs.
Similarly, Facebook Messenger is a good choice for anyone interested in informal video chats and messaging. Discord is another good platform, but primarily targets gamers who’d love to connect with players with in-game chats.
Our take
Without a doubt, the Zoom app is a simple, straightforward, and free video-conferencing application for Microsoft Windows PCs. If you’re looking to connect with a small team and don’t mind the time restrictions imposed on the free account, try Zoom without a second thought.
Should you download it?
Yes, Zoom download is a good choice. In fact, if you send an invite to someone to join a meeting on the app, the person doesn’t even need to create an account. Moreover, with browser support, it becomes a hassle-free way to connect with people around the world.
5.4.2
When the need arises to conduct remote meetings and video conferences, you really need to consider how many people are going to be involved before choosing which service you're going to use. Something that immediately stands Zoom in very good stead is the fact that even with a free account there is support for up to 100 participants in a video chat.
Zoom Join Meeting
While there is no limit on the number of meetings you can host with a free account, you are limited to meetings of up to 40 minutes – although there's nothing to stop you from immediately restarting a meeting once this time limit is reached.
Free users can enjoy video conferencing, whiteboarding and screen sharing, and there is the option of creating breakout rooms for private chats. It is also possible to record meetings so you can refer back to them at a later time. Everything is secured with SSL and AES 256 bit encryption, but there is some controversy about the fact that Zoom does not offer end-to-end encryption.
For businesses and groups that have slightly greater needs, a Pro account is available priced at $14.99 per month per host, and this increases the limit on meeting length to 24 hours, add more control options, offers Skype interoperability and includes cloud storage for meeting recordings. There is also a Business tariff available price at $19.99 per host per month, increases the maximum number of participants to 300, and adds a number of other business-centric features.
Zoom Video Conferencing Join Meeting
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the world in the first half of 2020, Zoom became unexpectedly popular due to a sudden increase in the number of people working from home. This was something of a double-edged sword for both company and its customers. While the boost in popularity was great for business, the increased userbase and wider testing highlighted a number of privacy and security failings in the service.
While this was far from great news for user, Zoom quickly committed to addressing the issues that had been found, and the result is version 5 of the software. Although there are currently still a few things to resolve, Zoom is making good headway and keeping to its word of fixing what's wrong before adding any new features.
Verdict:
Zoom got something of a bad rap because of security and privacy issues, but it has always been a fundamentally solid service. With the company working hard to fix the problems it knows exist, the software is going from strength to strength as it learns from its mistakes. The feature set speaks for itself, but it's the number of users that are supported for free that really works in Zoom's favour.