The Verge has rounded up a list of free apps for video calling that have been letting people around the world work and study remotely. While most of these already have free versions, some are offering access to paid features for those who are currently working from home or who want to check up on friends and relatives online.
Zoom continues to top the list of video conferencing apps. The top five solutions are:
- Zoom: Popular for its easy-to-use interface. The free version can host up to 100 participants with a forty-minute limit on group meetings.
- Skype Meet Now: Skype’s Meet Now allows video conferencing with up to 50 people. There’s no time limit, either.
- Cisco Webex: With a focus on serving companies, Cisco Webex has a useful free version in place. For the current emergency, it has widened the features of the freemium version from 50 to 100 participants, and you can meet for up to 50 minutes.
- Google Meet: Google recently made Meet available to all users of its free Gmail service, with a capacity to host up to 100 participants. It also has a unique noise cancellation feature. In addition, it is offering unlimited meeting time until September 30th, which will be reduced to a 60-minute limit starting October.
- Google Duo: Described as a mobile app best suited for one-on-ones, Google built Duo as a consumer app. The app now allows you to create groups of up to 12 participants (but only on its mobile versions), all of whom must be Duo users, which can be an issue for wider use. The app uses end-to-end encryption and allows users to record messages.
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Hangouts, Starleaf, Jitsi Meet, Whereby, Spike, Microsoft Teams, and Slack are among the other video calling apps that The Verge has listed.