Top 10 Videoconferencing software for business

Important news about Videoconferencing software for business

2024. Google Meet will now take notes for you



Google Meet will now take notes for you in meetings with a new Gemini AI-driven feature called "Take notes for me," which is comparable to competitor options like Zoom Notes or OtterPilot. It leverages AI to create a summary after your meeting. Once the meeting concludes, a document will be attached to the Google Calendar event and the meeting admin will receive an emailed link to it (it will also be stored in the organizer's Drive). If anyone activates meeting recording or transcription during the same meeting, a link to this will be included in the document. Meetings must be held in spoken English for the "Take notes for me" feature to function.


2024. Google Meet now lets you discreetly switch from desktop to phone



In a move that could only be described as "finally getting around to it," Google Meet unveiled a shiny new update for its video conferencing service, allowing users to swap between devices mid-call with all the subtlety of a galactic hitchhiker swapping towels. One moment you're on your desktop, the next you're on your mobile and no one in the meeting will be any the wiser—unless, of course, you sneeze loudly. You can even be on both devices at once, thanks to a feature nestled under the charmingly named "Other joining options" with the choice to "Join here too." It’s a clever little trick, although Zoom has been offering this capability for what feels like eons, in tech years anyway.

2024. Zoom unveils all-in-one AI work platform for more than just video conferencing



In an audaciously thrilling maneuver, a certain well-known video conferencing giant has whisked away the curtain to reveal its latest brainchild, the Zoom Workplace—an "AI-powered collaborative platform" that sounds like something you’d need a PhD in intergalactic relations to comprehend, yet somehow makes total sense when you think about it. With its trusty AI virtual assistant (which probably never gets tired or spills coffee), Zoom Workplace promises to whip your meetings into shape, organizing them, summarizing them and letting you grill its Ask AI Companion for all sorts of existentially important details. It scours through Zoom's own arsenal—Meetings, Mail, Team Chat, Notes, Docs—and even plays nicely with your other favorite productivity toys, like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, just in case you fancied a seamless, if slightly omniscient, workspace.


2024. Zoom debuts its app for Vision Pro, featuring digital personas, 3D files and more



Zoom, in its typical universe-bending style, has announced a visionOS app specially crafted for Apple's Vision Pro—because, of course, the future wouldn’t be complete without virtual meetings in three dimensions. Among its rather clever tricks is something called “persona” support, which allows users to become digital avatars during calls, presumably to save their actual selves from the tiring ordeal of looking presentable. Apple’s fancy Persona feature even captures a face scan, offering an uncanny, floating spatial version of the user—because why not be a hologram if you can? Zoom, in all its forward-thinking wisdom, integrates this smoothly, letting participants enjoy every animated eyebrow raise and finger waggle. Video calls, no longer constrained to mere screens, now hover merrily around the user’s physical space, thanks to the Vision Pro’s AR magic. And if that’s not futuristic enough, the app’s interface will eventually allow users to share 3D files, quite literally bringing objects to life before their eyes—though, in a classically delayed fashion, that particular feature won’t be available until later in the spring.


2023. Zoom launches an asynchronous video tool for the meeting-averse



Zoom has introduced a new asynchronous video tool called Zoom Clips. It enables users to record, edit and share video clips without the need for a live meeting. Currently in public beta, Zoom Clips offers a dedicated content library where users can efficiently manage, share, rename, search for, download, or delete their clips. Accessible through the desktop Zoom app, the Zoom web portal, as well as the Mac menu bar and Windows system tray, Clips allows users to capture both screen and webcam feeds, optionally with a virtual background, or specific portions of their desktop. After recording, users can enhance their clips by adding a title, description and tags, trimming unwanted sections and sharing via email through Zoom's web portal. Additionally, users can control access to the clip, specifying whether it is viewable by anyone with the link or only within their organization and they can monitor comments and metrics such as completion rate and views from the same portal.


2023. Zoom partners with Anthropic to bring Claude chatbot to Zoom products



With the universe having recently discovered the wonders of generative AI, Zoom—which, for reasons beyond comprehension, is still a preferred method of communication—has acknowledged that hitching a ride with Language Model (LLM) companies is crucial if one wants to remain relevant in the great interstellar journey of AI evolution. In a decision almost as baffling as a planet that builds fjords, Zoom has declared a strategic alliance with Anthropic, an endeavor destined to bring the joys (and occasional quirks) of the Claude chatbot to its Zoom Contact Center. The grand plan, of course, is to improve customer support by delivering stunningly accurate answers while minimizing those moments when AI models, with the audacity of a Vogon poet, manufacture entirely fictional responses. Zoom will continue probing the mysteries of this Anthropic intelligence—presumably without needing a Babel fish—before eventually dispersing this tech magic across other products. While there’s no precise launch date for this brilliant alliance, rest assured, Zoom remains steadfastly committed to the idea. Even if it means coming perilously close to figuring out the Ultimate Question of Customer Service, though likely without the number 42 being involved.


2023. Zoom acquires employee communications platform Workvivo



Zoom has announced its intention to purchase Workvivo, an Irish startup that has been operating for six years with a focus on enhancing internal communication and culture within businesses. Unlike Zoom and other similar communication tools, Workvivo places a greater emphasis on asynchronous communication rather than real-time communication. Its platform is designed to promote employee engagement on a broader level, offering features such as an activity feed, people directory, surveys and a channel for important company announcements, similar to a modern intranet. Workvivo has gained a notable customer base since its establishment in Cork in 2017, with companies such as Amazon, RyanAir and Bupa among its clients.


2023. Zoom announces AI features that act as your personal assistant



Video conferencing provider Zoom announced new additions to its AI-powered tool Zoom IQ. The new features leverage OpenAI's Large Language Model, or LLM, to summarize meetings, generate recaps and draft chat and email responses. On the heels of announcements from Microsoft, Google and Slack, Zoom is the latest major productivity tool to get the AI treatment. Zoom IQ already uses AI to give users meeting information through chapters, highlights from recordings and action items. But it is taking it a step further by integrating OpenAI's powerful generative AI model. If you're late to a meeting, Zoom IQ can summarize in real time what you've missed and ask questions for you. Using text prompts, it can generate brainstorms using Zoom's whiteboard tool.


2023. Zoom is adding new features to compete with Slack, Calendly, Google and Microsoft



In an increasingly complex universe where video meetings have become as ubiquitous as mysteriously vanished left socks, Zoom has decided that simple video calls are so last decade. Eager to one-up the likes of Slack, Calendly, Google, and Microsoft, Zoom has tossed out a buffet of enticing new features, including AI-powered meeting summaries (so you can pretend you remembered everything), email responses so snappy they might just outwit you, and whiteboards that practically draw themselves. There’s also something called "Huddles," because standing awkwardly in a virtual corner to discuss something obviously required a catchy name, and an automatic meeting scheduler that dreams of making your life blissfully organized. In a daring gambit to commandeer more of your daily digital existence, Zoom is unveiling its email and calendar clients to the masses, tools it had been poking and prodding in secret since last year. For paid users who like their data as secure as a Vogon’s poetry collection is atrocious, there’s end-to-end encrypted email and custom domain support—because nothing screams “we’ve moved beyond meetings” like potentially dethroning Microsoft Exchange and Google Workspace.


2022. Meta partners with Microsoft to bring VR to Teams



Meta has announced a collaboration with Microsoft to bring Windows applications and Teams integrations to Meta’s metaverse hardware initiatives. This partnership means that Microsoft Teams will be compatible with Quest devices and Microsoft will offer a way to stream Windows applications to Meta’s headsets. Customized 3D avatars will eventually be introduced into the experience. Horizon Workrooms, Meta’s VR platform for collaboration, will integrate with Teams, enabling users to join a Teams meeting directly from Workrooms. Microsoft 365 will also be available on Quest, allowing users to interact with content from productivity tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Notably, these won’t be fully developed VR-specific versions of the apps; rather, they will be Progressive Web Apps.