What is Video Conferencing?

From holding daily syncs with remote colleagues to conducting important negotiations with foreign partners online, video conferencing has become an inseparable part of today’s business world.

What is Video Conferencing
What is Video Conferencing

And while many companies have understood the significance of this technology for their further development and successful functioning, still, some have doubts about its usefulness and benefits it can entail.

So let’s answer the following questions: what is video conferencing and why is it going to get ahead of other communication means in the race for productive online meetings, work, and collaboration?

Video conferencing: what is it and why is it so popular?

Video conferencing is a type of virtual communication with two or more parties involved in a live video call. Depending on chosen software, such a call may include additional features like instant messaging, screen sharing, task management, and other effective tools for remote collaboration.

What do I need to set up a video conference?

Video calls don’t require any specialized equipment, technical skills, or professional assistance. To enter a virtual room for a chat with other people, you’ll need:

  • An internet connection (cellular or Wi-Fi)
  • A modern device with a camera (smartphone, laptop, tablet, or desktop)
  • Video conferencing app
  • Additional but not necessary: headphones, microphone, speakers, etc.

So what are the secrets of its popularity?

It helps distant people keep in touch

First of all, video conferences are highly convenient for connecting people located far from each other. It allows remote teams to collaborate on various tasks and projects without having to leave their homes and travel to other locations.

It helps to establish closer relationships and fight social isolation

Face-to-face interactions, even made via a web camera, are always better than plain audio calls. With video conferencing, remote workers get another chance to see each other, communicate, and interact through a visual dimension.

This leads to a better understanding, improved relationships, increased loyalty and trust. Furthermore, It’s a common fact that people process visual information more productively than audio and text.

It increases productivity and boosts motivation

When people work from home, they face a great number of challenges: numerous distractions, multitasking, motivation loss, and social isolation.

But video conferencing is aimed at getting rid of those negative factors and making in-house work more interactive and engaging by providing various cooperation tools: high-quality video calls with virtual backgrounds, screen sharing, AR and AI features, various team-building activities (polls, quizzes, Q&A).

It helps to achieve a perfect work/life balance

And finally, video calls help employees strike the right balance between work and personal life, allowing them to work from home and devote more time to family and friends.

Popular Video Conference Apps

With so many trump cards up its sleeve, it’s no wonder there’s such a wide range of video conferencing apps on the market. But how to choose a perfect one for your business?

Our team has analyzed the most popular offers and is ready to share the results with you.

1) Whoosh: the best of the latest video chat apps

Whoosh is a newbie to the world of video calls, but it has every feature to become a true hit. Its developers created a state-of-the-art platform aimed at making every virtual meeting impactful, engaging, and interactive.

A full suite of AI-driven features and superb crystal clear image from the wide-angle enhanced camera will amaze anyone, even the pickiest user.

What key features do they offer:

  • Full-HD video conferences with up to 100 participants
  • Excellent sound quality thanks to background noise cancellation and audio stream splitting
  • AI-powered features: touch-up tools, gesture recognition, virtual scheduling assistant
  • Mementos – smart cloud recordings with transcripts
  • Creative features, virtual backgrounds, photorealistic avatars, AR masks, and filters
  • Professional web protection: multi-party encryption, compliance with globally proven security certifications, host controls, 24/7 network monitoring

2) Google Meet: the best solution for Google users

Google is notorious for its unhealthy addiction to changing the names of its services. And Google Meet is not an exception. It’s not a new application at all, just an upgraded version of Google Hangouts.

But still, it’s worth being mentioned in our list. Google Meet will be a perfect option for your team if its members are active users of other Google services.

Have a look: you set up a meeting in Google Calendar and all its attendees instantly get the invitation to it. During the meeting, everyone can share and save files on Google Drive, scan through email in a Gmail inbox, and compose new documents in Google Docs.

Does it have other tools apart from Google-based? Sure!

Have a look:

  • 24-hour video conferencing
  • High video quality even in low-light environments and audio distraction reduction
  • No need to install an app, meetings can be run from any browser
  • Realistic layouts where users can see the presented content along with 16 participants
  • Customizable backgrounds and background blur
  • Tools for remote collaboration: whiteboarding, Q&A, hand raising, polls
  • Integration with other Google services

3) RingCentral: the best platform for large-scale meetings

And last, but not least in our list is a popular platform for online gatherings of all kinds and sizes – RingCentral. This company has been developing its video conferencing technologies for a long time and now offers robust software for medium and large enterprises.

The app has a free plan available for everyone. It includes a generous set of features for quality virtual communication:

  • Unlimited meetings with up to 100 attendees
  • Instant join from any web browser
  • Cloud recording and their access for 7 days
  • Business integration with popular services such as Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Slack, and others
  • Task management and file sharing

If a user decides to upgrade to an advanced version of the service that starts from $11.99 user/month, they’ll get access to the enlarged number of meeting participants (200), extra cloud storage for recordings, calls to any phone number, developer APIs for custom integrations, and other useful features.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, it’s rather challenging to work remotely without having such a helpful technology as video conferencing at hand.

Despite bringing virtual communication to a whole new level of interactivity and engagement, software for remote collaboration makes in-house work more productive, effective, and less isolated from the office. Why not give it a shot?

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