I have Skype, Zoom, and FaceTime and find the picture quality on Zoom is better. Also, if you’re Zooming with a number of people, you can see them all.
Zoom seems to work on everything. It seems a large number of universities and houses of worship are using Zoom. The university where I work are using a million minutes of Zoom a day and very few issues or support calls. I realize you want details on family use, but this is a good indicator of the simplicity.
You'll hear a lot about Zoom security but the reality is that the wider the use of a program the bigger target it is for bad guys. Most other similar programs likely have the same issues. Be sure to use a password on meetings. It can be embedded in the link that is provided in the meeting invitation so users never have to type it.
Stash
Loc: South Central Massachusetts
I used Zoom last week for video chat with my two children and grandkids in different parts of the state. The fact that we were on together made it fun.
Used Zoom last night for a club meeting. thirteen of us were on. Each person was visible and as someone pointed out the screen the person is speaking on is highlighted.
Canonuser wrote:
We recently held a very successful on AGM on ZOOM that lasted almost two hours.
There were almost 40 contributors. The chair had the ability to mute all or individuals to maintain control if necessary, but I think everyone was able to contribute what they wanted to.
A neat feature was the ability to vote on motions with boxes for ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses.
Another program you might consider is "Freeconferencecall.com" Handles video and audio meetings up to 1000 attendees.
D
Schoee wrote:
Zoom has serious security and privacy issues. br G... (
show quote)
Well, the headlines are provocative, but a subscription is needed to view the articles. Not useful, but thanks.
jbest
Loc: Rocky Mountains
Our business has been using Zoom and we had a meeting yesterday with 114 attendees, it worked well with no issues and smooth sailing.
Wife and I started using Zoom recently because one of our local doctors now uses Zoom for consultations and won't see me otherwise. We've tried using Skype (we're all Apple ecology here) but Zoom seems better once you get used to variations in UI with different device types. Each app takes a little bit of practice to become facile. Probably the number of guests on TV talk shows using Apple computers is a sign of the generally better imagery one gets from Macs with either Skype or Zoom. A lot depends on lighting, camera positioning, etc. Some people do horrible setup. Last night for example a guest on Brian Williams show had his head directly centered in front of a brightly lit chandelier with his face poorly lit. It's the new normal.
JoeN wrote:
When I had an Android phone and all my family had iPhones, we tried Skype but it didn’t work well on Apple products. I finally gave in and got an iPhone so we could FaceTime. That works pretty good but not great.
We’re now using Skype for our business conference calls and it works ok but a lot depends on your signal.
We were using Zoom but the company determined it was not secure so it has been banned by the company. While we were using Zoom it was about like Skype, how well it worked depended on your signal.
When I had an Android phone and all my family had ... (
show quote)
But Skype is not secure either.
nadelewitz wrote:
Well, the headlines are provocative, but a subscription is needed to view the articles. Not useful, but thanks.
Sorry I didn’t realise the articles were behind the pay wall. Anyway a search of the internet will bring up many similar articles or even the same ones.
Zoom has worked well for me both at home and work. We have been shown how to lock down a meeting to minimize Zoom bombing. It just works.
I have started to use HouseParty as well with family communications. It also can be locked down easily. Works on most phones, Macs, and Chrome browsers. Its interface is aimed at a younger crowd, and I had to force my way around sharing all my contacts, Facebook sign-ins, etc., but it seems to work well too.
I found this comparison table for all the video conferencing applications.
https://videoconferencing.guide/A lot of these I have never heard of, but nearly all of them have a free version for home/family use.
If you want to reply, then
register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.