Best Video Chat/Video Conferencing Apps

[JAMES4578]

Particularly due to the current lockdown, thought it would be a good idea to look at this-as there are  quite a few choices available now.   In the past not particularly big on video calling for personal use and tended to use Skype but that is not really hip now and has not been updated since August with   Microsoft Focusing on Microsoft teams, though not perhaps to the desired effect .Have used Duo more recently but  still to try some of the others, the buzz I've heard lately seems to  have been  mostly around Zoom, though need to be convinced by more than hype.

Androidauthority.com/best-video-chat-apps-for-android 

Wired.co.uk/article/best-video-conference-apps 

[SjorsK]

Phew, its hard to find a few that are both secure and trustable

My bet would be mostly the (obvious) microsoft teams but Signal is also very secure Highly recommended instead of whatsapp

Basically I would say, if your employers IT department has one, use that one. In that case you know its complaint with the internal policies. For private usage I would definitely go for signal due to its huge amount of security

[JAMES4578]

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@SjorsK wrote:
Phew, its hard to find a few that are both secure and trustable

My bet would be mostly the (obvious) microsoft teams but Signal is also very secure Highly recommended instead of whatsapp

Basically I would say, if your employers IT department has one, use that one. In that case you know its complaint with the internal policies. For private usage I would definitely go for signal due to its huge amount of security

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Thanks for your input @SjorsK ,  Yes best to take IT Department's advice in the workplace.    Know there are security issues with Zoom , though know of a public sector organisation conducting video interviews via that at the moment. Fortune/zoom-security-issues-school-districts-spacex-ban/    

Theverge.com/2020//zoom-ceo-yuan-security-privacy-concerns 

Signal certainly worth looking into

[JAMES4578]

Just to let folk know that the latest zoom update has come out today, 5.0  is rolling out and company claims it will address security and privacy issues which have been concerning  many recently.   Paid subscribers will have more control mind you.

https://www.theverge.com/zoom-update-security-privacy-features-improvements 

https://www.androidcentral.com/zoom-has-fixed-one-biggest-complaints-about-its-platform 

[JAMES4578]

News that with  the free version of Microsoft Teams users can  now initiate a Team Meeting, previously it was only possible to join one.  In order to use you have to state you are using the application for work or it will direct you to Skype.  Obviously though you could use it for personal purposes.

theverge//meeting-microsoft-teams-schedule-video-call-group 

As the article mentions  Slack will include a bit about that here :   https://uk.pcmag.com/productivity-slack 

[JAMES4578]

Some changes coming to Microsoft Teams with third party apps and  a personal profile within the service,enabling users to seperate work and home usage.

techradar.com/uk/news/microsoft-teams-is-making-some-big-changes-heres-how-theyll-affect-you 

More about signal which is considered to be very secure by many.  https://restoreprivacy.com/signal-messenger/ 

A bit about some additional measures Zoom have taken,plans to make end-to-end encryption available for all but Beta testing only started this month.  There are still vulnerabilities. kaspersky.com/blog/zoom-5-security/36001/ 

[SjorsK]

I have the gut feeling that Teams will eventually replace Skype as a whole (It already kind of did replace Skype for Business) and Teams will turn in some kind of swiss-army-knife of Microsoft Services  

[JAMES4578]

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@SjorsK wrote:

I have the gut feeling that Teams will eventually replace Skype as a whole (It already kind of did replace Skype for Business) and Teams will turn in some kind of swiss-army-knife of Microsoft Services  

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@SjorsK Amusing way of putting it 😂  yes  think likely Teams will take over.