Zoom Alternatives for Virtual Meetings

A lot of us were scrambling last Monday for video meeting alternatives when Zoom experienced a global outage for about half a day. Zoom has become the de facto way to meet virtually during the pandemic, but there are a lot of great alternatives, especially now that competition to capture some of Zoom’s marketshare has increased. Google Meet continues to introduce new features and improvements, and because it’s already bundled with G Suite, it makes a smart and well-integrated option for G Suite users looking for a way to conduct meetings without having to pay for a subscription to Zoom.

Recently, Google rolled out a grid view that shows up to 16 people on one screen—not quite matching Zoom’s max of 49, but still better than Google's previous max of four. And now you can finally add your self to that grid view. Look for a new button when you hover over your postage-stamp-sized self-preview. It’s labeled, “Show in a tile”—click it, and your video will appear at the same size as all the other participants.

Another alternative that I’ve been enjoying recently is Whereby. I love the simple interface and fun collaboration features. It works well on most every device without installing any software, and—unlike Google Meet—your guests don’t even need to have an account before joining your meeting, which makes it a low-friction way to gather. Their free tier allows for small meetings of up to 4 people, and paid tiers max out at 50, but the fact that it “just works” using the new WebRTC standards supported by every modern web browser makes it easy for everyone to use.