People in the tech industry often make bold claims about the future only to later be proven wrong. Steve Ballmer famously said the iPhone would be a flop. When the original Galaxy Note launched, many people said it was "too big", and yet here we are all with phones that house large displays and its thanks to the original Note. And for quite a while now some tech journalists have been toying with the idea that smartphones may not need a front facing camera. This idea has been snuffed out emphatically thanks to the pandemic, with a huge surge in video chats as the world self-isolates at home.
Many companies that offer video calling services have taken note and have made necessary updates to their apps. WhatsApp doubled its participant limit from 4 to 8 people, while Google updated Duo from 8 group participants to 12. Google also made Google Meet, its enterprise video conferencing tool free for everyone to use. Zoom, arguably the biggest winner in this pandemic, has responded to early criticisms regarding its lack of security and pushed an update to address those issues. Telegram who doesn't even offer video calling in its app has promised to add the feature later this year, saying that "Video calls in 2020 are much like messaging in 2013".
With so many choices available, which ones have you been using the most?
Personally I've been using Google Duo. The video quality in Duo calls is so remarkable that I really haven't felt the need to try anything else. This shouldn't be surprising as Google has been working hard to ensure the best possible video quality in its app. I haven't had to join any conference calls for work, so I don't have any "work" recommendations, though I've heard that Microsoft Teams is quite good.
What about you? How many apps have you used for video calls? Do you use one for personal calls and one for work? Which apps are your favourite?