During the COVID-19 pandemic, Google’s two video conferencing apps have become more popular than ever. But now that the company has made both apps free to use, which one should you use? We compare Hangouts and Meet feature by feature to help you choose.
People and businesses are flocking to video conferencing and team messaging apps so they can remain productive and connected during the coronavirus pandemic. Because these apps are based on similar technologies to more mainstream online communications apps, like Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) and online collaboration solutions, their features are often very similar. That can make choosing the right one difficult, especially when you see multiple video conferencing solutions becoming available from the same vendor.
In Google’s case, it’s especially tricky, since the company not only has two video conferencing apps, Google Hangouts and Google Meet, it also has multiple versions of those apps across desktop and mobile clients and they all seem to look and work similarly. Below we break down what makes these platforms different, so you can pick what’s best for you.
Google Hangouts – For Consumers
Many users are familiar with Google Hangouts, which is the videoconferencing component that comes as part of their consumer Gmail accounts. Google Hangouts is a free service for consumers to easily connect with each other and stay in touch, either via text or video calls. The service can include up to 25 people per video meeting.
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You can access Google Hangouts from the Gmail sidebar and at hangouts.google.com. You have the option of emailing, texting, or getting on a video call. On the Google Hangouts page, you’re presented with various options including recent contacts and conversations, and the option to initiate a new video call, phone call, or text message. Google Hangouts is ideal for smaller groups of users but it might fall short for larger groups like classrooms or small to midsized businesses (SMBs) with more than 25 users. It’s no surprise, then, that Google seems to be transitioning users to its flagship product Google Meet.
