Remote Meeting Software and Support

Its UI is a bit plain-looking compared to other services we looked at, but it’s still very clean and functional. Livestorm was actually designed as a tool for hosting webinars with a large number of participants, but it doubles as a video conferencing tool for individuals and businesses. The free tier allows a maximum of 30 attendees in an online meeting and up to 20 minutes per session.

The most simple of the online meeting software options on this list, Talky does not require any downloads. Instead, the site generates a unique room URL, which you share with your team. The only features Talky has are locked rooms and screen sharing, which should be a relief to less technologically-savvy team members. Just keep in mind that Talky only allows for up to six people per room, making it an ideal choice for small virtual meetings or conference calls. Zoom offers both a screen sharing feature and the ability to control another person’s screen, as do some other video conferencing applications. Given that, you might be wondering whether you need remote access software.

In-person business meetings are almost always preferable, however brief. But they’re not always practical, particularly in today’s reality of remote work. That’s why companies are increasingly turning to video conferencing systems as the go-to tool for office communications. They’re the best solution for face-to-face collaboration when gathering in the office isn’t an option. In addition, modern video conferencing systems provide various tools, including screen sharing and virtual whiteboards, to help your online meetings go as smoothly as possible.

Zoom Meetings

Most applications on this list work about as well on macOS as they do in Windows, but there’s usually at least one feature missing. Not the case with Splashtop, which has great feature parity between its Windows and macOS clients. The only real downsides are that Splashtop is a little bit complicated to set up, and the pricing plan isn’t straightforward to figure out. Splashtop makes up for it with a very responsive customer service team—one that proactively reaches out to answer questions. RemotePC hits the sweet spot for small businesses, in particular those who only want access to just a few computers without breaking the bank. It’s a fraction of the price of other applications and works just as well.

As an updated version of the standard Google Hangouts, Google Meet aims to make it easier to work with external clients. It does this first by providing a web app experience, which means there is no software to download. Secondly, it also provides a dedicated dial-in number, which not only means that employees on the go can join in, but this also ensure that line quality is maintained and that there are no drop-outs.

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Expect hiccups if someone doesn’t already have Teams installed. Not everyone can make every meeting—recordings help bridge that gap. Recording a meeting should be as simple as clicking a button in your online meeting software. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who’ve spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it’s intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We’re never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review.

Zoom offers breakout rooms, a chat room, the share your screen feature, the ability to change your background, and more. Zoom can be used for personal meetings, small business meetings, and large enterprise meetings. There are different pricing options for Zoom depending on your needs.

People in non-supported countries can also dial in via Voice over Internet Protocol . The main flaw we observed is that FreeConferenceCall has a user interface that looks outdated and clunky. Meetings can be saved locally or to the cloud, along with transcripts that have searchable text to work with. Additionally, collaboration is built in with the ability for participants to share their screens and work together to provide their own notes as required.

What To Look for in a Video Conferencing Service

We do not offer financial advice, advisory or brokerage services, nor do we recommend or advise individuals or to buy or sell particular stocks or securities. Performance information may have changed since the time of publication. For pricing, we considered whether a software provider offers a free version. As such, we evaluated which services have the best free version.

• Another note that needs to be made is that while the program is 100 percent free, it does limit how many hours you can use it per month.
• Now, Geekbot has over 120,000 users, can integrate with both Slack and MS teams, and is mainly used by engineers and Scrum teams.
• Thanks to this application, now high-resolution 4K video conferencing is possible.
• Once team members click on the URL, they will instantly join a virtual room with the rest of the team.
• You can chat while video calling and send out relevant files and links in the same messaging channel for meeting participants.
• You don’t need to worry too much, though, because all the applications mentioned in this list use encryption, meaning there’s no chance of your remote activity being intercepted.

Or you can set smart reminders, which tells Geekbot to recognize your team’s reporting patterns and follow up with each team member when they’re most likely to answer. Download Viewer on its own or in the Viewer + Host combo file. Download a portable version of the Viewer if you’d rather not install anything. Install Host on a Windows computer to gain permanent access to it.

Anything above that, and you’ll have to pay for a premium plan, which starts at $110 per month. Within meetings, you can easily share your screen, chat with other participants, or raise your hand to signal that you have a question or want a chance to speak up. You can also record any meeting or create a live stream, even without a paid subscription. The only advanced feature that 8×8 Meet is missing was an in-meeting survey function, although we haven’t seen this functionality for free in any video conferencing software. Lifesize Standard is designed for small teams and offers unlimited meetings, along with Single Sign On support, personal meeting support, as well as lone chat and support. Lifesize Plus is aimed at small and midsize companies, offering more features which includes Microsoft integrations, real-time meeting insights, phone and email support.

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When it comes to holding a video meeting, you have the choice between using the Webex app or just sticking with the website, though it could be argued that the desktop apps give a smoother experience. A Business plan tier is available which increases the number of participants to 250 and includes a few admin features plus drawing tools and mouse sharing. An Enterprise plan is available to accommodate up to 3,000 participants. GoToMeeting is the standalone videoconferencing service provided by LogMeIn. As expected it provides audio and video conferencing, as well as screensharing, and we’ve provided a guide on how to use GoToMeeting. Zoho is primarily an application intended for IT staff, so getting it set up is going to be a bit of a learning curve.

RemotePC offers every feature offered by TeamViewer and works about as well, especially if you’re connecting Windows devices to each other. It’s also much more affordable than TeamViewer if you only need access to a handful of your own devices. Keep remote workers on the go with the market’s widest device coverage. We cover all Android devices and also provide iOS screen sharing – an industry first. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

If unattended access is set up, the client doesn’t need to wait for the host to accept the connection. Might limit connection time or address book entries because there are also paid versions of the program. If the host installed the program, the setup procedure is a little more involved. Make a user account through the link below (it’s totally free), and then add a new agent to your account.

Best free video conference software

If you need to quickly get into someone’s computer without messing around with logins or installations, this is what you’re after. Generally, remotely accessing a computer requires that a piece of software be installed on the computer you want to connect to, called the host. Another computer or device with the right credentials, called the client, connects to the host and controls it.

Send channel messages in Microsoft Teams when new attendees register on Eventbrite

It’s easy to use, great for providing support, and it works well for accessing your own devices. Features like file transfer, remote audio, and video chats are all offered, making it one of the more complete tools in this list. Other options include enabling and disabling webcams, locking latecomers out of a meeting, creating a waiting room while preparing for the meeting, and allowing break-out sessions. Most of the video conferencing how to run a successful remote meeting services in this roundup also offer a text chat mode during meetings and sometimes outside of video calls, too. As a standalone video conferencing solution, GoToMeeting is a dependable offering, but it lacks some features you’d want for general-purpose video meetings. It’s best suited for use cases like webinars, contact centers, and remote IT management, especially when paired with GoTo’s other software for those markets.

Best for Small Business Web Meetings

You can access this application from the G Suite office productivity section. Compared to other applications, the security system of this remote meeting program is un-hackable. Another significant advantage of this system is it can satisfy high business-grade conferencing requirements. You’re probably already paying for it because Teams comes bundled with basically every version of Microsoft Office. If you want a team chat app that also offers high-quality video conferencing, Teams is worth checking out.

You can even automatically transcribe meetings and share that. Most team chat apps struggle with video, or treat it as an afterthought. Not Microsoft Teams, which offers some of the most robust video conferencing features on the market. It will typically keep your video going even through a weak internet connection, just at a reduced quality level. You can record any call as a full-length video, and participants can also use text chat to talk with each other, either as a group or as individual private messages.

Establishing Meeting Cadence for Remote Project Teams

If data security is a priority for your business, then Meet is right for you, as long as everyone has a Google Account. There are many browser-based video conferencing services out there. Most of them aim to make it easy for anyone to quickly create a meeting link, share it, and start a meeting because simplicity is the point. Users can join meetings by downloading and installing the application or by using the web version. There’s an excellent whiteboard, comparable to what’s offered by any other app, complete with drawing, text, sticky notes, and even a « magic pen » feature that tidies up your messy rectangles and circles. You can even share a document without sharing your screen—everyone in the meeting can mark up the file in place.