אילוסטרציה
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‘Zoombombing,’ outages and privacy concerns - why your business should consider Zoom alternatives

Unquestionably, Zoom has been one of the standout startups of the pandemic era, with a recent valuation of $42 billion and over 12 million monthly users.

We’ve used Zoom for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, passover seders and virtual funerals. In fact, over 100,000 people attended the funeral for Rabbi Menachem Schneerson using Zoom.

And the zoom lingo has made its way into our everyday speech - ‘we’ll grab a zoom,’ ‘jump on a zoom’ or ‘do a zoom.’

But despite is utility and immense popularity, Zoom has also had its detractors. Founded by entrepreneur Eric Yuan, the surge of people on Zoom has seen issues with privacy and unwanted guests attending group calls, known colloquially as ‘zoombombing.’

Scammers have found ways to take advantage of Zoom, selling cryptocurrency or trying to collect vital information from businesses.

In addition, it cannot be understated the challenges that many people have logging onto a Zoom, often struggling to download the app or software or trying to find the right link and code to add. This presents a particular challenge for those less savvy, especially the elderly.

Whilst useful for some, there is a strong business case for organisations to have a backup and alternative for their video group calls.

Tech magazine, TechRound, lists their top 10 zoom alternatives, depending on your requirements.

For social calls to Mom and Dad or your close friends, you might want to look at something like Skype or Whatsapp, which is secure and requires you to have the individual’s phone number or Skype name.

For business purposes where you need to chat, screenshare, present work or do recordings, you can use the likes of Norwegian company, Whereby (formerly appear.in), Zoho Meeting, GoToMeeting or Join.Me.

In the case of Whereby, you are given a personalised link with your name, which you can simply send to guests every time you want to speak - and it never changes. You can also talk to others without any downloading of software.

Most video conferencing tools come with a free version, usually for holding just one meeting room and having one-on-one calls with another colleague or friend.

For others, the business model is that they charge once you get to a certain video time e.g 45 minutes. Or they have monthly packages for when you want to have multiple meeting rooms or add more than 10 or 50 people to a group.

TechRound advises users to make the most of free versions and with paid versions, you can use them for one month and then change back to a free version if you need.