as Slack, where businesses can operate entirely
under one platform and chat, work, and hang
out. As well as offering the same functionality as
Zoom, Teams allows users to blur backgrounds
on calls to offer some additional privacy when
working from home, it offers comprehensive
security over Zoom, and it can be fully
integrated into Office 365. Though a free tier is
available for a limited time, Teams starts at just
$5 per user per month in the US, making it a
truly accessible choice.
Finally, we should mention Google Hangouts.
As part of its efforts to improve communication
during COVID-19, Google recently rebranded
its popular Hangouts service as Google Meet,
and now runs as an independent part of G
Suite, which is a portfolio of business services
which include branded domain emails, Docs,
Sheets, Gmail, and Drive. Google Meet works
with Google Hangouts Chat, allowing workers
to communicate via messages when they’re not
on a call, perhaps to remind them to update a
document or to send over a set of tasks for the
day ahead. Though initially only available to
paying customers, the company confirmed in
a blog post at the end of April that Google
Meet would be free for all, which has helped
the company add around three million new
users to its platform every day. And unlike
Zoom and Microsoft Teams, Google Meet can
handle meetings of up to 250 participants,
ideal for conferences and teaching, and
100,000 viewers can live stream a speech of
keynote from one domain. Meetings can also
be recorded and saved to Google Drive and
YouTube for later viewing, making it the ideal
option for enterprises.