VIDEOCHATAPPS
ISSUE392|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2020 79
MICROSOFTTEAMS
Free•www.microsoft.com
Maximum participants: 250
LikeZoom,MicrosoftTeamsisa
professionalvideoconferencing
tool;soprofessionalthatifyousay
you’re using it forfriends and family during
setup,itinstructs you to try Skype instead.
Regardless, there’s plenty in even the free
version to satisfy most non-work users: a
lengthy eight-hour call time limit, support for
up to 49 participants onscreen at once,
easily file sharing and agiganticmaximum
participant count of 250. You’dhaveto
reach very farupthe family tree to even
think about hitting that limit.
There are some limitations to using the
free version of Teams: unlike the paid
version, there’s no built-in tool forrecording
video calls, nor aformal guarantee of
uptime.Infairness, you don’t really get
the latter with
consumer software
anyway. If youdo
want afuller feature
set, the cheapest
option is aMicrosoft
Business Basics
subscription for
about £5 per month,
although forsimple
video calls only the
host needs to pay.
Guests can be
invited and join
group calls without
the need foranaccount, or to download the
Teams app on their computer.
It’s also worth noting that Teams has
added some useful new features since the
lockdown hit. One is the neat ‘raise hand’
button that appears in the toolbarduring
calls; pressing this will alert everyone on the
call that you have something important to
say. Microsofthas also added aform of
real-time microphone noise cancelling,
which slightly reduces background noises
such as the sound of tapping on akeyboard.
Even that 49-strong video view is arecent
addition, aimed to bring parity with Zoom;
previously,the most participants you could
see at once was nine.
SKYPE
Free•www.skype.com
Maximum participants: 50
Arguablythelong-reigning king
of consumer video chat software,
Skype is now facing big
competition. Microsofthas responded,
however,partly by doubling the maximum
number of users in agroup call –video or
audio –from25to50.
This doesn’t put it on apar with the more
business-minded Zoom,which supports up
to 100 participants on its free version, while
its ability to show nine different videos
onscreen at once is no match forZoom’s
Gallery view,which can show up to 50. Still,
these are generous numbers forsoftware
that’s primarily been made with private
users in mind, and is totallyfree as well.
It’s also borrowed one of Zoom’s
most enjoyable features: background
replacement. This lets you upload an image
that appears behind you on the feed,
making forcomedy backgrounds or just a
bit of privacy if you don’t
want people seeing into
your home.However,on
Windows 10 this is only
an option on the version
of Skype you can
download and install from
its site; in the Microsoft
Store version, background
replacement is missing
from the Settings menu.
Through the ‘Meet
Now’ call setup wizard,
you can inviteothers to a
video call even if they
don’t have aSkype
account. In fact, if they’re on adesktop PC
or laptop,there’s no need forthem to even
have Skype installed, as theycan use the
web client instead.
WHATSAPP
Free•www.whatsapp.com
Maximum participants: 8
This is one forthose who are
more likely to be stuck to their
smartphones than sat at aPC.
While both Android and iOS versions of
WhatsApp support video calls, it’s afeature
that remains completely absent from the
desktop version. The same goes forthe
web client, too.
WhatsApp also isn’t as suited to more
populous group calls as its various desktop
alternatives, though of course that’s partly
by design, as even the most sprawling
phablet screens would struggle to fit dozens
of video visages on it. The Facebook-owned
chat app has also,itmust be said, reacted
to the greater demands of lockdown life
by doubling the number of users that can
share acall at once,from
four to eight.
This is part of what
makes WhatsApp a
viable video-calling
option forthose who’d
prefertokeep things
simple –asisthe ease
with which calls can
be set up in the first
place.There’s no copy
and pasting invite
links to user after
user: simply find who
you want to join in
the contacts list and tap the video call icon.
If you’re amember of any group text chats
with four members or fewer,you can start
avoice or video call with
all of them using a
single tap; another
recent quality-of-life
improvement.
As with WhatsApp’s
text messaging, video
calls are also subject to
end-to-end encryption,
so your conversations
are as secure as they’d
be on paid-for business
software, even if
WhatsApp isn’t as
richly featured.
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