Despite its many earlier security concerns, Zoom usage has continued to be on the rise despite the likes of Microsoft and Google having arguably better video-conferencing software available for users and companies. Microsoft though is working hard in trying to steal the Zoom audience and has announced a new video calling feature that will allow for all-day video calling, absolutely free. And I’m not just referring to that one-on-one call you want with that person you like that you don’t want to end, but conversations with your entire set of family and friends where up to 300 people (yes Darryn, some people have that number of friends) can be part of your meeting. All day. Entirely for free.
Called Together Mode, this new feature allows for big mass groups, though even though it can support 300 people at a time, you will lonely be able to see a total of 49 at any given time. Not that you will probably want to see that many people on your screen at any given point in time. The best part is, you won’t even need to use its app and connect via an account as you can still gain access to teams calls directly from your browser and be a part of the call as a guest (the call organisers will need an account).
Considering all of its competitors offer substantial call limits on groups calls, Zoom (40 min), Google (60 min) and Cisco Webex (50 min) this is a massive move on its competitors to try and win over more people to utilise its Team platform – and perhaps get sucked even further into the rest of the office ecosystem too. From a feature perspective there I no doubt that Microsoft already has the most appealing feature set, especially to enterprise customers but now offering unlimited calls to big groups for free will make it appealing to just about everyone too.
Last Updated: November 24, 2020
