https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/29/...ce=twbusiness&utm_content=2020-05-02T07:00:13 Google makes Meet, its Zoom and Skype competitor, free for everyone New York (CNN)Free-to-use Zoom and Skype are getting some competition: 'Meet', which is Google's premium video conferencing tool, is now free for everyone. Google (GOOGL) said Wednesday that the "secure and reliable" software will become available over the next few weeks to anyone with an email address, even if it's not a Gmail account. Meet was previously only available to users of its G Suite productivity tools, commonly used by larger companies and schools. The work-from-home revolution brought on by the novel coronavirus sparked a teleconferencing phenomenon over the past few months. Zoom (ZM), which has been plagued with security issues, announced last week it hosts 300 million meeting participants a day. Facebook (FB) is adding its own entrant with a video conference tool for its Messenger app called Messenger Rooms. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in its earnings call Tuesday that Meet recently "surpassed a significant milestone" and is adding 3 million new users every day. Usage has increased 30-fold since January and Meet now has more than 100 million daily meeting participants, according to Pichai. Google emphasized Meet's security features, writing in a blog post that it's "designed, built and operated to be secure at scale." Some key features include admitting or denying users into conferences and not allowing anonymous users — both problems that Zoom has attempted to stamp out with software updates. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan admitted that his company has "fallen short" on privacy and security. Google is limiting the time for a meeting to 60 minutes, but that limit won't be enforced until September. One hundred people can be on a Meet call, the same number allowed in a Zoom call, but Zoom limits meetings to 40 minutes on its free tier. Facebook's upcoming video conferencing tool can host up to 50 people without a time limit. Microsoft's (MSFT) Skype can also host up 50 people on conference call for up to 4 hours. Like Skype and Zoom, Meet will retain some premium features for G Suite customers, including dial-in phone numbers, larger meetings, and meeting recording.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/19/...-facebook-portal-google-nest-amazon-echo-show Zoom is coming to Google Nest, Amazon Echo, and Facebook Portal smart displays By Chaim Gartenberg@cgartenberg Aug 19, 2020, 10:00am EDT Zoom is expanding to a variety of new devices later this year, with the company announcing that the Amazon Echo Show, Facebook Portal, and Google Nest Hub Max will support the widely used videoconferencing app later this year. It’s a big expansion for Zoom, which has recently started to branch out into its own licensed videoconferencing hardware. And smart displays — with their high-quality directional microphones and built-in touchscreens — are practically designed to be good videoconferencing devices. The new Zoom integration is a big deal for Google, Amazon, and Facebook, too, given that all three of these companies have almost exclusively stuck to their own, in-house video chatting solutions (like Google Meet and Facebook Messenger) on their smart displays. The Portal will be the first to get Zoom, with a rollout planned for this September. Each of the three solutions will implement Zoom a little differently. Facebook’s Portal devices will be adding a Zoom app (along with new apps for BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, and Webex, which were also announced today), and will rely on Facebook’s “smart camera” technology to automatically keep you in frame, just like it does for Facebook’s own Messenger and WhatsApp calls. Additionally, Facebook is making the Portal less reliant on your personal Facebook accounts: instead of requiring a Facebook or WhatsApp account to log in to a Portal, the company is adding an option to use a work-focused Facebook Workplace account in “the coming weeks.” Google, on the other hand, will be relying on the strength of its Calendar and Assistant services, which will be able to automatically pull in existing Zoom meetings directly from your calendar and allow users to start meetings with voice commands like “Hey Google, join my next meeting.” (Unfortunately, the fact that Google limits Nest Hubs to a single account means that it’ll be less useful for juggling work and personal Zoom meetings.) Alexa customers will also get a similar experience. Echo Show devices that have been synced with your calendar will be able to automatically start meetings without requiring users to manually input a meeting ID or password, and it’ll support Alexa voice controls, too. Amazon’s rollout will start later this year, beginning with the Echo Show 8.