Video conferencing is more common than ever before, thanks to some awesome apps and the rise of high-speed internet connections. When it comes to video conferencing, many people think of Skype, however, not everyone likes Skype for one reason or the other. Some find it too resource hogging, while other simply want something that requires no additional account. Then there are apps which provide more robust options for collaboration, online presentations and the number of participants you can have in a video conference. Here are our recommendations for the 5 Best Skype Alternatives For Free Video Conferencing.
Related: Best Tools to Record Skype Calls
1. Google Hangouts
When it comes to video conferencing tools, Google Hangouts is one of the easiest to use. You can get started by using a web browser, chat directly via your Gmail account or simply download an app for your device. Google hangouts provides video conferencing for up to 10 participants. Moreover, it’s free to use with apps and browser extensions which makes it available for a number of platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android & Chrome OS. Since it supports Android, you can easily control Android from PC or Mac with the web.airdroid tool and have the best of the two OS. A notable company that relies on this alternative is Elementor.
2. Join.Me
Join.Me is an easy to use web conferencing platform which allows conducting group chats for 10 participants if you’re a free user. The paid version of Join.me allows even more participants. Join.me is a great app for video chats and online collaboration. Anyone can join a meeting without the need to sign up for an account via invitation link. Needless to say, Join.me is available for all popular desktop and mobile platforms.
3. Chanty
Chanty is a team chat and task management app. It allows you to exchange chat and voice messages, have audio and video calls with your team. Manage tasks from a single place – you can turn messages into tasks and assign them to your team members, all within the Chanty app. Boost productivity by integrating Chanty with third-party apps including Trello, Asana, Zapier, Google Drive, Dropbox, Onedrive, Github, Gitlab, Bitbucket, Mailchimp, Giphy and others.
4. Zoom
Zoom is a platform I recently tested out and found it to be surprisingly good. While Skype’s free edition is limited to just 25 participants, you can have up to 50 participants with a free Zoom account. Moreover, Zoom gives apps for all major platforms and provides a comprehensive user management system which is more comprehensive than Skype’s free edition or Google Hangouts. The only buzz kill is the fact that web conferences are limited to 40 minutes for the free version.
5. ooVoo
It is hard to think of a platform that ooVoo is not available for. Whether you’re using Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, iPad or a Windows Phone, ooVoo has an app for you. Unlike Google Hangouts, ooVoo gives up to 12 video windows and if you can buy credits, you get 6 additional audio participants. Other than that ooVoo is pretty much free to use and is one of the best free video conferencing platforms.
6. TeamViewer
If you’re surprised to see TeamViewer at the bottom of the list, it’s mainly because other tools mentioned above are easier to use. This however, does not mean TeamViewer isn’t a gem when it comes to video conferencing. In fact, it’s one of the most widely downloaded video conferencing apps. TeamViewer is also quite famous for providing remote support, remote access and for collaborating online. It has features which make it possible to not only share your screen but also grant remote access to your computer.
TeamViewer has apps for all major desktop and mobile platforms. The developer claims that TeamViewer gets an average of 30,000 downloads per hour.
Apart from the above mentioned, a few notable mentions for video chats and online collaboration include; Face-Time, Tango and Viber. What video chat and video conferencing apps do you think are the best? Feel free to share your opinion with our readers.
