Five key Assessment Factors for Video Conferencing Apps users

The year 2020 is the year of video, when  video took over as the leading content type and most effective platform for communication on the Internet. A Digital Marketing Institute 2020 report shows that video accounts for 80 percent of all web traffic. The advancements in 4G technology coupled with the increased processing capacity of mobile devices and personal computers with massive storage capability have made video files more accessible, easy to process and shared quite effortlessly on social media platforms, especially by those using mobile devices to access the Internet.

This increased capacity and ease of use of video on social media platforms played a major role in the development of tools that provide users the option of having seamless conversations on the Internet through video conferencing.

Entry of Video as a Popular Content Type

Video started showing strong presence as a favourite content type in the digital marketing industry in 2018 when the major social media platforms started streaming live matches and basketball games on their TV channels. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter were some of the early providers of video streaming services over mobile devices. In the last two years, video has become more accessible and e-learning applications, which were hitherto either podcast or text-based, started introducing video options for tele-conferencing and meetings.

Boom of Video Conferencing Apps

The year 2020 created a boom for video applications, essentially, multi-user video conferencing sites. The pandemic and forced locked down introduced at the early days of the outbreak of corona virus across the world led to a spike in video applications, increasing the number of users by almost five hundred fold. Video sites such as Zoom attracted unprecedented number of traffic, rising from over 10 million daily meeting participants in December 2019 to a little over 300 million by June 2020. There was equally a dramatic increase in the number of users in other video conferencing platforms such as WebEx, Microsoft Team, Google Meet, etc.

Competition among Video Apps Companies

The high demand for video conferencing software that resulted from the pandemic, and the apparent dominance by Zoom, caused many video application companies to jostle for increased patronage. Hence, making them try everything possible to attract a bigger share of the market, by adding new features and free services in an attempt to outperform existing competition, especially Zoom, which sudden climb to the top of the video conference table.

     Zoom’s introduction of free download of its video conferencing application at a time when people in countries around the world needed to work remotely and stay in touch colleagues and loved one, gave the video conferencing company an edge over others.

Choosing the Right Video Conferencing Software

 Video conferencing apps users have the arduous task of making a decision of which platform best serves their specific interest, putting into consideration key assessment factors such as, price, features, user-friendliness, number of users, and security and privacy concerns. For both private and corporate users of these applications, it requires an expert assessment by an IT professional to reach such a decision because of its highly technical nature.

As for corporate organizations, they are likely to have either the resources or personnel to implement such a research, but in the case of most private users, it is entirely different, because, they may lack the resources as well as the skill required to undertake such technical assessment.

Key Assessment Factors

For the user of a video conferencing application to have a fulfilling experience, such a user must first make the right choice by considering several factors as mentioned above, before reaching a decision on the best video application to use. However, many of the video conferencing companies attract users by allowing them to sign-up to the free version with an option to upgrade to the paid version, which usually, come with more features and increased capabilities.

1.   Pricing:

The cost of subscription for a video conferencing application is one of the most important consideration when a user wants to decide on the choice of a video conferencing software. While the free option is available, they often have inadequate features to meet the needs of some corporate organizations and educational institutions. Price comparison among the leading video conferencing applications is an essential factor that helps in determining which among the various platforms are most cost effective.

2.   Features:

Most of the leading video conferencing applications come with a variety of interesting features that addresses the specific needs of some users. Some of the popular video conferencing applications have many similarities in their features, but each one also comes with some unique features that are peculiar to the brand. Therefore, conducting a quick product review of the key features of the most popular brands would help tremendously, to reveal which one among them that meets the user’s specific criteria.

3.   User Friendliness:

Ease of use, is another essential factor that the user needs to consider, whether it is a corporate organization or private individual, before they reach a decision on the video conferencing application that is most appropriate. Starting from the subscription process, navigating the apps features, video quality to the upload rate of the application, all play a vital role, and are among the key considerations that may significantly affect the overall user experience, either negatively or positively.

4.   Number of Users:

The number of subscribers of any application measures its popularity. Inadvertently, the video conferencing sector is not exempt from this criterion. The most popular of these video conferencing platforms enjoy increased patronage because they are brands that have already established a reputation for themselves over the years. For users that do not have the resources or technical skill to carry out such assessment, it is better that they flow with the tide and be on the safe side.

However, it does not imply that the most popular video conferencing software are always the best. On the contrary, some of the video conferencing applications that are not quite popular may even have better features, as was the case of Zoom before the pandemic.

5.   Privacy Concerns:

Data security and user privacy are top of the list of factors that must be taking into consideration by users before taking a decision, especially corporate organizations. Like most sites, which are subscription based, video conferencing sites collect vital information of users, including credit card details and have access to other private data such as videos and documents shared on their platforms. Therefore, a thorough review of the data security and user privacy status of a video conferencing platform is necessary, before reaching that crucial decision is quite important.

Conclusion

The video conferencing environment is quiet competitive. Companies add new features periodically in an attempt to attract users to their platforms. There is a keen competition among the leading players in the sector. Due to the similarities of the features of these video conferencing applications, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish them in terms of performance.

Their similarity is what has led these companies to try to out-shine the other my introducing additional features in an attempt to attract a larger market share. Different users have their specific needs, and no single application is able to provide all the features that satisfies the needs of every user. Consequently, the individual user has the onus of deciding which of the video conferencing applications has the features that meets their specific interest.

To get the best of a video conference application depends largely on the knowledge one has of the various platforms, especially, among the major providers. Product review provides the relevant information that helps in arrival at that all-important final decision.