Zoom vs. Google Meet

Two video conferencing services, which is better?

- By Sam Lewis

Zoom took video calling by storm during the pandemic and it continues to be one of the leading platforms today.

OVER THE PAST DECADE, the proliferation of camera-enabled devices and free video calling platforms has made video conferencing accessible to all. Even your grandparents have probably been getting in on the act. Of course, the pandemic really kicked things up a gear but, even as life slowly returns to normal, we’re still heavily reliant on the technology. Whether it’s business meetings, remote working, or family gatherings, video conferences kept our lives going during a tricky couple of years. And now we’ve gotten used to it, that doesn’t look like it’s going to change.

Video conferencing is nothing new, and the concept has been around for a while. At the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, Bell Labs introduced its new invention, the Picturephone. This device was a 5-inch black and white screen paired with a camera. For $16, you got three minutes in a public booth in New York, Washington DC, or Chicago and the ability to connect with another Picturephone user. Of course, at nearly $145 in today’s money, the technology was far too costly to catch on.

It wasn’t until AT&T’s Videophone 2500 in 1992 that video calling became feasible. The color video was transmitted over a regular phone line and didn’t cost the user any more than a typical phone call. However, it was the arrival of the internet that was the real driver behind the video calling boom.