Virtual Meetings - Zoom or ?

I Zoomed with two former colleagues yesterday. None of us had an account and we sadly ⚡️ poofed ⚡️in a quick 40 minutes. It was a shockingly short amount of time.

For one to one meetings you get unlimited time on Zoom, but for more people, the free version is limited to 40 minutes. However, once the 40 minutes is up you immediately create a new meeting and have another 40 minutes and repeat and repeat.

How many participants?

There’s Skype, Google Hangouts, Apple Facetime. WhatsApp (video only on mobile devices).

For the free account, it is 40 minutes. The professional or paid account is unlimited. It would be awkward but each of you could schedule a back to back 40 meetings. Some on other sites have suggested that Zoom was not consistently enforcing the 40 min -- have no idea if that is true or not.

Google Hangouts is a nightmare of confusion as the video is one person at a time, the person speaking or making noise. We used it in a 5 way family chat and found it annoying. Unless you are very disciplined and do not talk over one another, it might work.

Microsoft Teams is getting good press. No idea about limitations.

Thanks everyone. I don't know exactly how many people will participate, but if couples share a device I anticipate at least 10. We are an undisciplined bunch, so one at a time wouldn't work very well. When we meet in person some meetings have lasted, for some people, up to 8 hours. Obviously a virtual meeting wouldn't be that long, but 40 minutes is hard to imagine. We are just getting going then. Not everyone has an iPhone, so FaceTime is out. Maybe Whatsapp would work. I've only done one to one video calls that way. For Zoom, what would be the best way to create new meetings every 40 minutes? Laurel, thanks for the heads up for Google Hangouts.

Try Jitsi. Open source, free and easy to use. https://meet.jit.si

On the weekends Zoom often does not enforce the 40 minute limit on free accounts.

If it does you will get a warning on the screen 10 minutes before and can arrange for everybody to leave the meeting, the host just closes the meeting, and then opens another meeting with the same code and password, everybody pops on and you’re good to go again.

Techy types and IT people like Webex more than Zoom but I think they're being a little paranoid - Zoom is harder to keep corralled from your core system but most users don't have any sensitive data that Zoom could snoop upon anyway.
Your best bet is still to find someone with a pro Zoom account to host.

Andrea, a Zoom "pro" account isn't very expensive and lets up to 100 people meet without time limit (which doesn't sound much fun!). Might be worthwhile just to get an account for a few months and let someone else do it after that. You can reimburse each other with coffee or food whenever in-person meetings become possible (soon please?).

I have very limited experience with Zoom, don't have an account myself but participate regularly in a social gathering someone else hosts. I'd suggest using a password for the meeting to avoid interlopers. Good luck!

I believe our Orinda meetings on Zoom went two hours on a Saturday -- but I would be happy to share the $15/month cost of a pro account if that makes it easier.

I've been Zooming meetings that go on and on and on for two-plus hours. I didn't know there was a 40-minute limit, damn it. Maybe we have an account; heck if I know. It helps if you can become adept at angling the screen so others can't tell when you're reading a book or phone. That's how bored I've been.

Why is it everyone at a meeting needs to pipe in with banalities? If you have nothing worthwhile to say, then don't say it. Nobody needs to be impressed.

Google Hangouts is fine by me if you are speaking to people that know how to be quiet.

The first time we held our East Bay meeting (on a Saturday) it was using my free account. As the 40 minute time limit approached, a popup appeared and said that, during the crisis, they were allowing free meetings to go longer. I don't know how long we could have gone, nor how long that courtesy is being extended.

Laura, the Orinda meeting was hosted by me, and I have a pro Zoom account, so there's no time limit any day of the week.
I've used a very large handful of different programs for teleconferencing and think zoom is your best bet for meetings with more than 3 participants, especially if you want to share your screen to show slides or movie clips, or draw.
There are a lot of other features, like polling and breakout rooms, that are more useful for other kinds of meetings.

Andrea,

If you decide to use Zoom, be sure to set up robust passwords so that you don't get "Zoom-bombed". The problem has been so prevalent lately that the FBI is working with them to try and put a stop to it.

We've been using Zoom for my Italian class. So far had 2 classes. The breakout room feature works well for us, as the teacher usually gets us to work through stuff in pairs.

It sort of works, but still feels very strange and I would much prefer to go back to a classroom setting. The numbers attending/on register have fallen right down. There were about 15 in class, when we attended the college but numbers have dropped down and there are now only 8 on our register (which is a similar drop to other classes the college is running).

I have read comments of people loving Zoom meetings. Have to say, I don't. Have heard that the Microsoft Team thing is good, would be interested to hear how others find it.

It's good to hear others experience of the various options.

Would be interested to hear how your meeting and how the tech went, and what worked and what didn't. We are going to have to get used to a different way of meeting for some time.

Thanks everyone. One member of our group has offered to host using uberconference...I think. All I know is he offered to host and we will see how it goes. We can re-evaluate after to see if we want to use it again.

Interesting about Uberconference. This is the first time I have heard of it so I went and did a little looking around.

It looks like peoples’ thumbnails are on the screen rather than their live video unless one person at a time turns their live video on. That may not be true but that’s how it looks on their demo. On the demo when somebody turns on the video it becomes a large thumbnail rather than a full screen of the current speaker.

I also notice that unless the paid for version is being used people cannot call from outside of the US and Canada. It is interesting that it speaks about everything in the format of a telephone conference call. It is also interesting that the price for the paid for version is almost exactly the same as the price for the Pro level of Zoom. It says in the intro that they have extended the amount of time on a free uberconference but I can’t find anywhere how much that time has been extended from or two.

If it is the free version it is limited to 10 people on a conference call. Although it has music on hold it does not seem to have a Zoom style waiting room.

If the person who is providing it has a higher level of service that will mean that I and Jo can dial in but it looks like it’s not possible on the free version.

If I can get in I will give it a go for a while, and I have an open mind.

Nigel, that is interesting information.. I'll forward it to Kevin and see what's up. I thought our Zoom meeting went okay last month, especially when couples using two devices started sharing. Thanks for the offer of potentially hosting, but I'm afraid we would be much too long winded for you, especially considering the 8 hour time difference. I would be happy to pay $15 for Zoom Pro if it will give us a good meeting experience. Stay tuned...

I have to say, I had the free Zoom account and also knew of the limitation to the 40-minute meeting — but never got limited to 40 minutes! I am not sure why not (now I have a paid account).

I started using the free version of zoom during covid
ive my 6 zoom meetups : only once the 40 min time limit was enforced and today was the only time I had a major issue
audio feedback
it was brutal so ended the meeting early
did some googling so now know the 3 reasons on why it occurs
thought on this for a few hours and now think I can solve the problem during the call so wont need to shut it down again

Thanks again everyone. We were going to use UberConference, but when we tried to test it out we discovered that everyone had to have Chrome. I ended up signing up for Zoom Pro. For the less than the cost of what I would have spend during our normal in-person meeting, having Pro we didn't have to worry about time limits. I had a practice meeting with friends Friday night and a successful Travel Group meeting on Saturday. Couples shared one device and we had approximately 15 devices involved. It went well. I expect we will be doing this for many months as well.

There are many Virtual Meetings are Available, Alternative Zoom