Google meet video conferencing app vs Zoom
In view of the increasing craze of video conferencing app during the lockdown, Google has made its video conferencing app Meet free for users across the world. The company said that within the coming few weeks, all users will be able to use it for free. Till now the paid version of this premium app was available.
At Google Meet, 100 participants will be able to do video conferencing for one hour simultaneously. Google Meet will be seen from the Zoom app. In the free version of Zoom, 100 participants can simultaneously take part in video conferencing for 40 minutes.
100 participants will be able to join
Smita Hashim, product management director of Google Cloud, said that with Google Meet being free for all, any user will now be able to host a meeting, where 100 participants can take part in video conferencing for 60 minutes. He further said that Google Meat is not only safe but also reliable. We hope that our hangout users will now switch to Google Meat.
Google will also change the layout
The company said that we are freeing some essential services. We currently have no plans to monetize Google Meat. We hope that video conferencing will continue to be an essential service in the coming times, he said, adding that the company also plans to change the layout of Google Meet in the future.
30 million new users are joining every day
The daily usage of Google Meat launched in January has increased up to 30 times to date. The app currently hosts 300 million video meetings and has added 3 crore, new users, daily to the app. According to reports, last week the number of users using the Meat App daily crossed 10 million.
Users will get free advanced features
From May, any user will be able to sign-up to the Meet app from an email address and use all the special features of the app, which were available for Google Business and Education account users till now. These include simple scheduling, screen sharing, real-time caption, and choosing the layout according to priority. The company said that only those users who have a Google account will get this facility. From September 30, we will also make G Suite necessary, in which many advanced features will be available for free.
Video Conferencing App Development Challenge
The central government of India has launched the Video Conferencing App Development Challenge for Indian software companies. Its price money has been kept at Rs 1 crore.
This innovation challenge was given at a time when popular video conferencing app Zoom is in controversy about its security reasons. Through this challenge, the government wants to offer a safe environment and facilities to hundreds of people working from home.
Almost all important information is being exchanged online due to work from home. Due to this, the risk of data theft and leaking of confidential information through online mediums has increased significantly. During the lockdown, the zoom app was being used extensively for video conferencing.
In its free version, 100 users and in paid version 500 users can participate in video conferencing simultaneously. Currently, the valuation of the zoom app is $ 42 billion, or about Rs 3.2 lakh crore.
April 30 is the last date to register for the challenge.
Registrations for the app development program have started from April 13 and the last date is April 30. There are certain conditions for making apps such as video conferencing app that can work on any device, even in weak networked areas. Apart from this, the data in the app is transferred in an encrypted format and it consumes less power.
The winning team will get 1 crore rupees
The result of the challenge will be announced on July 29 and the winning team will be given prize money of Rs 1 crore and a certificate from the Ministry of Information and Technology. The app will be used in places including the central and state governments.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh was also using the zoom
Only last week, the government had issued advisory about the safety issues of the zoom app. The Cyber Coordination Center of the Ministry of Home Affairs also advised government institutions not to use the Zoom app, keeping safety in mind. In India, many private institutions have used the zoom app indiscriminately to work from home due to lockdown. Through this, cases have been heard in many high courts. A few days ago, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh was seen using the zoom app.
Controversies with zoom app
The Indian securities agencies find some loop fall in the zoom app.
- According to the researchers, Zoom appears to own three companies in China
- At least 700 employees in these companies are paid to develop Zoom’s software
US-based video meeting app Zoom courted a fresh controversy when security researchers from Citizen Lab at University of Toronto found that that some Zoom calls are being routed through servers in China, along with conference encryption and decryption keys used to secure those calls.
According to the researchers, Zoom appears to own three companies in China through which at least 700 employees are paid to develop Zoom’s software.
“Zoom can avoid paying US wages while selling to US customers, thus increasing their profit margin. However, this arrangement may make Zoom responsive to pressure from Chinese authorities,’ said the team.
During its analysis, the security researchers also identified a security issue with Zoom’s Waiting Room feature.
“Assessing that the issue presented a risk to users, we have initiated a responsible vulnerability disclosure process with Zoom. We are not currently providing public information about the issue to prevent it from being abused,” the team said in a detailed statement on Friday.
While the mainline Zoom app (zoom.us) was reportedly blocked in China in November 2019, there are several third-party Chinese companies that sell the Zoom app within China (zoom.cn, zoomvip.cn, zoomcloud.cn).
Citizen Lab said it has initiated a responsible disclosure process with Zoom over Waiting Room vulnerability.
“We hope that the company will quickly act to patch and provide an advisory. In the meantime, we advise Zoom users who desire confidentiality to not use Zoom Waiting Rooms”.
The rapid uptake of teleconference platforms such as Zoom, without proper vetting, potentially puts trade secrets, state secrets, and human rights defenders at risk.
“Companies and individuals might erroneously assume that because a company is publicly listed or is a major household name, that this means the app is designed using security best practices. As we showed in this report, that assumption is false,” said Citizen Lab.
A TechCrunch report said on Saturday that Zoom “mistakenly” allowed two of its Chinese data centers to accept calls as a backup in the event of network congestion.
“During normal operations, Zoom clients attempt to connect to a series of primary datacenters in or near a user’s region, and if those multiple connection attempts fail due to network congestion or other issues, clients will reach out to two secondary datacenters off of a list of several secondary datacenters as a potential backup bridge to the Zoom platform,” explained Zoom Founder and CEO Eric Yuan.
Yuan has already apologized for the privacy and security issues or “Zoom-bombing” being reported in his app that has seen a surge in usage globally as people work from home during lockdowns.
Slammed for the lack of users privacy and security by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and cybersecurity experts, reports claimed this week that the video conferencing app Zoom is also prone to hacking.
The Zoom CEO said that over the next 90 days, the company is committed to dedicating the resources needed to better identify, address, and fix issues proactively to “maintain your trust”.
In March this year, the use base on Zoom reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants, both free and paid.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.