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Last week, responding to the phenomenal growth in Zoom’s popularity, Google opened up the possibilities of the Google Meet video conferencing service to ordinary users; previously this required a G Suite or G Suite for Education subscription. Now, without wasting time on anything in vain, Google is preparing to take another hit at the Zoom positions: integrate video chat directly into the Gmail interface. Some users report a popup window to start Meet video chat in the left sidebar of the Gmail interface.
Apparently, Google has already started distributing the update; In the coming days, as long as there are no problems, there will be a new opportunity available to everyone.
As has been said many times, amid the pandemic and general self-isolation, Zoom, which has many security issues, has become not only the most popular tool for online meetings, but has also entered the language as a common name. And now, Microsoft and Google market veterans are trying to catch up and actively developing their own solutions. Not long ago, Skype received a customizable background for video calls, and Meet, among other things, learned how to display up to 16 participants in a video conference on a screen. The integration of Meet in Gmail should clearly contribute to the growth of the popularity of the first user and the flow of users of the competing Zoom service.
As The Verge reasonably points out, Google has always been completely inconsistent in its strategy for developing communications software. The latest examples of weird stuff include Google Talk (aka Gchat) and Allo, both products now resting peacefully in the company’s digital graveyard. Also, a month ago, the Meet service was called Hangouts Meet. And this is with Live Hangouts Chat (Google’s response to Slack’s corporate messenger), which, although it has given way to Meet’s left sidebar, still exists. As a result, Google now has the original Hangouts Chat, Meet and Hangouts services (although it will be discontinued soon), as well as Android Chat (similar to Apple iMessage) for text messages and the Duo video chat application.
Source: The Verge
