Many businesses and schools have been ordered to stay at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and with this, they have had to come up with a way to keep operations going. Whether that entails a weekly meeting or daily meetings, companies and schools are using Zoom and Google Meet to stay connected. 

   The past month or two have been difficult for everyone worldwide when it comes to the flow of everyday life. From stay at home orders to school closures, many people have been left questioning how long this pandemic will last and what that means for their job and future.

   Google Meet, an app owned by Google to provide a platform for multiple individuals to video chat, has been one of the methods of keeping companies and schools connected during this time. Google Meet is directly linked with a Gmail account and all the other apps Google provides, which is very convenient due to the fact that Douglas County and many other counties use Google to run their everyday operations of teaching.

   Google Meet can support up to 150 people in a voice chat and only 25 in a video chat at once, but due to COVID-19, Google is offering many features from their business version of Google Meet, Google Hangouts Meet, for free to everyone. This changes the number of people on a video call from 25- 250, and 150- 100,000 viewers. Google Meet also provides a feature to allow hosts of calls to record meetings and save it directly to Google Drive.  

   Google Meet also provides an option for real-time captioning in meetings of video chats which can be used by hearing-impaired users. Google has said that this free business extension for Google Meet will be done September 30 and will return to subscription services.

   Zoom is another app created to provide a platform for groups that need video conference calls from home. The app offers a free plan and two buyable plans. The free plan allows a max of 100 and buyable options allow 1,000 people per call. Zoom also includes a typed chat in every call which can be used to pass ideas during a presentation or meeting and can also be used for asking questions. 

   But Zoom isn’t as great as everyone says it is. With the COVID-19 outbreak, Zoom has experienced multiple security breaches within their privacy settings. People can easily hack the software to join in on calls they aren’t supposed to be in. The New York Department of Education has recently told teachers to stop using Zoom while the app continues to secure their problems with hackers.

   Both apps are very useful in their own ways but Google Meet seems to be the better bet when it comes to teaching during COVID-19. With a linked system that many already use, it’s extremely simple to incorporate Google Meet into a class or business group. It also provides features to record calls and save them to Drive where all students can access the content. Lastly, Meet incorporates real-time captioning for all users, making calls from home easy.

   Overall, Google Meet is easier, safer, and more efficient for users around the world.

Alex Willman, Staff Reporter