If you work from home, you may have heard of Zoom, one of the leading video conferencing software applications on the market.
It allows you to actually interact with co-workers or employers when in-person meetings are not possible. This makes remote work seem more human, as it helps you feel connected.
With the Coronavirus COVID-19 spreading widely around the world, for example, zoom cloud meetings have become an essential tool for small, medium and large-sized teams who want to stay in touch and continue the daily workflow with the least amount of disruption.
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What is zoom cloud meetings?
Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service that you can use to physically meet with others – either by video, audio-only, or both, all while having live chats – and it lets you record those sessions for viewing later.
When people talk about zoom cloud meetings, you’ll usually hear the following phrases: Zoom Meeting and Zoom Room. Zoom meeting refers to a video conference meeting that is hosted using Zoom. You can join these meetings via webcam or phone. Meanwhile, the Zoom Room is the physical setup of devices that allow companies to schedule and run Zoom Meetings from their meeting rooms.
Zoom Rooms requires an additional subscription over the Zoom subscription and is ideal for large businesses.
Zoom key features
Here are Zoom’s primary features:
One-to-one meetings: Host an unlimited number of one-on-one meetings even with the free plan.
Group video conferencing: host up to 500 participants (if you purchased the “large meeting” add-on). However, the free plan allows you to host video conferences of up to 40 minutes and up to 100 participants.
Screen sharing: Meet in person or with large groups and share your screen with them so they can see what you see.
How does Zoom work?
Choose your plan
The Zoom feature allows for one-on-one chat sessions that can grow into conference calls, training sessions, webinars for indoor and outdoor audiences, global video conferencing with up to 1000 participants and up to 49 video clips on screen. The free tier allows unlimited one-on-one meetings, but limits group sessions to 40 minutes and 100 participants. The paid plans start at $ 15 a month per host.
Zoom cloud meetings offer four pricing tiers (not including the Zoom Room subscription):
Zoom Free: This layer is free. You can hold an unlimited number of meetings. Group meetings with multiple participants are covered for 40 minutes and up to 100 participants.
Zoom Pro: This level costs $ 14.99 / £ 11.99 per month and meeting host. It allows hosts to create personal meeting IDs for recurring Zoom meetings, allows for meeting recording in the cloud or device, but covers 24-hour group meeting periods.
Zoom Business: This level costs $ 19.99 / £ 15.99 per month and meeting host (10 minimum). Branding lets you Zoom Meetings with custom URLs and company branding, provides transcripts for Zoom meetings recorded in the cloud, plus dedicated customer support.
Zoom Enterprise: This level costs $ 19.99 / £ 15.99 per month per meeting host (100 minimum) and is intended for companies with more than 1,000 employees. Offers unlimited cloud storage for records, a customer success manager, discounts on webinars and zoom rooms.
Optional – Zoom Rooms: If you want to set up Zoom Rooms, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial, after which Zoom Rooms requires an additional $ 49 / £ 39 per month and room subscription, while webinars with Zoom cost 40 $ / £ 32 per month and host.
Download the Zoom app
The desktop app is available for Windows and macOS, while the mobile app is available for Android and iOS.
All apps allow you to join a meeting without logging in, but also allow you to log in with your Zoom, Google, Facebook or SSO account.
If you are a desktop user, you can also initiate local registration, create surveys, broadcast your Facebook account directly to Facebook, and more. In other words, the desktop app is fully featured, although if you are a free user, you can still get a lot from the mobile app.
Read Also : Google Meet Steps to set up a free Google video chat app
