5 Reasons Why Around Will Rule Video Conferencing Era
Video calls might be getting boring but now there is hope.
Since March of 2020, video conferencing solutions took a supreme role not only in business but in our daily life. In a global, remote and restricted world, seeing another person online is completely normal, and in some cases, convenient. Even though this situation should finish sooner or later, videos will definitely be part of the DNA of hybrid or remote cross-functional teams.
How far can this go
Video conferencing existed way before Covid and Skype. You might have heard about AT&T but probably not about the PicturePhone invented by their department known as Bell Labs. Did they ever imagined the impact they were doing?
See you on…
Let’s take a look at some examples of softwares I have used in meetings. This is just my perception of the product considering onboarding, quality and network effect.
Zoom
Pros: Ideal for big companies, government and universities. Breakout rooms!
Cons: Awful chat. It had security issues.
Teams
Pros: Very professional includes a cloud to store files and create teams.
Cons: Poor UX/UI. Requires strong internet connection.
Google Meet
Pros: Easy to use, instant onboarding and is linked to Google Calendar.
Cons: Too simple, many features are missing.
Webex
Pros: Large scale meeting, good quality.
Cons: Missing integrations with other apps.
Skype
Pros: Allow to make international phone calls.
Cons: No customization, boring interface.
Bluejeans
Pros: Friendly interface. Includes a nice scheduling feature.
Cons: Not too popular and the onboarding is slow for people who haven’t downloaded the app yet.
What about House Party?
I believe that House Party validated the idea that people wanted something simple for friendly calls. This new app was popular in early stages of Covid but it had many flaws and the voice was spread that it was insecure so that’s all folks!
Border cases
Now we have the both border cases, from complex and professional solutions such as Zoom and Webex to simple solutions such as Google Meet and Skype.
What is Around
Around is built among many others by ex-GoDaddy/Adobe/Amazon engineers and has raised $15M total from several investors such as the Slack Fund, Tommy Leep, Credo Ventures, Initialized Capital, and Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt. They were for a long time in an early stage using only invitations but not anymore. Their value proposition is Video calls for the new era of work. I would say, “finally a video conferencing app for normal people”.
The reasons why Around will rule video conferencing in the next years
Simple things, epic UX, accurate onboarding and more. There are certain features that makes Around unique. But not many, and that is the key. You only need few elements to be awesome.
Floating mode
This is a smart “quick win” because working while doing video conferencing, can be annoying when switching screens or tabs. The floating mode allows you to put the participants of the meetings in bubbles, anywhere on the screen. You can also shrink or enlarge the container. Around 1, competitors 0.
There is also a Campfire mode which is pretty fun when you have bigger group of meetings and want to have them all together as if it were: a campfire. I do not think this is awesome, the bubbles itself already took all the credits on this item. Actually, when you click your own bubble you can put cool filters to your video. A nice detail.
Collaborative Notes
Finally! A unique collaborative text box on meetings. Is like working in Google Docs with the difference that you do not need to create a new file, share it and remember where the hell you saved it. This collaborative text box is unique for each meeting, actually it has pretty decent text functionalities and the best part, is that when the meeting is over, the notes will be emailed to all participants 🔥.
Sound
The technology include an AI auto mute for noises called “EchoTerminator” which has a multi-device synchronization & latency correction, proximity-powered VAD indication and microphone quality normalization and de‑reverberation. It employs artificial intelligence to suppress noises like sirens, dog barks, washing machines, or screaming children. In other words, it detects nearby laptops and eliminate those strange feedback sounds, same as Krisp add-on with the difference that now it is included in the software.
Slack connection
This depends on the user and the communities. They developed and deep integration with Slack in order to transfer notes, files and links within participants. Also, you can start a meeting from Slack by just writing a command “/”. This will activate your personal room which can be set up as you prefer. You can also integrate with Google Calendar for a better experience.
Rooms
You can easily create rooms with specific participants generating a code in just seconds. The code itself is not the big thing, is just a link. The cool thing is that the room will be saved in your menu. The excuse “Sorry I could not find the link” is over.
The real reason why Around can beat them all
The company created a solution that can actually compete with all the big ones. I believe that the value proposition, the technology and the UX of this software can position them very well in modern companies or Startups. Furthermore, beside the Product Market Fit which I have confirmed with all of my peers, they have a powerful growth strategy based in invitation referrals which started the past year. I have not seen that in other video conferencing softwares. Gmail started like that. Slowly finding product market fit until the time to scale arrives.
Try it here:
https://www.around.co/
by Nicolás Godoy
Passionate about Product Growth
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