The coronavirus pandemic has made work-from-home the ‘new normal’ for many professionals across the world. Video conferencing apps have become the order of the day and Zoom is one app that gained immense popularity. So much so that even children of rival apps’ executives have been using it.
According to a report by The New York Times, Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler was on a video call — using Google Meet — with is colleagues. Incidentally, Schindler was being asked by a colleague how Zoom had become so popular when
Google Meet had been around for a longer time. Schindler was giving the colleague a response to the question when his son walked in. His son asked whether he was on a “Zoom call.” Schindler told him that he was, in fact, using Google Meet and not Zoom. That’s why his son told Schindler that how much he and his friends were on Zoom and loved using it. The entire conversation was heard by Google employees and needless to say may have been quite awkward.
But Zoom has become wildly popular in the last couple of months. As on December 2019, the app had mere 10 million users but now it has over 300 million of them. Just in March alone, it reportedly gained 100 million users. Not that Google has been doing badly as Meet too has seen a 25 times jump in the number of users on the platform. Earlier this month, Google revealed that it was seeing 2 million new users per day on Google Meet.
Facebook too has thrown its hat in the video conferencing ring with the launch of Messenger Rooms. Announced last week, Facebook’s new Messenger feature is expected to be rolled out in the next couple of weeks. Messenger Rooms will allow 50 users in a single call.