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I've tried Jitsi Meet and found it to be smooth. During a hangout call with a group of ~8 friends I introduced it as an alternative. User experience comparison:

I've tried Jitsi Meet and found it to be smooth. During a hangout call with a group of ~8 friends I introduced it as an alternative. User experience comparison: Onboarding: Jitsi: Click a URL. No accounts. Hangouts: Google account. Need to individually invite other Google accounts. Video Quality: Jitsi: Decent, slightly better than hangouts. Hangouts: Passable but grainy. Video Layout: Jitsi: Automatically big-screens current speaker, shows small screens of others. Has option to tile to equally size screens. Hangouts: Same. Conclusion: Friends preferred Hangouts. It's quite disheartening that "average users" shun 1 click URL room creation with superior video and audio quality for manually adding contacts. And that's without any considerations for free software vs. Google panopticon. They would rather tolerate a multi-step process of sharing gmail accounts, asking the same person for their email repeatedly.

judge2020 7y ago
> Hangouts: Google account. Need to individually invite other Google accounts. Hangouts (now Meet) is better geared towards GSuite orgs where you're already logged into Google since you have to be to access almost all of your other internal company/school resources, including gmail. It also solves the contacts problem since everyone will be in the company directory.
- ISO-morphism 7y ago
  > Hangouts (now Meet) Ah-ha! Google Hangouts Meet is indeed the GSuite video conferencing solution, complemented by Google Hangouts Chat, the GSuite Slack competitor. Google Hangouts is "deprecated" but still alive, and with a plain-old gmail account I don't see an option to use Hangouts Chat nor Hangouts Meet, only Hangouts. As a user in a GSuite org, Chat and Meet exist, and plain-old Hangouts text messages are mirrored in Chat, but the video conferencing is still weirdly separate from Meet.
  - modzu 7y ago
    sounds about right until this time next year
  - fragmede 7y ago
    It's weirdly hidden but if you go to meet.google.com and make a meeting, others just need the url to join, no faffing about with connecting to other users in gmail. It needs a corporate gmail account to use though.
    - InvaderFizz 7y ago
      Needs a Corp account to setup and approve non-invited attendees. You do not require a google account at all to join a Meets session, but someone in the session with a valid invite will have to approve your entry. I test this quite often with incognito tabs to have multiple participants for room setup and testing.
  - emiliosic 7y ago
    I'm not sure is deprecated. If you're free (paid by your own data), Hangout is the 'consumer' version. Meet is the paid platform, with more business oriented features.
marnett 7y ago
> Has option to tile to equally size screens. Hangouts: Same. Are you describing Google Hangouts or Hangouts Meet by G Suite? There is no gallery view available for Google Hangouts (I've searched heavily for it in the past week, if it exists please enlighten me).
- wccrawford 7y ago
  Meet has a setting that lets you choose how to see people. By default, it shows up to 4 people in equal tiles. After that, it puts the talker large and a few people in small tiles to the side. But there's a layout option in the vertical dots menu that will let you force it back to 4 large tiles. You cannot specify how many tiles, though, it's always 4.
- xtiansimon 7y ago
  > "tile to equally size screens" I like to call this the "Hollywood Squares" view. https://www.google.com/search?q=hollywood+squares https://www.google.com/search?q=hollywood+squares
yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
> Conclusion: Friends preferred Hangouts. ... but why? Is it just a familiarity thing?
- ISO-morphism 7y ago
  > familiarity That's the disheartening part. Most hadn't used Hangouts before, one person suggested it due to social distancing, ~1hr into Hangouts call as we're struggling to add another member I introduce Jitsi and paste a link into the group chat. Used for ~15 minutes, then dropped and the manual invite process for hangouts began again - organizer couldn't find the option to generate a sharable link to a Hangouts call (it does exist). "I don't like it, it's weird."
  - olah_1 7y ago
    >"I don't like it, it's weird." To be fair, it is sort "busy" in regards to the UI and the stuff surrounding the screen. Hangouts is comparatively less daunting.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
tootie 7y ago
I can't convince anyone to not use Facetime.
- ISO-morphism 7y ago
  Facetime has the best audio/video quality of any conferencing software I've used by a mile. If free software, vendor lock in, excluding those without Apple products, etc. etc. aren't sticking points for you, Facetime is awesome for a family/group of friends with iDevices.
  - generatorguy 7y ago
    My circles are all on zoom due to superior audio and video quality in zoom than FaceTime for groups. 1 on 1 still FaceTime
  - nicoburns 7y ago
    It's a shame FaceTime was never made open. I heard that this was Apple's original intention, but there were issues with patents (not held by Apple).
    - lberk 7y ago
      I'm not sure it was actually Apple's original intention. Rumour has it the decision was made on stage[0] [0] - https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/11/facetime-standard https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/11/facetime-standa...
      - scarejunba 7y ago
        What an absolute legend, that guy, making product decisions on stage hahaha. I absolutely love it.
  - tootie 7y ago
    I try to avoid Apple products. They're not worth the high price.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
MR4D 7y ago
The url simplicity is nice, but it doesn’t work on an iPhone which is weird because it works on an iPad.
- zemo 7y ago
  jitsi has dedicated apps for mobile https://jitsi.org/downloads/ https://jitsi.org/downloads/
  - MR4D 7y ago
    Right. But I don’t want to have to tell a client to download an app. I’d rather they just go to a url like they do on an iPad. Not sure what the difference in browsers is between them, but I can’t imagine it’s much.
    - r-w 7y ago
      How many people do you know who would be competent enough to use a teleconferencing web app?
ElijahLynn 7y ago
I proposed Zoom vs Jitsi Meet the other day for a virtual hangout with a group of friends. They initially wanted to try Zoom... because of the virtual backgrounds. Yup, that is what they wanted. I shall suggest Jitsi Meet again soon ;).
- g_delgado14 7y ago
  I mean .. the ensuing hilarity from uploading funny background images doesn't get old
- vikramkr 7y ago
  I just looked up virtual background and that is insanely cool and I totally get where your friends are coming from. I've got to give that a shot sometime - the kinds of features people can build are just so cool
  - tiborsaas 7y ago
    We have a slack channel dedicated to screenhots of these backgrounds, It's a lot of fun. :)
- pugworthy 7y ago
  Honestly the backgrounds are goofy and non-essential, but it's been a huge positive icebreaker for the adjustment to all online meetings.
  - hanniabu 7y ago
    Yup, just a resource drain
  - vikramkr 7y ago
    I'd be far more willing to turn the video on in my calls of people weren't going to see the messy room in the background, and the calls I'm in have an awful lot of blank screens that would be better if people turned on there video for some face-to-face communication. I think it's less non-essential than you might imagine, this is a really well thought-out feature, and probably pretty technically challenging to implement too.
monkeywork 7y ago
>Has option to tile to equally size screens. Hangouts: Same. Where is the option in hangouts to tile equally? I've never found it and I hate the large speaker small others in some situations.
- JonathonW 7y ago
  IIRC classic Hangouts doesn't have the option to tile. Meet (assuming you're on the current UI, which I would presume has been rolled out to everyone by now) can tile, but only up to four videos (excluding yourself, so five participants). Once you go above that, in automatic mode, it'll drop back to the view with a single large video of a person currently speaking, and smaller videos of everyone else on the side, and, if you force it into the grid view, only four are displayed at a time.
HumblyTossed 7y ago
Brand recognition?
shawabawa3 7y ago
You can share a link to a hangout, definitely don't need to add people individually
- epse 7y ago
  That's for a meet, launched from a Corp account

judge2020 7y ago

> Hangouts: Google account. Need to individually invite other Google accounts. Hangouts (now Meet) is better geared towards GSuite orgs where you're already logged into Google since you have to be to access almost all of your other internal company/school resources, including gmail. It also solves the contacts problem since everyone will be in the company directory.

ISO-morphism 7y ago
> Hangouts (now Meet) Ah-ha! Google Hangouts Meet is indeed the GSuite video conferencing solution, complemented by Google Hangouts Chat, the GSuite Slack competitor. Google Hangouts is "deprecated" but still alive, and with a plain-old gmail account I don't see an option to use Hangouts Chat nor Hangouts Meet, only Hangouts. As a user in a GSuite org, Chat and Meet exist, and plain-old Hangouts text messages are mirrored in Chat, but the video conferencing is still weirdly separate from Meet.
- modzu 7y ago
  sounds about right until this time next year
- fragmede 7y ago
  It's weirdly hidden but if you go to meet.google.com and make a meeting, others just need the url to join, no faffing about with connecting to other users in gmail. It needs a corporate gmail account to use though.
  - InvaderFizz 7y ago
    Needs a Corp account to setup and approve non-invited attendees. You do not require a google account at all to join a Meets session, but someone in the session with a valid invite will have to approve your entry. I test this quite often with incognito tabs to have multiple participants for room setup and testing.
- emiliosic 7y ago
  I'm not sure is deprecated. If you're free (paid by your own data), Hangout is the 'consumer' version. Meet is the paid platform, with more business oriented features.

marnett 7y ago

> Has option to tile to equally size screens. Hangouts: Same. Are you describing Google Hangouts or Hangouts Meet by G Suite? There is no gallery view available for Google Hangouts (I've searched heavily for it in the past week, if it exists please enlighten me).

wccrawford 7y ago
Meet has a setting that lets you choose how to see people. By default, it shows up to 4 people in equal tiles. After that, it puts the talker large and a few people in small tiles to the side. But there's a layout option in the vertical dots menu that will let you force it back to 4 large tiles. You cannot specify how many tiles, though, it's always 4.
xtiansimon 7y ago
> "tile to equally size screens" I like to call this the "Hollywood Squares" view. https://www.google.com/search?q=hollywood+squares https://www.google.com/search?q=hollywood+squares

yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago

> Conclusion: Friends preferred Hangouts. ... but why? Is it just a familiarity thing?

ISO-morphism 7y ago
> familiarity That's the disheartening part. Most hadn't used Hangouts before, one person suggested it due to social distancing, ~1hr into Hangouts call as we're struggling to add another member I introduce Jitsi and paste a link into the group chat. Used for ~15 minutes, then dropped and the manual invite process for hangouts began again - organizer couldn't find the option to generate a sharable link to a Hangouts call (it does exist). "I don't like it, it's weird."
- olah_1 7y ago
  >"I don't like it, it's weird." To be fair, it is sort "busy" in regards to the UI and the stuff surrounding the screen. Hangouts is comparatively less daunting.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

tootie 7y ago

I can't convince anyone to not use Facetime.

ISO-morphism 7y ago
Facetime has the best audio/video quality of any conferencing software I've used by a mile. If free software, vendor lock in, excluding those without Apple products, etc. etc. aren't sticking points for you, Facetime is awesome for a family/group of friends with iDevices.
- generatorguy 7y ago
  My circles are all on zoom due to superior audio and video quality in zoom than FaceTime for groups. 1 on 1 still FaceTime
- nicoburns 7y ago
  It's a shame FaceTime was never made open. I heard that this was Apple's original intention, but there were issues with patents (not held by Apple).
  - lberk 7y ago
    I'm not sure it was actually Apple's original intention. Rumour has it the decision was made on stage[0] [0] - https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/11/facetime-standard https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/11/facetime-standa...
    - scarejunba 7y ago
      What an absolute legend, that guy, making product decisions on stage hahaha. I absolutely love it.
- tootie 7y ago
  I try to avoid Apple products. They're not worth the high price.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

MR4D 7y ago

The url simplicity is nice, but it doesn’t work on an iPhone which is weird because it works on an iPad.

zemo 7y ago
jitsi has dedicated apps for mobile https://jitsi.org/downloads/ https://jitsi.org/downloads/
- MR4D 7y ago
  Right. But I don’t want to have to tell a client to download an app. I’d rather they just go to a url like they do on an iPad. Not sure what the difference in browsers is between them, but I can’t imagine it’s much.
  - r-w 7y ago
    How many people do you know who would be competent enough to use a teleconferencing web app?

ElijahLynn 7y ago

I proposed Zoom vs Jitsi Meet the other day for a virtual hangout with a group of friends. They initially wanted to try Zoom... because of the virtual backgrounds. Yup, that is what they wanted. I shall suggest Jitsi Meet again soon ;).

g_delgado14 7y ago
I mean .. the ensuing hilarity from uploading funny background images doesn't get old
vikramkr 7y ago
I just looked up virtual background and that is insanely cool and I totally get where your friends are coming from. I've got to give that a shot sometime - the kinds of features people can build are just so cool
- tiborsaas 7y ago
  We have a slack channel dedicated to screenhots of these backgrounds, It's a lot of fun. :)
pugworthy 7y ago
Honestly the backgrounds are goofy and non-essential, but it's been a huge positive icebreaker for the adjustment to all online meetings.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  Yup, just a resource drain
- vikramkr 7y ago
  I'd be far more willing to turn the video on in my calls of people weren't going to see the messy room in the background, and the calls I'm in have an awful lot of blank screens that would be better if people turned on there video for some face-to-face communication. I think it's less non-essential than you might imagine, this is a really well thought-out feature, and probably pretty technically challenging to implement too.

monkeywork 7y ago

>Has option to tile to equally size screens. Hangouts: Same. Where is the option in hangouts to tile equally? I've never found it and I hate the large speaker small others in some situations.

JonathonW 7y ago
IIRC classic Hangouts doesn't have the option to tile. Meet (assuming you're on the current UI, which I would presume has been rolled out to everyone by now) can tile, but only up to four videos (excluding yourself, so five participants). Once you go above that, in automatic mode, it'll drop back to the view with a single large video of a person currently speaking, and smaller videos of everyone else on the side, and, if you force it into the grid view, only four are displayed at a time.

HumblyTossed 7y ago

Brand recognition?

shawabawa3 7y ago

You can share a link to a hangout, definitely don't need to add people individually

epse 7y ago
That's for a meet, launched from a Corp account