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To be fair, Zoom is the best video conference software I've ever used. It's so much better than Skype or anything created by Google, Facebook, etc. When I first

To be fair, Zoom is the best video conference software I've ever used. It's so much better than Skype or anything created by Google, Facebook, etc. When I first started using it at work 5 years ago, I was blown away at how stable it was, and how many people could connect at the same time. It just worked.

RussianCow 6y ago
You're getting downvoted, but they really do have a solid product. A lot of their growth does come from their aggressive sales and marketing, but their video conferencing solution is by far the best I have used—it Just Works™ in a way that none of their competition seem to be able to match. (And I've used most of their competitors.) Which is a shame given issues like the OP and all of the security/privacy problems they have had recently.
close04 6y ago
Then again talking about videoconferencing solutions and immediately comparing to Google or Facebook, and not mentioning something like Cisco Webex is like talking about mail and immediately comparing to Yahoo. And before you say "but Zoom is free", obviously it's not. From the carefully orchestrated lie about "end to end encryption", to the routing of calls through China, and to the topic of this article. At every step they catered to companies more willing to look just at the price and never ask a single question.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  Yahoo Mail is one of the best web email clients today. Any gmail user that I've talked to who has tried Yahoo Mail prefers the Yahoo UI overall. Having said that, the US government installed a linux kernel module (approved by Marissa Mayer) that sniffs traffic on Yahoo Mail servers, so don't send anything you don't want recorded.
trilinearnz 6y ago
Totally agreed. The thing I think contributes most to this impression is how local voice is recorded at all times on the client, and then replayed at a higher speed to the other participants if the connection drops briefly. This enables others to hear what was said, without having to listen to the speech at the original pace, which would result in a delay. Genuis!
- aikinai 6y ago
  This has been standard practice with video calling products for many years. I know at least FaceTime and Duo do it. It might even be built into WebRTC?
  - TimTheTinker 6y ago
    MS Skype for Business and Teams also do this, just to give two more examples that I’m aware of.
rorykoehler 6y ago
Teams is better
thePunisher 6y ago
What I dislike about Zoom is that it's a Chinese binary on my computer, something I don't want.

RussianCow 6y ago

You're getting downvoted, but they really do have a solid product. A lot of their growth does come from their aggressive sales and marketing, but their video conferencing solution is by far the best I have used—it Just Works™ in a way that none of their competition seem to be able to match. (And I've used most of their competitors.) Which is a shame given issues like the OP and all of the security/privacy problems they have had recently.

close04 6y ago

Then again talking about videoconferencing solutions and immediately comparing to Google or Facebook, and not mentioning something like Cisco Webex is like talking about mail and immediately comparing to Yahoo. And before you say "but Zoom is free", obviously it's not. From the carefully orchestrated lie about "end to end encryption", to the routing of calls through China, and to the topic of this article. At every step they catered to companies more willing to look just at the price and never ask a single question.

redis_mlc 6y ago
Yahoo Mail is one of the best web email clients today. Any gmail user that I've talked to who has tried Yahoo Mail prefers the Yahoo UI overall. Having said that, the US government installed a linux kernel module (approved by Marissa Mayer) that sniffs traffic on Yahoo Mail servers, so don't send anything you don't want recorded.

trilinearnz 6y ago

Totally agreed. The thing I think contributes most to this impression is how local voice is recorded at all times on the client, and then replayed at a higher speed to the other participants if the connection drops briefly. This enables others to hear what was said, without having to listen to the speech at the original pace, which would result in a delay. Genuis!

aikinai 6y ago
This has been standard practice with video calling products for many years. I know at least FaceTime and Duo do it. It might even be built into WebRTC?
- TimTheTinker 6y ago
  MS Skype for Business and Teams also do this, just to give two more examples that I’m aware of.

rorykoehler 6y ago

Teams is better

thePunisher 6y ago

What I dislike about Zoom is that it's a Chinese binary on my computer, something I don't want.