Do you use video conferencing applications in your day-to-day communications? 

If you are uncomfortable with the concept of video conferencing for business or personal communications, you may want to check out the three simple tools that I list below.

As usual, in this digital tools series, I provide a high-level overview of three digital media tools or applications that I find useful and interesting. The tools included in this post are focused on visual communications and collaboration and are free. They do offer advanced features for a fee.

So, here are the three.

Zoom.US

I took a look at Zoom after I heard about it on For Immediate Release, a podcast that I subscribe to. As someone in the business of cloud, visual communications, and collaboration, the ease with which I could download and use the application surprised me. The quality of the audio and video on PC-to-PC and PC-to-iPad calls was certainly acceptable. A couple of collaboration features that I tried – Instant Messaging (IM) and screen sharing – were intuitive and hassle-free. The one-click record option ensures that a video call can be recorded and accessed for future reference. The free version of the application comes with a forty-minute duration limit and a host of features that are comparable to many paid applications. If your business or personal interactions can benefit from a collaboration tool, Zoom is certainly worth a try.

Google Hangouts

Rolling the functionality of free apps like Google Voice and Google Talk into one, Hangouts provides free audio, video, and collaboration capabilities to Google and Google+ users.

The setup and launch of Hangouts are straightforward and painless. The ubiquitous nature of Google makes it effortless to pick people from your contact list and engage with them over audio or video. The ability to conference ten callers into a call makes it an ideal tool for podcasters and small businesses that are not ready to invest in an enterprise-grade collaboration system. Accessible through PC, IOS, and Android devices, Google Hangouts seems to be gaining traction as the application of choice for multi-party video conferencing and collaboration.

Google Hangouts on Air differentiates this application by enabling live broadcasting of your event over the Internet, to a selected audience, or to the public. If you were in the entertainment business or wanted to show off your cooking skills, this would be your tool!

Skype

Skype has been around for nearly ten years. During this time, it has evolved from a basic web-based computer-to-computer calling application to a full-fledged communication and collaboration tool.

Skype, as a business communication tool, had not gained a lot of traction until its acquisition by Microsoft in 2011. Individuals and businesses – big and small – have started taking advantage of many of the free or low-cost aspects of Skype in their day-to-day operations. Some examples of high-profile users of Skype include broadcasters like CNN, and the by now infamous testimony at the George Zimmerman trial. Skype continues to offer one-on-one audio and video calls free, while group calling requires at least one paid account. The primary differentiation of Skype, from a business perspective, is its ability to integrate with its enterprise-grade Microsoft Lync application that has been deployed at many companies globally.

So, do you use any of these tools? Why not add your comments below?