Microsoft’s Skype has unveiled a new service “Meet Now” where you can carry out video conferences without signing up or downloads.
Hitherto, you would need to have a Skype ID or an account before having a conference call with anyone on Skype. This is sometimes a limiting factor when you compare this with Zoom where you don’t have to have an ID before joining a zoom meeting.
So Microsoft must have implemented this new feature to compete with Zoom, which has now become the darling of video conferencing apps garnering explosive numbers with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. In March this year, Zoom reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants outpacing Skype which saw an increase to 40 million daily users, up 70 percent month over month in March also.
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Meet Now in Skype allows a user set up a video conferencing meeting and invite both Skype contacts and friends or family who are not on Skype. Participants can then easily join meetings whether they have an account or not.
To create a video conference meeting
To start a meeting, sign in to Skype and select the Meet Now button. You’ll get a call link and a Share invite button to easily to invite others. You can then send the link to the people you want to join the meeting.
Once you’re ready, set your call to audio or video and select the Start call button. You can also create a meeting directly from the web.
All the normal Skype features work with Meet Now such as the ability to share your screen, record a call, turn on the background blur feature and use the chat function.
You can access the Meet Now chat after the meeting. Skype will hold call recordings for up to 30 days and media shared in the chat even longer.
However it is noteworthy to say that Meet Nows is supported by the Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome browsers, but not Firefox. However, you still need to download the Skype app if you’re using it from a phone — though you don’t need a Microsoft account.
It is interesting that Microsoft unveiled Meet Now when the company also owns and is pushing Microsoft Teams—with its own integrated video and chat features, even for consumers.
So how is Microsoft going to position these three video conferencing applications – Skype, Microsoft teams and Meet Now?
Microsoft replaced Skype for Business with Microsoft Teams in 2017 and has been pushing it primarily for business while Skype free app has been positioned for non-business use. Meet Now is an extension of the regular Skype
