There are a lot of ways to gauge the sudden success of video chat apps during the coronavirus pandemic. One would involve looking at the iOS App Store, where Zoom is ranked number one in the Business category, or where Houseparty ranks first among Social Networking apps. We could also look at users: Zoom has 300 million people chatting daily, up from 10 million in December, while Houseparty has seen 50 million signups over the last month.
But the most satisfying indicator is the response from tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Now that video chat is a necessity, they’re scrambling to catch up and address their own products’ blind spots, many of which have lingered for years.
To wit:
- Last Friday, Facebook released a Zoom-like video chat feature called Messenger Rooms, which allows anyone to drop into video chat via a link, even without a Facebook account.
- Facebook announced that it’s bumping up the participant limit for WhatsApp video chats from four to eight…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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