[presscast]

Zoom is objectively a good software solution but being de facto forced to install yet another piece of software just to take business meetings has left a sour taste in my mouth.

It's objectively impressive that they managed to "force" me to install software. Hats off... but I plan on ditching them as soon as a viable alternative appears.

I have no real point here, other than this: I wonder if my sentiment is general, and whether or not this might bite them later down the road? Probably not.

[creddit]

I like HN because you see such a diversity of views and realize there's no "best" solution out there. So many people here complain that everything is run through the browser or Electron and that nobody makes native apps anymore. Here's Zoom with a native app and someone complains that they _have_ to install something new.

I suspect the desire to not install new software is the dominant market position (HN is clearly biased sample).

[sjwright]

It’s interesting. I think the bias against app installs is a psychological holdover from the “Add/Remove Programs” era of Windows where a program could install weird drivers, CPU-sucking daemons, software license protection crap—once you finally open the app up—a bloated and confusing GUI that ignores the platform’s sensible UI rules.

iPhone apps aren’t perfect but at least you know that they’ll uninstall cleanly and completely.

[dorfsmay]

Generally I prefer not to install apps, but with zoom the cost of installing the apps is worth the value it provides, which is good sound, good screen sharing, good video, all of that even with lowish bandwidth, and without eating all my memory and CPU.

I spent 5 mins installing it once and it becomes transparent and reliable.

[Cyclone_]

Can I ask what your reason for not wanting to install it is? I don't think it took me nearly 5 minutes to install it...

[macspoofing]

>Zoom is objectively a good software solution but being de facto forced to install yet another piece of software just to take business meetings has left a sour taste in my mouth.

No kidding. I can't tell conferencing clients apart anymore. I have the following installed: GotoMeeting, WebEX, JoinMe, Zoom, Hangouts Meet, BlueJeans and every other week I'll get invited to a meeting hosted by yet another one (last week someone hosted a meeting with one called 'ringcentral'). They are all about the same, and I can't tell them apart anymore.

[leesalminen]

Just want to warn people about RingCentral. We were a paying customer for years but usage was quite low so we decided to replace it with Twilio for telephony and Zoom for video conferencing. Saves us $100/Mo or so.

I called RingCentral to cancel the service (can’t cancel online) and was assured we wouldn’t be billed again. What do you know, we were indeed billed again. I called in to dispute this and was told they had no record of my previous call and my service was not canceled. They refused to refund the money. I hung up and called back 1 minute later. They changed my security questions so that nobody would be able to talk to me about my account. I ended up filing a chargeback.

Never buy RingCentral. What an awful company.

[presscast]

I'm seriously thinking about refusing to take meetings on software I don't already have.

I strongly suspect it won't actually change anything, but so far I've been too chicken to actually try.

[mgadams3]

I believe that ring central now just white labels zooms infra

[ec109685]

If you are a chrome user, you don’t need to install Meet.

[TheMagicHorsey]

I thought so too ... but everyone I work with at other companies has switched to zoom in the last 24 months ... so it really feels like the last install needed for teleconferencing. And it's far better than the web-based solutions.

[robbiemitchell]

Running video in an app instead of a browser enables a better experience. It's partly why they've succeeded.

[graetzer]

I tend to agree, but unfortunately none of the WebRTC based video conferencing solutions seem to work without hiccups for >5 participants

[detaro]

Jitsi Meet is not perfect, but better about this. It doesn't make a P2P mesh (where I have the same experience, parts will always fail), but instead WebRTC connections to central servers that distribute the streams, so each participant has only one upstream. They have a public testing instance on https://meet.jit.si/, but running your own is better.

[detaro]

Won't you feel the same way about the next viable alternative forcing you to install yet another piece of software? (unless someone completely figures out something that's entirely browser-based)

[presscast]

Yes (and yes!) ;)

[alasdair_]

I really hate the way zoom on full screen works on macos (while listening to a meeting but also working on a laptop). Trying to switch and it nmitr to answer a question is still fairly painful.