What is surprising is that the UI of JioMeet bears a striking resemblance to the UI of the Zoom app.
JioMeet Features and Drawbacks
Here is the list of features you can expect from the app. No surprises here as well except for few features which remain original.
Secure sign up with either Mobile Number or Email IDAll meetings are encrypted and password protected.Unlimited number of free calls in high definition (720p) to usersSchedule meeting in advance and share details with inviteesEach meeting can go uninterrupted up to 24hrs.Unlimited Meetings per dayActive Speaker view layoutIt supports as many as 100 participants on a call.Password protection on each callMulti-device login support up to 5 devicesShare screens and collaborateRecord MeetingSwitch seemingly from one device to anotherOffers Safe Driving Mod for when a participant is in commute.Supports waiting room feature to manually allow people to join the meetingControl Mic of all the participants or individual host controls – Where you can individually control mic, camera, rename, make host, ask to start a video, or remove active in-call participants.Manual Audio mode offers call like experience with no video.
JioMeet Drawbacks compared to Zoom.
Since the JioMeet UI appears to be almost identical to Zoom, a comparison is inevitable!
There are a couple of areas where JioMeet still needs to work. It may come with time, but as of now, they are limited.
Share: You can only share your complete screen with JioMeet. While Zoom offers sharing a whiteboard, Bookmark, WbeURL, Document, and integration with services like OneDrive, Google DSrivber, and Box, JioMeet shares the whole screen, which means you will have to care about anything personal.Groups: Zoom calls it Channel, and JioMeet calls it Groups. The advantage is to instantly start a meeting with all the people in the group. As of now, the integration with other apps is not there, which could be required by the Business section.User-defined Password: JioMeet doesn’t allow anyone to set up a password for its meeting. Once you create a meeting, a password is generated that can be shared.Chat: There is no way to send a private message to the host which is prevalent in all the Chat applications like ZoomMissing CoHost: There are various reasons why this feature is used in Zoom. It helps to transfer control of meeting from one to another one of the hosts had to leave.No Virtual Background: Unlike Microsoft Teams and Zoom, there is no option to either blur the video background or add a virtual background. It’s an essential feature for many who would not only like to make the meetings look professional, but also ensures privacy.
Apart from there is no separate panel for the spotlight and separate for all videos, Raise Hand option, during the screen sharing, when you close the second screen meeting ends. Lastly, the data consumption in Jio seems to be on the higher side according to users’ feedback. It could probably be lowered by changing the resolution.
How to use JioMeet video conferencing app
Create a Meeting
Click on New Meeting, and it will instantly create a new meeting with a predefined id and password. You can then choose to share it with others.
Schedule a Meeting
This brings in a lot of configuration where you can choose the timing, date, timezone. You can also choose to turn on videos for hos participants and block guest users. Advanced options offer waiting room, join before host, and record meeting.
Join a Meeting
If you have a meeting id and password, use this option to instantly join an existing meeting. You can choose to keep the video and mic turned off while joining the meeting.
Watch the video
Availability
It is almost available everywhere. That’s a proper preparation I will give that. The app is available through Chrome and Firefox browser, Apps for macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. It also offers an Outlook plugin. As of now, I don’t see any plans for JIo Premium, built I guess it will be soon available. You can visit Jio.com to get started. While JioMeet is here to stay, what is sadly surprising is an organization such as JIO creating a replica of the Zoom. It is as if the app has been “inspired” by Zoom! I am sure this will pick up the India big time with a large userbase of Jio. TIP: Read about the Airtel BlueJeans video conferencing app here.
