8x8 Work vs. Google Hangouts (Classic) vs. Join.me (discontinued)

As per my 8x8 work experience, I will give an 8 rating out of 10. Because 8x8 work is doing very nice in the communication field. 8x8 works to provide seamless, high-quality voice connections with our customers. It has a simple, easy-to-use user interface. I can use 8x8 from my phone, desktop, laptop, and desk phone, which is great.

Incentivized

Had I completed this review a couple years ago, I would have given a rating of 9 or 10 as Hangouts (Classic) is an excellent product. However, now that Google Chat has succeeded Hangouts, I would not recommend that any new users begin using it where other more modern options are available. Android users who want an internet based instant messaging that also supports calling and video calling could benefit from using Hangouts (Classic) as Google Chat requires the user to also have Google Meet installed to make video calls and there is no voice only calling option.

Incentivized

I would neither recommend nor dissuade anyone from using Join.Me. When it first came on the scene, it was a game-changer as far as providing remote access to other authorized individuals and helped save a great deal of time trying to walk someone less proficient through all the detailed steps of computer repair. However, with the proliferation of Zoom and other conferencing products that also provide built-in remote access through its service, the need for a separate application is now limited and not as essential as its own product.

Incentivized

• 8x8 Work manages roles and permissions well. It is very simple to create permission groups needed for certain roles that may even overlap teams needs.
• User management is fairly simple and straight forward.
• Analytics reporting is good quality for the higher tier licenses

Incentivized

• Google Hangouts (Classic) is embedded within Gmail's scheduler, so setting up the link is as quick as a click of the button. It's a one-step process.
• Google Hangouts (Classic) is user-friendly and [has] features to share screens easily.
• Google Hangouts (Classic) is much easier to use than its competitors.
• Google Hangouts (Classic) have [a] good connection time and there are few glitches.

Incentivized

• No need to download anything to get started. Once you sign up you can get started from within your browser. This is probably the single best feature, its a get up and go solution for video conferencing and you do not need any software for it to work.
• The one click join a meeting URL is genius. Users who struggle with remembering passwords or invites can just click a link and immediately participate in a meeting which means one email and a couple of clicks and a meeting can start.
• Good control features - As the main user, you have many control features including deciding who can speak, annotations, screen sharing easily.
• Screen Recordings to the Cloud - This can save on time when you have had a long conference, you can save a recording to the cloud and download it later.

Incentivized

• Click to dial for the web based client.
• The ability to have specific contact lists that can be shared with certain teams only.
• Group voicemail notification to show once a voicemail has been listened to by another member of the team.

Incentivized

• I would like to see improved video support, so that saved videos can be sent back and forth via Hangouts more easily, without having to start a separate meet chat
• More pronounced notifications of messages would be helpful; pop up notifications are good, but once there is one, additional messages do not pop up
• Custom muting times would be great, so that if I am in a 90 minute Zoom meeting, I can set it for that time; right now, it is 1 hour or 2 hours. Easy to forget.

Incentivized

• There should be a complete guide to understand its features before installation because if one feature will be missed then, we can’t get them working properly.
• Furthermore, there should be high-quality internet for getting its function and it won’t work without good network coverage.
• I think its interface is a little hard for beginners and is not that user friendly.

Incentivized

All our employees love this product. No one has ever had an issue, whether it be the phone or fax. Great during the winter when employees have to work from home because of the snow. Never had an issue with the phone app. Highly recommend this product

Incentivized

This platform enables a very high ROI for the solution that it provides to our team to support our end-users.

Incentivized

8x8 Work is very good software for making communication easier. 8x8 Work is user friendly in use. 8x8 Work has excellent uptime. It provides HD voice quality even on mobile phone as well. 8x8 Work has excellent customer support. 8x8 customer support is knowledgeable they always resolve issues with 8x8 deep knowledge.

Incentivized

The tool is almost self-implemented. It is likely to be available in every pc or mobile device a user or potential user might have, and all you need to do is adding the company's account and you are done. Once you are setted up, you have almost all actual communication methods available in one tool

Incentivized

Join.me is one of the easiest programs I've ever used. It's so easy to get it set up and installed and even easier for someone to join a meeting. The controls are very intuitive and labeled appropriately. The UIX makes sense. It's been a reliable product in my app stack-I love it!

Incentivized

The 8x8 product is absolutely the best when it comes to this! I have had zero application errors or unplanned outages allowing me the opportunity to provide a constant source of reliable customer service to my members. I know this is something I can count on. Unlike the internet, it is subject to go down without warning

Incentivized

No problems with performance, Pages load as they should. I can't answer on the reports side as only a handful of our Admins ( call center ) currently use that side of the software. It does intergrate very well with Office for meetings and conferences. Sometimes there is a slight lag or static when users are talking, but we found this to be a cause of a users computer had not restarted in a while, Once the user restarts thier computer the problem is resolved, So this is not an issue with 8x8

Incentivized

We are a USA based organization. Support was refreshingly quick (callback via phone or email, online live agents). Agents are knowledgeable, thorough in their explanations, and extremely patient when dealing with end-users at various levels of the ICT knowledge spectrum.

Incentivized

Google Hangouts works great and does not require a lot of work to troubleshoot. Everything is simple and easy to use. Google provides all of the tools that one requires to utilize Google Hangouts and any information can be found in the built-in help tools. There is also a forum for users to report issues and typically, Google responds well and will try to work out any issues.

Incentivized

I honestly haven't reached out to their Support team. I get notifications of what they are working on which is good to see, but I haven't directly spoken with any of them. I think my main reason for this is that join.me gives me just what I need (not much more and not much less).

Incentivized

The representative that arrived was very prompt and knowledgeable about the product and able to provide understandable instruction for how everything worked and what to be expected by us when using the product. They did not make me feel rushed or like they were ready to get the training over with

Incentivized

online (video) training is good. No issues.

Incentivized

The implementation of 8x8 X was rather smooth. We had training prior to getting the system. The IT company did a good job on the training. The whole system is wonderful. Saves me so much time with the faxing, as i can just let it go by itself and not have to make sure pages don't get skipped, as with a regular fax machine.

Incentivized

This is a fairly simple product which doesn't require much "implementation" work for our use cases.

Incentivized

I prefer 8x8 Work; it has the right number of features and modes for the communication I need. I much prefer 8x8 Work meetings to zoom meetings, as it is much, much easier to transition between devices when I am on the road. 8x8 Work is also easier to manage across multiple modes of communication.

Incentivized

Google is the white cotton socks of the conferencing world. It’s a great ad-hoc tool, but not too much more. If you are not looking to spend money or operate completely on WiFi (without data charges), it’s a great free option as well. The benefit of being free and open is also the liability. It doesn’t have a great integration story with other corporate tools, but [it doesn’t have to] if you aren’t looking for that. All in all, it’s as helpful and ubiquitous as a public payphone…without the pay…and with a video capability.

Incentivized

If you're looking for something basic that handles a little bit of everything when it comes to meetings, screen shares and remote desktop control join.me is a great options. If you're a super user and really wanting a lot of detailed features and rich user interfaces and money is not an issue you may want to consider use specific options.

Incentivized

At this time, we’re very happy with the pricing model that we have worked out and they have provided for us. Just be sure to do your homework, and use your comparisons to work out your cost with 8x8. They will be very straightforward with you on what they can
adjust for you.

Incentivized

The only issue was adding licences was not via a button click but through your account admin which seems bad practice in a SaaS world as the user should be able to sign up, amend and close their account with ease

Incentivized

PS had all the users etc. set up by our go-live date. All hard phones were activated and when we received them, all we had to do was set them up and punch in the activation code to activate them.

Incentivized

• Getting access to emergency voicemails left on our office lines when we are at home, on the weekend, or after hours.
• Texting clients from a dedicated office line portal, keep things private and organized.
• The ease of installation and helpful support when needed significantly limit the time wasted.

Incentivized

• I believe it was part of the google suite that was purchased. It was worth the cost as it was cheaper. I believe it is now free, but also becoming deprecated. It is much better to use Teams, Discord, Telegram, etc. Google does not provide enough support or features to make using hangouts worth it these days.

Incentivized

• Customer support solution - join.me has made it so much easier to quickly get with a customer and see their trouble and show them a solution. This saves lots of back and forth time and gives the customer more power over owning their solution.
• More efficient communication - without join.me we would waste time going back and forth on emails or slack trying to get our message across. Join.me lets us quickly show AND tell others what's going on. I honestly don't know how we ever functioned without it.

Incentivized