GlobalMeet Collaboration (discontinued) vs. Google Hangouts (Classic)

GlobalMeet is well suited for an organization that wants a simple web conference platform with no added features. It seems like this is the way to go if you want to not spend a lot of money for a service. GlobalMeet is not well suited for large organizations, or someone who needs to host multiple meetings and needs robust features such as attendance tracking, presentation sharing, and ease of use.

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

• Easy to use system for business conference calls
• Recording feature useful to playback information from the meeting
• Accessibility of domestic and international call in numbers make it possible for participants to call in no matter where they are traveling or located.

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

• There is a cost for the conferencing services unlike competitors like FreeConferenceCall.com or Skype which have free options. However, you pay for what you get and the audio/connection quality can and has been an issue for us with other vendors.
• There are a lot of shortcuts that can be used on the line to mute/unmute lines, record the audio, request operator assistance, etc. However, these are difficult to memorize so we end up forgetting or relying on a print-out of the shortcuts that we keep near our desks. I wish there was an easier way to use these such as voice commands.
• In the post-conference email recaps you get the phone numbers of those who dialed in. However, it can be difficult to know who these numbers belong to unless you remember the direct #s for the participants. I wish there was a way to save contact info for certain phone numbers within the system and let GlobalMeet add the names to the numbers for all future post-conference emails.

• 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

GlobalMeet is not a very good tool. There are better web meeting platforms available in the marketplace. The system is clunky, not intuitive, and experiences often technical issues. They have made updates recently but it is too little too late. It may be a good platform for smaller organizations with tighter budgets.

Incentivized

I have provided such a high rating because setting up the meeting only requires a few clicks. Within a couple minutes of telling my team that I will set up a meeting and send an invite, that invitation is already sitting in their inbox. I move at a fast pace and GlobalMeet is keeping up

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

We have never had an issue with the availability of GlobalMeet. It has always been available when we needed it.

Incentivized

For the most part GlobalMeet loaded everything quickly. The only problem that we had was when the whole company was on a training at one time, we had a hard time with screen sharing and the pages loading in a timely manner. Everything seemed to slow down when lots of people were on the system at once

Incentivized

As previously mentioned, I was in charge of facilitating a weekly meeting with 60 attendees. I had major issues with the screenshare crashing repeatedly during the meeting. I got in contact with a GlobalMeet Technician immediately. He was extremely responsive and worked with my technician to resolve all of the issues quickly. After his intervention, I never had the same issue again.

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

GlobalMeet was easy to get set up with the company and starting to use.

Incentivized

I was not involved in the purchasing decision, but choose GlobalMeet over Skype in some situations since not all organizations permit their colleagues to join other Skype environments. WebEx is not widely deployed in the organization. I have just started using Teams, and I am not as familiar with using it yet. However, I have had success with joining other organizations that use Teams on a call. It is disappointing that functionality such as the whiteboard is not mutually available in those situations (yet).

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

This product seems to be able to handle the growing amount of work within our company without any problems.

Incentivized

• The price for webinar for GlobalMeet is quite pricey compared to other similar vendors.
• GlobalMeet can be used for unlimited free calls and video conferencing, hence in our company with extensive global calls this platform is very cost-effective.
• Unlike most conferencing software. Other users don't have to download GlobalMeet App and therefore it is easy to send meeting invite to clients.
• Attentively support system that responds fast to queries and this saves time for us.

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