Video Chat App for Business
What exactly is video chat?
- A smartphone, computer, or laptop
- The right desktop or mobile app
- The contact details for the person you want to call
- Wi-fi or phone data, such as 3G or 4G
- A webcam if calling from a computer or laptop
Benefits of video calling
There is no shortage of meetings in the workplace. With a video chat platform like RingCentral, you can schedule meetings as well as record and share them with internal and external contracts. You can also utilize video calling for interviewing new people and onboarding sessions, webinars, town halls, training sessions, and other company activities.
Video conferencing ensures that teams can communicate with existing teams or new people across cities, countries, continents, and time zones. This gives way to more flexible working setups and reduced travel costs. This also gives another advantage to businesses, as it means you can hire employees in other countries and still have seamless real-time communication.
Video calling creates a more professional environment and encourages teams to focus. Everyone wants to be paying attention, actively contributing, and adding something to the meeting—especially if it’s going to be recorded for later use.
What is RingCentral Video?
RingCentral Video is an online meetings service that offers video conferencing, team messaging, and project collaboration tools in a single platform for improved business communications. That makes it the ideal group video conference app for dispersed or remote teams to connect and collaborate as though they were in the same place.
Find out why RingCentral Video is the market leader in robust, reliable, and highly functional video conferencing software.
Features of RingCentral’s video chat app
Integrated video, message, and phone calls
RingCentral Video isn’t just video. It allows teams to keep in touch using HD video and seamless voice calls, including in-app messaging, and as part of a UCaaS platform. This means you don’t need separate web apps like a social networking messaging app or a file-sharing solution, thus enhancing productivity and streamlining communication for better results.
Document and screen sharing
Users can share their entire screen or a single application with meeting attendees, and other video participants can easily take control and screen share as needed. It’s also easy and safe to share files via the cloud. All important files, documents, and project materials are secure and accessible at all times.
Accessibility on any device
With RingCentral’s mobile app, employees can join a meeting from their mobile phone or tune in to a webinar from a tablet. You can also activate the transcript feature during a video conference. This gives people the freedom to work from where they want, when they want. What’s more, you can switch from a phone call to an on-cam video conference with the click of a button and even bounce live video meetings between any internet-enabled device.
Real-time analytics
Track real-time analytics to gain insights across your business and make data-driven decisions to improve operations. This video call feature enables you to monitor and track meeting adoption and usage from a dashboard and view the overall system performance at a glance.
Video recording
With this feature, you can record and save video chat and conferencing sessions, allowing you to watch them at a later date or share them with third parties or key team members who couldn’t participate. With RingCentral Video, you get unlimited cloud recording and streaming.
Text chat
With in-call text chat, attendees can send text messages (via the chat room) simultaneously and express their feedback on what’s being discussed with an emoji or a sticker. This feature allows participants to engage in conversations without having to use a separate messenger app and ensures participants can keep their attention in one place during the live video call.
Dial-in and voice-only options
People should be able to dial into a live video group chat by entering a phone number from a landline or mobile device (with a mobile app). This enables people who don’t possess the necessary equipment to participate. Additionally, video participants should have the option to click the camera icon to turn off their cameras as needed.
High-quality video and voice calls
High-quality video and voice calls require meeting a strict mix of hardware (at least a 720p cam), software, and connectivity requirements. With RingCentral Video as your video chat app, you have the Network Quality Indicator to check the quality of your WiFi connection. You can even diagnose your network conditions via our RingCentral Network Test service to get the best possible video experience.
Calendar integrations
Coordinating meetings is much simpler with calendar integration. You’ll be able to schedule and join an audio or video conference with ease. Calendar reminders will also be sent out to participants to give them a heads-up about an upcoming meeting or webinar, a particularly beneficial feature for remote teams.
Enterprise-grade security
Video calling with RingCentral ensures that your data is protected with comprehensive enterprise-grade security. Its security controls are externally verified, so you know all of your conversations are private and secure. You can even activate the end-to-end encryption feature for added security. Even if you join from a browser or our own all-in-one app, RingCentral keeps your data and information safe.
What you need to know about RingCentral’s video chat app
If you or someone else in your team isn’t very tech-savvy, then you’ll be glad to know that starting a group call with RingCentral Video is something everyone can get right! This holds true whether you’re using a desktop app or any web browser. Simply follow these steps:
- Open the RingCentral app with your desktop app or web browser on a Mac or Windows PC.
- Log in to RingCentral Video with your credentials. You can also use your Google account (Gmail address) or SSO login details.
- Click “meet” to start a call immediately. You can then invite video participants via email.
If you want to program a meeting or event for later, follow these instructions:
- Click “schedule” once logged in to the app.
- Enter a title, date, and time for the event.
- The call link and PIN should pop up. Copy and paste these into an email to send to invitees.
Video chatting without an app is possible. If someone has sent you a meeting link invite, you can simply click the link to join video calls or group chats via web browser. Many smart home technologies also have video call capabilities or the ability to join one audio-only.
However, if you’re going to attend work web calls, using a dedicated video chat app like RingCentral Video is the better option. This creates a professional space for small-scale team calls, happy hours, one-on-ones, large-scale conferences, training sessions, and webinars.
Every business’s needs and priorities are different. That means the tools required to meet them also vary. There’s no exception when it comes to video conferencing apps. So before you commit to a video chat app provider, it’s important to check all of the pros and cons involved with each provider. What are the considerations, then, that most companies need to keep in mind?
Budget
There are plenty of options out there that it might be tempting to just go for the first free random video chat app you come across. You have to keep in mind, though, that not all solutions are built the same. Some might be less costly, but you’ll soon find out that this is because of a ton of functionality limitations.
We might be a little biased, but we think that if you’re in the market for a video chat solution for your business, you should definitely go for RingCentral Video. With a vast array of professional features, the RingCentral app creates a higher level of functionality than any other app.
Accessibility
Not many businesses are now strictly office-bound. Video chatting apps, then, should work seamlessly on mobile devices. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for some. Some tools are only compatible with Apple devices—great for anyone using iOS, iPhones, iPads, or Mac—or only with Android devices.
Even if you are in a set workplace, usability across devices and browsers is still crucial. At RingCentral, we ensure our video calling works on any device—both mobile and desktop. We provide everything your business needs to work collaboratively wherever your team is based. Plus, the cloud-based aspect means you’ll save on web hosting, too.
Additional Features
Providers don’t always offer all of the features you are looking for. Of course, RingCentral Video offers most, if not all, of the essential features a business will need from a video chat app. Not only that, but it comes with additional features like task management, team calendars, file sharing, and more. With our video chat and conferencing solution, your virtual meetings and general workplace operations can be streamlined and optimized considerably.
RingCentral Video is available with a free plan that allows for unlimited one-to-one meetings, HD video group calls with up to 100 people, and desktop and application sharing. If you're managing an agile team and seeking a strong communications tool to enhance interaction among a remote workforce, this is ideal.
If you’re a small business and you’re just starting out, you can try out the free version and later scale up to a paid plan. You’re guaranteed a robust, reliable, and scalable video calling app that can be applied in countless business situations to streamline communication, improve collaboration, and enhance team relationships with synchronous interactions.
Click here to view a more detailed breakdown of our plans and pricing.
