How virus gave the world the video bug

Slack, Hangouts, Zoom and Houseparty weren’t household names a couple of weeks ago.

Yet for many of us, these video-calling apps are now an invaluable part of our everyday lives.

They are helping more and more of us keep in face-to-face contact – albeit via a video screen – with friends and family, if the incredible numbers are to be believed. Daily downloads of Zoom have soared from 171,574 on February 15 to 2.4 million on March 25 – and the figure continues to climb.

It’s no surprise to technology journalist Carrie Marshall.

“They’re brilliant for social calling,” she explained. “My mum’s 71 and staying home. We use Skype so she can see the kids and vice-versa.

“I’ve used Houseparty to have daft chats and play games with friends. It’s

good for friend groups – you can have eight people on screen at once – and Zoom is great for even bigger groups. And of course the apps work one to one as well.”

The apps will become even busier in the coming weeks, too, as more people get used to them, according to Carrie.

“Last week, Houseparty had two million downloads and Zoom was the second most downloaded app on earth. There are still lots of people who aren’t using these apps, so there’s lots of potential.”

Carrie believes that even once the lockdown is over, people who were reluctant to use apps at first will learn to embrace the technology.

“There’s no substitute for face-to-face contact – the first thing I’m going to do when all this is over is hug absolutely everybody – but we’re seeing a shift from people who refuse to even make phone calls to suddenly getting the video bug.”