Conferencing tools

Shashank Sharma is a strong believer in the power of written words, but even more so when there’s a friendly face to attribute them to.

Don’t be surprised if most of the tools on our list have already crossed your radar before. Instant messaging (IM) applications have evolved quite a bit since their heyday, and are capable of much more now than just exchanging text messages. With the ever-increasing internet speeds, a typical IM session now includes the exchange of images, and instead of written communications, features audio or video calls.

In the post-Snowden era, more and more users are interested in protecting and ensuring the privacy of their communications. This extends to not just chat messages, but also audio and video calls. The tools on our list use encryption protocols such as AES and others to safeguard your conversations.

Despite the growing feature set, IM programs such as the ones in this month’s Roundup are still largely favoured by home users. However, video conferencing, and even IM, have also been adopted by many businesses.

Some software solutions provide web-based interfaces that are popular with teachers who want to conduct video lessons to students, and by business people for making presentations. These are relegated to the Alsoconsider section ( seepage31), along with some popular tools that were left out because of the lack of support for different distributions.

“Video conferencing, and even instant messaging, have also been adopted by businesses”