Video calling software all feels the same, but it won't be that way for long. New software is reimagining how we interact online.

Videoconferencing was a lifeline last year. Once we all left the office we would have been lost without it. Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft Skype and Teams dominated my calendar last year as work moved online.

We started to use it outside of work too. School, parties, happy hour, visiting friends. I even attempted a karaoke birthday party. (It didn’t go well.)

These platforms all roughly work the same way. You get an invite with a long URL, it appears in your calendar and you click it when it’s time to meet. Participants appear in a grid and the meeting starts.

The trouble is, they’re all optimized for one activity – meetings. When you try to use them for other purposes the experience gets frustrating and falls apart. The more we stretched these platforms in different ways the more their limitations were revealed.

They’re not good for multi-party conversation and casual chit-chat. They’re too formal. It’s hard to feel warm and spontaneous. On the other hand, it’s difficult to give slick information-rich professional presentations. Collaborating on complex documents or designs is too hard. Built-in screen sharing isn't the same as gathering around a table together.

Fortunately, there’s a whole world of new software solving the problems we face working apart. Soon, we won’t have to shoehorn our online interaction into Zoom. There will be purpose-built applications to suit each activity.

The future of video applications is exciting. I’ve collected some of my favourites here to give you a sample of how new software is ready to meet different needs.

Some of these are early ideas in beta testing and others are mature products ready for you to use today. Give some a try! Let me know what you find useful.

Making Zoom Better

Zoom has a robust ecosystem of plugins called the App Marketplace that can make it work better for you.

• Circles for Zoom is a plugin that lets you take back control of your desktop. Circles takes the talking heads out of the grid and sets them floating off to the side so Zoom doesn’t take over your desktop. Free, Mac only for now

• Rev Live Captions adds closed captions to your meeting live using speech-to-text AI. Improve how much your attendees understand. Make your meetings instantly accessible for those hearing impaired. $20/month

• Otter also creates live captions but also creates a transcription of meetings. It ties in with Otter’s live collaborative notes platform to streamline minute taking. $20/month

Asynchronous

Communication doesn’t have to be live. Often, getting everyone together at the same time can be frustrating when people are remote. Here are some tools to keep in touch without having to lock into a meeting:

• Loom allows you to record video messages of your screen, camera, or both and send them instantly. Faster than typing an email or meeting live, it’s an effortless way to share information with a human touch. Use it for team collaboration or with customers. Mac, Windows, iOS. Free with paid tiers.

• Yac is the audio-only version of Loom. Cut down on meetings & calls with voice messages, searchable transcriptions & asynchronous screen sharing. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android. Free with paid tier.

Casual Conferencing

• Around seeks to make video calls more ✌️ 𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓁𝓁 🌴. Quick-start meetings with your team through Slack integration. Talking heads are contained in small circles floating on your desktop leaving you free to work. AI automatically frames the camera on your face cropping out your messy home office. Advanced audio processing auto-mutes background noise and suppresses echo. Mac and Windows.

• Vizy is a simple way to initiate quick video chat with your team members. Chats in Vizy feel less formal than typical videoconferencing and more like tapping someone on the shoulder for a chat. Mac and Windows.

Virtual Shared Spaces

• Gather is an online environment for remote teams. Styled to look like a 16-bit RPG, work is much more fun when it feels like Zelda. Walk around like you do in the office and feel the isolation of working from home melt away. As your character walks up to your coworkers, video chat turns on automatically. Meet in a virtual conference room, forest, boat or beer garden. Free with paid tiers.

• Here.fm is a personal, flexible, sharable video room. Post live video, pictures, gifs and apps in an infinitely expanding canvas. Chaotic creative energy.

• Together Mode in Microsoft Teams is a new feature that breaks meeting participants out of the grid and into a shared office environment. Generic corporate backgrounds make you feel like you’re back amongst the fake plants and fluorescent lights.

Collaboration Tools

• Miro is a supercharged online whiteboard. This is the visual collaboration tool for when you need to workshop ideas, brainstorm or review designs. Upload documents, mark them up and add sticky notes. Originally known as RealtimeBoard, this product has been in development for nine years and has consistently improved. I’m surprised it’s not more well known. Free for most features, paid upgrades

• Figma is a similar online design space. Think multiplayer Adobe Illustrator. Free for most features

Streaming

• mmhmm is lightweight live broadcast software that will spice up your web presentations. You can control your background and place your slides over your shoulder like the evening news. Works with your favourite videoconferencing software. Recording and collaboration features are also included. Mac only, Windows coming soon. Free trial, $9.99/month.

• Open Broadcaster Software is the standard for webstream recording and production. Audio and Video mixing, scenes, transitions, compositing, hardware control and encoding make a complete broadcast package. Incredible software. Free, open source.

• Streamlabs is a commercial competitor to OBS with paid pro features. Every Twitch or Youtube streamer uses Streamlabs or OBS.

Virtual Events

• Hopin is a platform for virtual events. While Zoom has added many features that make it possible to run big complex events but Hopin is purpose-built for them. It includes everything you need before, during and after the event: promotion, ticketing, registration, advanced moderation, and analytics. It’s one of the breakout software startups of 2020. $99+/month.

Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality

• Spatial is a VR work environment. VR can be awkward. I’ve always felt there wasn’t a compelling case for VR, it often feels like a gimmick and the gear is awkward. But now we’re all apart it makes a lot more sense. Requires VR hardware.

• Mozilla Hubs is a similar 3D space, but runs in the browser without VR equipment.

• Tonari imagines a life-sized portal between two spaces. Project an always-on video portal on the wall to join two remote spaces together. It’s a great idea for connecting regional offices. In Beta.

Family

• Caribu makes video calls with kids unforgettable with built-in games, puzzles and books. Apple App of the Year 2020. iPad/iPhone. In-app Purchase.