Zoom has emerged as a popular video conferencing application during the lockdown period. However, the Zoom app has been marred with numerous controversies with the government of India terming it as an unsafe platform.
The government of India has also launched a video conferencing app development challenge for Indian companies and it says that the company that will provide the best video conferencing application will win the prize money of Rs 1 crore. The government has introduced the “Innovation Challenge for Development of Video Conferencing Solution” challenge to develop Indian-made video conferencing platform. The app development programme has already started on April 13 and the last date of registration is April 30. The government will announce the results on July 29.
With this, the government is trying to minimise the use of Zoom video-conferencing application. So, what are the alternatives to Zoom? Although there are multiple platforms that provide video conferencing solution, a new app is making rounds on the internet. Yes, we are talking about Say Namaste application. The video conferencing app is said to be an Indian answer to Zoom.
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What is Say Namaste video-conferencing application?
Say Namaste is a web-based application that allows users to make video conferencing calls. The app is currently under beta development and there is no information when it will be available with the stable release. Interestingly, some people are terming it as the video conferencing app launched by the government, however, this is not true. There is no official link between the government and the application. In fact, the app has been made by a Mumbai-based web application and software development company known as Incripts.
How does Say Namaste works?
The working is pretty similar to the one found in the Zoom video conferencing app. The Say Namaste app allows user to make video conferencing call using the meeting link and code, which is a feature of Zoom. Users can visit the Say Namaste website and there one can create a meeting or join the existing meeting. When you create a meeting, it gives you meeting links and code so that other people can join the video call.
Furthermore, one can mute audio and video during the meeting in this web-based application. Users can also toggle between the screens and check for other participants, which is again similar to Zoom. Additionally, one can use Chat feature to talk to other participants and one can also send files during the interactions, which is also the feature available in Zoom.
Why Say Namaste cannot match Zoom at this point of time?
Although Say Namaste might be seen as an interesting application, it is of no match to Zoom. First of all, the application is in beta stage, meaning that the features are not stable. In our brief testing, we found out that the application is not that stable in nature and we faced some problems while creating a meeting link for testing purpose.
Secondly, there is no information about the number of participants one can add to the video-conferencing application. Also, some features like sending files during the Video call did not work properly. Zoom comes loaded with a host of interesting features, which makes it a reliable application for video conferencing, though you need to follow some strict guidelines in order to avoid ‘Zoom Bombing’. That said, in this current stage, the Say Namaste application cannot be seen as the full-fledged alternative to Zoom.