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seven Key Features a Free Movie Calling Service Needs

Multi-party movie conferencing is becoming a mainstay of both large and petite businesses. As a powerful collaboration device, it is commonly used both within and inbetween organizations to facilitate team meetings, client calls, product demos, and more.

So what should you look for in a group movie calling service or app? The question may vary from business to business, but there are undoubtedly some features that you shouldn’t go without. For the purposes of this blog, we’ll concentrate on platforms that suggest at least movie 4-way movie, rather than those that concentrate on 1-on-1 movie talks.

To help break it down, we grouped the following seven features into "must haves" and "extras" that can supplement your practice.

Must Have Movie Calling Features

Free Movie Trial or Service

Simply put, you shouldn’t have to pay for the basic capabilities of a web movie conferencing solution. For a puny to medium sized businesses, there are many options that can connect your team members, customers, and business playmates with free movie calling, either by signing up for a free account or a free trial.

Most services that suggest both free and paid plans will typically limit some aspect of the movie calls for the free version. This can include the number of parties that can join the call, the capability to use features like screensharing or movie call recording, or premium integrations with third party platforms. FreeConferenceCall.com permit up to 1,000 participants per movie conference in its free plan.

If you’re interested in investing in a paid solution, you should look for a free trial so that you can at least test out all the advertised features of the platform.

Elementary User Practice

How many times have you struggled to set up a movie stream on a projector while dialing in ‘incorrect’ PIN codes on your conference phone?

A free group movie calling service should make initiating and joining a movie conference effortless. Ideally, you should not have to download any software or plugins, regardless of whether you’re in the organization, or an outside business contact. You should also be able to make movie calls in a mainstream Internet browser such as Firefox or Chrome. The key advantage of using browser-based movie conferencing software is that you can access the service from a broad range of devices, without requiring specific operating systems or software.

On the other forearm, you also want to make sure that people who aren’t invited to the call cannot barge into your calls. Some movie conferencing services permit you to create passwords, PIN codes, or unique call links to ensure that the call is limited to the intended users only.

The OnSIP app is a free softphone for Windows, Mac, Chrome, and Firefox. The app has 5-way HD movie conferencing, including the capability to send custom-built call links to non-users. These links open up a fresh browser window and permit anyone to join the movie conference as an “anonymous” user. Invited guests can also choose to type their name into the text box before joining the conference, if they wish.

Audio-Only or Dial-In Option

A group movie talk service should permit users to join in audio-only mode during movie calls. This is significant for employees who are away from their desks, working from home, at an off-site location, or lacking the equipment to partake in a movie call. While most services permit users to simply turn off the webcam, users should also be able to dial a phone number directly from their landline or mobile phones.

If you plan on hosting frequent calls with third parties, some platforms suggest toll-free numbers for U.S. callers. This way, you’ll pick up the cost for people calling into the conference. This is a valuable feature if you’re talking to potential or paying customers. If toll-free numbers are not available, the service should at least suggest local area code dial-in numbers to lower the cost of calling in.

GoToMeeting offers integrated toll-free service with OpenVoice, and permits customers to purchase toll-free numbers for over fifty countries.

HD Movie and Voice Quality

For the best call practice, choose a movie conferencing service that supplies HD voice and movie. As a minimum, the movie should display around 480p and treatment 720p on high quality rivulets.

If all parties on the call are using the Internet to join the call, the audio should be HD in quality. If there are parties dialing in, their input might not be as clear. Either way, you shouldn’t have to deal with grainy sound, echo, feedback, or other disruptions.

Keep in mind that the quality of your movie call will depend on the Internet connection of all parties. If you are using a business VoIP phone system to initiate multi-party movie calls, chances are you will see better call quality from HD codecs compared to free movie talk services. Check out our previous blog to learn more about the difference inbetween consumer VoIP and business VoIP applications.

Extra Movie Conferencing Features

Screensharing

Screensharing permits you to share visuals, demonstrations, and other collaborative information from a user’s individual screen. This feature is something to consider if your employees need to share graphs, charts, software demos, data, and other material with other callers.

Several movie conferencing services suggest this feature for free, usually up to a certain number of users. Join.me is a popular platform used by businesses, and can host up to five users on its free plan.

Record and Share Movie Conference Calls

Call recording for movie conferences is useful for webinars, tutorials, and other content you want to share with third parties after the meeting.

There are two types of call recording for movie conferencing. One records only the audio. The other records both audio and movie. Some free movie conferencing services suggest audio-only recording at no extra cost. The files are usually saved in .mp3 or .mp4 formats.

Other platforms suggest movie call recording at cost, but a few claim to suggest it for free. Some companies, such as Skype for Business, suggest movie recordings of meetings through third party apps.

Calendar Invites and Reminders

Some free movie conferencing services have calendar invites/reminders for popular applications such as Google Calendar and Outlook. These apps permit you to schedule, embark, and track meeting directly from the calendar interface. Most of these calendar invites are based on widgets or plugins, and free to install.

Calendar invites for movie conferences will pre-populate information about what number to call or link to click so that you don’t have to go through the trouble of typing it out in an email. This makes it lighter to coordinate inbetween involved parties. Zoom.us offers a Chrome and Firefox extension for calendar invites.

Free Movie Conferencing: Look Past the Interface

Movie conferencing is more than fancy interfaces and sleek designs. To find the right option for your business, you truly need to look at the substance of each platform. The features that a platform offers tell you all you need to know.

Depending on your expected use cases, a free movie calling account may be sufficient for your organization. If you’re looking for a more reliable platform with advanced features, you might want to consider a more comprehensive service with paid plans. These apps have the convenience of toll-free phone numbers, custom-built calling links, movie call recording, and more.

Either way, be sure to check out the utter capabilities of a group movie calling service before making a commitment. You want to be certain that your team and your business contacts have an pleasant practice engaging in movie conferences.

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