Meets vs. Zoom: Which is better?

Virtual comparison for online superiority

By Joshua Gallegos

Reporter

There has been a lot of recent discussion about going back to class in person.

While this means that the school system will once again change drastically, it seems like the thought of keeping things the way they are now is at the very back of everyone’s mind.

This hypothetical scenario leads to the discussion of which platform is superior.

Google Meets has a lot of fun features that Zoom lacks.

One of the more obvious features are the closed captions, where Meets will add captions as people are talking. Meets also has the “blur background” feature which, as the name implies, blurs your background.

While it lacks some of Meet’s features, Zoom definitely has its own list of perks that Meets doesn’t have. For instance, instead of having a blurred background, Zoom offers a virtual background that allows users to choose a photo to be the backdrop of their video.

Zoom also caters to projects where students can work together with private messaging and in break-out rooms. Of course the teacher is able to administer both of these features, with the ability to restrict the chat so students can only message the teacher or send a public message. The teacher can also freely check in on the break-out rooms to ensure students are staying on task.

If one was to judge both platforms based on their exclusive features, it would be clear that Zoom is superior. After all, Zoom is still a paid service while Meets is free, so it is understandable that Zoom offers more.

Adding break-out rooms and a wider grid to see more people at once are just a few suggestions that senior Alexis “Alex” Perez said would level the playing field in favor of Meets.

Senior Maci Barton believes that adding a function that notifies teachers to slow down would be very useful to Meets since some teachers are unable to check the comments while they are giving a lecture.

Senior Eli Munoz has had experience with both.

“I definitely believe that Zoom is the better, higher quality choice for academic and club use. However, if you just want to meet up and talk, then I think Google Meets would be fine,” he said.

Munoz raises a good point, although Zoom has break-out rooms, in the end, Meets would work just as well.

Carmen Garvis, a teacher in the Engineering Pathway, also believes that the flexibility to choose between the two platforms is nice and beneficial overall.