Last year, video conferencing became a critical means of communication. Lockdown restrictions and remote working mandates meant that video meetings kept our teams together despite the geographical differences. Even though we never could have foreseen the events of 2020, we were prepared to help our customers solve their communications challenges with 8x8 Meet.

Two years ago, we launched 8x8 Meet as a highly secure video meeting solution that makes collaboration between teams more organic and productive. It’s powered by the 18+ year Jitsi.org open source project that has been hardened with millions of downloads and built into banking video apps, education-as-a-service platforms, and home security tools globally. 8x8 Meet is delivered from the all-in-one 8x8 Work desktop, mobile, and web apps, as well as from any Chromium-based web browser.

Looking back over the past 24 months, 8x8 Meet has helped millions of people get together over video to learn, plan, and take their businesses to the next level. Our development team continues to work hard to deliver features that help our customers make the most of every interaction. As we consider the future of video conferencing, let’s revisit what we have built so far. The following list of features summarizes how our focus on quality, security, and functionality shows up in improvements that benefit our users every day. It’s a snapshot of what we have done and a guide to how we think about supporting your video needs.

Meeting Analytics and Quality

Meeting analytics, based on our callstats.io acquisition, collects, aggregates, and analyzes over 500 WebRTC metrics received from video endpoints across the organization. With Video Meeting Analytics, admins and network operations teams can monitor video quality, predict and troubleshoot network issues, and build automated quality notifications.

Bandwidth management allows automated and manual control of each participant's meeting quality based on dynamically changing bandwidth conditions. This maintains the overall service quality and integrity of the Video Meeting experience for all participants.

Apps

Native mobile apps for iOS and Android enable participants to join a Video Meeting in standalone mode from a mobile device. We also delivered native Mac OS and Windows apps for participants who join a Video Meeting from a browser that does not support the WebRTC standard (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer or older versions of Apple Safari).

Mobile browser support provides access to Video Meetings that automatically adjust to the user's browser and device.

Usability

Virtual backgrounds are available for participants to use two virtual background settings, choose from a library of images, or upload a custom image to replace the actual background during meetings.

Content sharing allows participants to share audio from a Windows PC or any browser tab in a meeting, as well as share YouTube videos in a meeting.

Integrations

Embedded meetings enables users to embed any meeting URL via iFrame in any web page, allowing people to join a meeting from a custom web page.

Enhanced calendar integration, with the addition of a Google Chrome Extension, facilitates calendar scheduling.

Security and Privacy

Moderation controls support locking any meeting. Participants request access to join the meeting and wait in meeting lobbies until the meeting is started by the moderator.

End-to-end encryption mode is currently in development. This will allow Video Meetings users to hold an end-to-end encrypted meeting using the WebRTC standard (an industry first, in partnership with the WebRTC standards working group).

Accessibility

Real-time closed captioning is available for the duration of the video meeting and can be started and stopped at any time during the meeting. All text captured is also included in the transcription for the meeting.

Complete transcription of the Video Meeting includes identification of all active speakers. Transcriptions can be stored in the cloud, downloaded, or shared.

What’s next?

8x8 Meet is feature-rich and simple to use. We will continue to deliver high-quality video meeting tools that propel productive teams. Look out for new features that provide data insights, useful integrations, and multiple ways to connect to meetings. These are some of the ideas that influence how Meet will develop; in the near term, we will enable active participation for more attendees, make it easier for all devices to connect to meetings, and simplify sharing content for all users. Our technical roadmap will evolve with our customers in mind to ensure that we deliver the best video conferencing solution for businesses of any size.

Discover how companies use 8x8 communications and contact center solutions to innovate and support their customers.

Also, check out 2020 recap and 2021 momentum.