Video conferencing became infrastructure during the pandemic and has remained so — but the market has consolidated significantly. Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams Video each dominate in specific contexts, and the right choice depends less on call quality (which has converged) than on ecosystem fit, pricing, and the AI features that now differentiate the category.
Zoom remains the default for external meetings, client calls, and cross-company communication. Its reliability, client compatibility across platforms and devices, and name recognition mean that “let’s jump on a Zoom” is understood in contexts where “let’s Google Meet” is not. The AI Companion — which generates meeting summaries, action items, and can answer questions about what was said — is among the most mature AI assistant features in the video conferencing category. The weakness is price: Zoom’s paid plans are more expensive than Teams for organisations not already paying for it, and the free tier is limited to 40-minute meetings.
Google Meet is the best choice for individuals and organisations already living in Google Workspace. The Gemini AI integration, which generates meeting notes, real-time translations, and can answer questions about Google Docs and Calendar in the context of a meeting, is meaningfully ahead of what Zoom offers for Google ecosystem users. The noise cancellation is excellent. The weakness is integration outside the Google ecosystem — Google Meet works best when everyone in the meeting is also a Workspace user, which is rarely the case for external calls.
Microsoft Teams Video is the right choice for large enterprises already on Microsoft 365, primarily for internal meetings. The integration with Teams channels, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365 Copilot is seamless. Recording, transcription, and meeting summary features are included in most Microsoft 365 enterprise plans. The weakness is the same as Teams messaging: the product experience is slower and more cluttered than Zoom or Meet, and external participants — particularly those without Microsoft accounts — have a consistently worse experience joining Teams calls than they do on competing platforms.
Verdict: For external and client-facing meetings, Zoom is still the standard. For internal meetings, choose whichever platform matches your collaboration suite — Teams if you are on Microsoft 365, Meet if you are on Google Workspace. There is no compelling reason to run two video conferencing platforms; pick the one that matches your email and calendar provider and standardise on it.
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