From classrooms to healthcare consultation, from business meetings to court hearings, to even parties life has become virtually smart in corona times. Call it videotelephony or just a way to skirt social distancing online meetings on special platforms have come into vogue. MUSBA HASHMI speaks with industry stakeholders about how these platforms have made work and play, both accessible
For Avinash Singh, a 21-year-old college student, the day starts at 9:30 am by logging in to the computer and be all set for the day’s classes from the comfort of his home. Interestingly, his Professor is in Delhi and the other classmates in their respective hometowns. But at a click of a mouse, all are together. Elsewhere in Delhi, an 85-year-old mother, is worried because one of her daughters is stuck in the US due to the lockdown. But can take heart that they can keep in touch and get to see each other as many times in a day despite being thousands of miles away. Welcome, to the world of the new normal.
Not even in our wildest dreams had we thought of such a life — when everything would come to a near standstill and would feel like we were living under a rock. But the lockdown has made this a reality. With social distancing becoming a must, work from home and taking online classes is the way forward and technology has shown that it can be a perfect tool in the present situation.
A case in point are video conferencing apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. From corporate events to business meetings to classes to live concerts and to dance workshops, everything is taking the digital route. With a variety of platforms to choose from, there is a raging competition.
Sameer Raje, India Head, Zoom Video Communications, tells you that it is the easy-to-use setup that makes Zoom the number one platform for video conferencing. “There are a couple of aspects that makes us the user’s choice. One, it has an easy to use interface. With the touch of a button or click of a mouse you are into a meeting. Two, the experience. When you join a meeting, whatever bandwidth you are on or even if you are struggling with poor connectivity, the platform tries to accommodate to the fluctuating network giving users a rich experience with no complaints of bad connectivity or finding difficulty in joining a meeting,” Raje says.
For those who still are unaware of the app, it is an enterprised platform, designed for communication and collaboration. “While we service large enterprises, we also service small and medium ones as well. While doing this we have our premium version, which any one can sign up for on the platform. This allows 40 minutes of video conferencing if there are more than two participants. For those who want to use it more, they have to subscribe to the various services and licenses. Each of one that would have its pricing plan. Then there is an enterprised plan, which has more features and functionality. The pricing for this varies from $14.99 to $19.99 per user per month,” Raje explains.
Though the platform has been here for over nine years but the surge in users came during the lockdown period. “We never anticipated such kind of surge. From 10 million users a day we went to a high of 300 million a day. This is a crazy number. Many companies may be looking forward to cover this journey in a couple of years but we did this in less than 12 weeks. This is a humongous achievement,” he says.
However, lately a lot of queries were raised on the platform’s security with the Government even banning it for official calls and meetings. Eric S Yuan, CEO of Zoom issued an apology for the privacy issues and assured the people that they are doing the best to protect users’ privacy. Raje too says, that the company is putting in best efforts to improve the security.
“We are and will always be a secure platform. What happened was unfortunate and was quite similar to like you are going out of your house, leaving it unlocked and then advertising it on social media that I am out of the house. When you are on a virtual platform you have to keep in mind safe practices. Now, we have started educating people about that. Yes, the growth in users was unprecedented and there were some human errors from our side as well. But now we have taken appropriate security steps and have introduced a 90-day plan which we are working on and there is a significant progress in that. In this plan, we have introduced a robust security system, improving the security considerably,” he tells you.
As it is an evolving product, Raje adds, the company will keep on building the platform with new and updated features and functionality but the focus at present, is to only improve security.
The app is not just being used by corporate and educational institutes, but for personal connectivity as well.
“The life before Coronavirus hit the world was different. Our app was then used by organisations and enterprises for meetings and other work, but now things have changed. People have started using it for socialising as well. A couple of days back, somebody told me that her friend got married on our platform. She is going to remember the platform forever. Also, marriages over the app in New York are now considered to be legal. There was another instance, where a five-year-old was adopted via the platform. And the UK Parliament is holding their parliamentary meet on the platform for the first time. Who would have imagined that something like this could happen? We had never anticipated that someday our platform will be used to this extent and in such a manner. We are happy that we could help people,” Raje tells you.
These apps are also helping people beat the lockdown blues. It has become a way to connect in these tough times. “Since the lockdown, my friends in the US, Canada, France and elsewhere in India had been planning to connect. We decided to do a video call. It was an amazing experience — to simultaneously video chat with 10 friends. One of our friends is pregnant so we asked her to show her baby bump. It was nice to share a personal, special moment in such difficult times,” says Aaradhana Ramesh, who have now become a regular user of the platform.
Amit Pandey, senior scriptwriter at Cosmos Maya, who write scripts for cartoon shows like Selfie with Bajrangi, Tik Tak Tail and Eena Meena Deeka which airs on Disney, Cartoon Network and OTT platforms like Amazon Prime, Hotstar and ZEE5 to name a few and is actively using video conferencing platforms for his script narration feels privileged to be living in the digital age.
“We are privileged that we are living in a digital age which has turned out to be a blessing during this COVID-19 crisis while following the work from home routine. Ever since the Coronavirus-led lockdown shut down schools forcing kids to stay at home, the consumption of cartoon shows has boomed like never before. This has, in turn, forced us to churn out more engaging stories keeping us as busy. Video conferencing tools have helped us keep our pace to fulfil our commitment to provide with the best stories for kids,” he says.
He tells you that for a working professional like him, video conferencing platforms are like a God’s gift. “For a scriptwriter like me who loves to add expressions to storytelling sessions, video conferencing apps are a Godsend. It becomes impossible to convey those feelings with a regular audio call. The facility has helped me a lot and has made my life easy during difficult times like this. These tools not only bridge the gap between a physical and a virtual narrating session, but they let me put my feelings across to all the stakeholders and churn out captivating stories for kids. Thanks to the video conferencing tools, I’m able to easily put my point across and finish sessions quickly. It leaves me with ample time to focus on other important parts of the project,” Pandey tells you.
Another platform that is equally making waves is Microsoft Teams, which marked its third anniversary on March 19, 2020. “We announced an array of product innovations across different aspects of the Teams experience — many with a tie to meetings. We continue to invest in experiences that will make it easier for teams to communicate and collaborate. The new capabilities reflect our commitment to two things: Building the very best online meeting experience for our customers and bringing technological solutions to traditionally underserved professionals, including frontline healthcare workers,” Samik Roy, Country Head, Modern Workplace, Microsoft India tells you.
Some of the features that make the platform stand out are: Real-time noise suppression, which will minimise distracting background noise (keyboard typing, vacuum cleaner), allowing you to hear what’s being said. Second, the raise hand feature, which will let anyone in a virtual meeting send a visual signal that they have something to say. Third, offline and low-bandwidth support, which will let you read chat messages and write responses-even without an Internet making it easier for you to move things forward no matter where you are. Fourth, custom backgrounds, which allow you to replace your background in Teams meetings with a fresh and bright home office. This feature builds upon background blur, which uses artificial intelligence to blur the environment behind you.
“In the future, we will also include the ability to upload your own custom images,” Roy tells you.
At Microsoft, Roy says, privacy and security are never an afterthought. It is ingrained in the core design principles of very product. “We provide privacy and security controls for video conferences, safeguard customer privacy by design, protect user identity and account information, protect customer’s data and defend it against cybersecurity threats and we meet more than 90 global regulatory and industry standards,” he says.
In the face of COVID-19, there are countless stories from customers who are using this to connect and thrive in inspiring ways. “We understand that now more than ever consumers are relying on us to ensure continuity and by making Teams available to as many people as possible, we aim to support businesses, educational institutions and healthcare segments. We take this responsibility very seriously and have a plan in place to make sure services stay up and running,” Roy says.
Unlike other apps, this is being widely used by teachers and students for online learning. A case in point is Divya, a 12-year-old trying not only to keep herself occupied but also helping other kids learn new trick or two in solving the Rubik’s Cube with other kids by conducting online classes on Microsoft Teams. This Class VII student converts lessons into interactive sessions. Seeing her passion, a neighbor enlisted Divya to take summer vacation classes this year for other children in their apartment’s clubhouse. The experiment was a success and more than 15 kids turned up for the initial class, which Divya divided into smaller classes for better focus. But just when her classes were getting intense, a country-wide lockdown was implemented.
Healthcare workers too are providing virtual consultation service powered by Microsoft Teams for its group hospitals. Using this, doctors are able to schedule, manage, and conduct virtual visits with patients, such as post-surgery follow-ups.
Another happening app that has seen a surge in usage by 30 times in the recent months is Google Meet. “More than three million users have been connecting on Meet every day and are spending more than three billion minutes together — more than 3,800 years of secure meetings in a single day. This is a new milestone for us and we are humbled by this huge responsibility and trust our users have shown. Meet’s day over day growth has surpassed 60 per cent in the last few weeks and the usage has surged 30 times to what it was in January 2020. We are committed to help them presently and beyond this pandemic by protecting their data and meeting their end needs,” says Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Google Cloud, India.
Some of the features that make this platform stand out is that it is accessible directly through chrome and other modern browsers without the requirement of additional plugins. One can also host a meeting directly through a browser without any limitations.
“Only meeting creators and calendar owners can mute or remove other participants. This ensures that instructors can't be removed or muted by student participants. Google Meet regularly undergoes independent verification of security, privacy and compliance controls. In order to protect highest-risk accounts, account hijacking and phishing. The users can enroll their account in the Advanced Protection Program (APP). Additionally, it adheres to IETF security standards for Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP). The data is always encrypted by default with Google meeting room hardware,” Bajwa tells you.
To grab more eyeballs, Google Meet have come up with new features that will definitely pose a threat on its competitors. It has made the premium video conferencing platform free for all users everywhere. “The feature will be accessible to everyone in the coming weeks. We have also updated the layout. The newly updated tiled layout will now support the screen space for 16 participants compared to four participants previously. Additionally, Meet now uses AI to enhance the participants’ visibility to other under sub-optimal lighting conditions. This feature is currently rolled out to mobile users and will be available for web users too in future. In the upcoming weeks, Meet will also support background noise cancellation,” Bajwa explains.
However, there are two sides of a coin. This increased usage of digital platforms may lead to an increase in cybercrime, thereby putting personal information at risk.
“During this COVID-19 pandemic there is an increased risk of cybercrimes considering there is a substantial rise in digital usage, especially video conferencing platforms. This has increased many avenues for hackers to use personal information or to infect your system with malware. This rise in usage of video conferencing platforms, increases the possibility of new avenues for cybercrimes. Hackers can not only attack the platform, but also join these sessions and cause damage to businesses with respect to confidentiality as well as privacy,” Rajesh Kumar, Director Cybersecurity, Netrika Consulting India Pvt Ltd, says.
But there are certain good practices as well which can eliminate the risks of cyber threat. “Disable file sharing and accepting the files through these platforms. Keep the platform and application always patched. Set strong, difficult passwords for all meetings and sessions. Enable features like waiting room, lock meeting sessions, join before host. Limit screen sharing on purpose and disallow public recording,” Kumar advises.
Apart from these safe practices, Kumar says, one should also follow the basis etiquette of using Internet. “Basic things which a person should keep in mind while using Internet are: Don't click on any suspected mails, it can be phishing mails and can contain malware. Avoid connecting your devices on public hotspots or open Wi-Fi. Ensure your end-point devices uses latest anti-virus/anti-malware and is updated. Keep yourself aware of latest phishing campaigns and basic IT cyber etiquette,” he tells you.
