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This is an example of HipChat getting ahead of arch rival
Announced today, HipChat video chat will start rolling out to paying customers in the coming weeks. Going forward, new users who sign up for a free account will also get a taste of video chat during the 30-day trial before they decide whether to upgrade to the $2 per user per month HipChat Plus plan.
HipChat video chat and screen sharing
Where videoconferencing was once an exclusive form of collaboration only available in specially equipped conference rooms, consumer services like FaceTime have paved the way for employees to think of video as a much more spontaneous and routine from of communication. The difference in a business setting is "it's not about showing pictures of the grandkids --- it's about time is money," said HipChat General Manager Steve Goldsmith. In that context, what could be better than a one-click method for inviting all the same people you are collaborating with on a project or for a specific purpose into a video meeting? Instead of emailing out calendar invitations with a meeting link, online meeting organizers can invite employees from within the context of an existing chat room.
Initially, video chat will be able on desktop computers via the HipChat desktop apps,
Prior to our conversation, I disclosed to HipChat (as I must also disclose to you), that in addition to researching and reporting on collaboration tech I consult with the Glip team at RingCentral, which has a similar model for launching video meetings from within the context of team or one-on-one conversations. Note to self: don't cross the streams. I spoke to HipChat in the context of my broader research on the future of collaboration and the obstacles to achieving its full potential (which will be the subject of a keynote speech at the Social Business Collaboration conference in Berlin, Sept. 22-23).
Unified communications players like Cisco, Unify and RingCentral see team messaging and collaboration as an extension of communications platforms that also include both voice and video. Meanwhile, products that cut their teeth on team messaging are adding voice and video, so that everyone seems destined to meet in the middle.
Despite the overlap, Goldsmith said he doesn't see unified communications players becoming direct competitors. So far, phone communications are not something he sees a need to unify with HipChat. When employees are invited to a HipChat video chat, they will not have the option of dialing in as an alternative to joining from their computers the way they do with many other online meeting services. That can be a handy alternative if you get caught away from a computer with a high bandwidth connection at meeting time but would still like to at least join the audio portion of the conversation.
Yet Goldsmith said part of the point of HipChat video is to provide a rich and seamless experience. "Once you get into dialing a number, it fails the one thumb test," he said. In other words, you shouldn't have to press more than one button to join a meeting. "I think where we're more likely to go is a mobile app that is smart enough to do the right thing and just join me to the call via audio" if video is not practical, he said.
HipChat already had video chat for one-on-one calls, but group video chat is new. The technology is based on Atlassian's acquisition of BlueJimp and its open source video bridge Jitsi in April 2015. Jitsi remains available as an open source download and as a video appliance that can be purchased independently of HipChat.
We used a version of this technology to conduct our interview. It performed well, and experience had a lot in common with Google Hangouts or Zoom or many other video chat services I've tried. But by embedding it in a team collaboration context where users can also be sharing documents and texting messages to each other, HipChat hopes to make it a lot more productive.
