RingCentral to challenge Zoom, Teams with intelligent new meeting features

meeting
(Image credit: Shutterstock.com)

The fight to be the best video conferencing platform now has a new competitor after RingCentral launched new AI capabilities that it hopes will improve accessibility and make video calling more inclusive.

The company already boasts a range of communications, video meeting, and collaboration tools, which it is says are now being improved in response to “today’s global workforce embracing hybrid work”.

Expanding on its Edge and Chrome desktop support, the company is now extending its services to Firefox, as well as to Android devices using Chrome, which it hopes will improve accessibility for customers who prefer a wider range of web browsers.

RingCentral AI

Further improvements to the RingCentral experience come in the form of AI, which the company is extending across many parts of its platform.

New Advanced Meeting Insights and Summaries are intended to create summaries of meetings so that workers don’t have to dedicate important time to re-watching entire calls, with key moments captured to create a “quick video highlights reel”.

RingCentral meeting transcripts

(Image credit: RingCentral)

Live Transcription has also been added to video calls, much like that seen with Microsoft Teams, which can be reviewed at any point during the meeting or downloaded for future reference, should employees need to double-check something that was said previously.

Furthermore, RingCentral hopes to minimize distractions with a new noise reduction feature, which should be able to filter out common noises like dogs barking and keyboard typing.

Other additions to the interface include the Whiteboard, emoji-based Participant Reactions for common cues like “slow down”, and Remote Desktop Control which is targeted at presenters who will now be able to click over to the next slide on a presentation shared by another member or admin.

This extensive list of updates and new features is available to free and paid RingCentral MVP and Video Pro customers now.

Craig Hale

With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the decarbonisation of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value!