Compare Zoom and Google Hangouts Meet

Compare the features of Zoom (umn.zoom.us) and Google Hangouts Meet (meet.google.com) to help you decide which tool is best for your needs. Google Hangouts Meet is the simplest tool and interface for online meetings, but Zoom offers many additional features. 

Note: Health Care Component (HCC) members must take a training about HCC requirements and wait up to one business day for access to their HCC Zoom accounts.

Compare features and capabilities in Zoom and Google Meet

When to use

Zoom

  • Professional meetings and interviews that you want recorded
  • Hosting webinars
  • Large meetings

Google Hangouts Meet

  • Smaller, informal meetings
  • One-on-one meetings or interviews

Recording capability

Zoom

Google Hangouts Meet

  •  Yes (until further notice as a result of COVID-19 considerations. This capability may change in the future.)

Screen sharing

Zoom

  • Simultaneous screen sharing (the meeting host can allow multiple people to share the screen at the same time).
  • Annotation of screen sharing

Google Hangouts Meet

  •  Only one person may share their screen at a time.

Accessibility

Zoom

Google Hangouts Meet

Maximum number of participants

Zoom

  • Up to 300 people in meetings.
  • Up to 1000 people in webinars.

Google Hangouts Meet

  •  Up to 100 people.

Who can host?

Zoom

  • All faculty, staff, and students can host meetings.
  • Only faculty and staff can host webinars.
  • Note: These same hosting capabilities apply to Health Care Component (HCC) members. 

Google Hangouts Meet

Who can attend?

Zoom

  •  Anyone can attend meetings and webinars, including individuals outside of the University.

Google Hangouts Meet

  •  Anyone can attend meetings and webinars, including individuals outside of the University. However, users in China may have difficulty joining.

 Data Considerations

Data usage for each of these applications varies widely based on factors such as how many people are attending the meeting and meeting settings used. For a benchmark on measuring how your device will perform with each of these applications, see the following resources:

Additional Features

Zoom

Google Hangouts Meet

  • In meeting chat with all meeting participants
  • Spotlight a speaker
    • Set a primary active speaker for all participants
  • Pin a speaker 
    • Set your view to a specific speaker. This does not affect other participants.

 Learn More

Last modified

Changed
January 19, 2022

TDX ID

TDX ID
3544