8×8 has long been a pioneer in the video calling world. Back in the day their Packet8 service was pushing video calling in their earliest of desktop phone iterations. Well as a result of their Jitsi acquisition,and how stable WebRTC has gotten, 8×8 is launching a free video conferencing service, 8×8 Video Meetings.
This is clearly a move to attract customers and to fend off the runaway freight train of ZOOM. As a free offer it's exactly how Dialpad built a great following for UberConference by giving away the service at no cost and then getting customers to upgrade.
The free and disruptive Video Meeting service offers some customization if you sign up including custom domain, personal meeting space, calendar sync, meeting history and one dedicated meeting room. In many ways it reminded me of Temasys' GetaRoom the on-demand meeting room service that was launched at the start of WebRTC as a demon platform. The only difference is that some additional functions have been added.
As a free standalone version of 8×8 Video Meetings, the service has been optimized for use with Google Chrome, Firefox, and other WebRTC-enabled browsers. Two smart moves by 8×8's product team included integration with 8×8 Video Meetings desktop apps, mobile apps and calendar plug-ins for any OS and the capability to easily pair with video conferencing enabled rooms and huddle spaces through 8×8 Meeting Rooms.
Full details are in today's news release.