I've had a great question about comparing the features of Adobe Connect compared to Google Hangouts. Which is best for you?

Video and audio

Google seems to have the edge on video and audio quality, including intelligent muting. The audio setup for Adobe Connect isn't as smooth for some people as other, newer, systems are. 

There are limits on free sessions, but then there will be with other software depending on the licence you buy as to how many people can be in your session. 

Streaming and integration

Google does integrate well with YouTube, obviously as it's part of the same suite of software. Also this applies to Google Calendar, Google Classroom, Google Drive and so on. 

In the same way though Adobe Connect does really well with Adobe Captivate e-learning modules and also the Adobe Prime Learning Management System. 

Webinars

Google Hangouts is exactly what it says - a place to meet and hang out. It has chat, audio, video, document sharing and some fun features, but not important for business. 

The Software Advice website also shares the following Google Hangout limit:

There is an overlay you can use, called Business Hangouts, but by the time you've paid for this, you could consider purchasing a platform that was specifically designed for webinars and virtual classrooms. 

Mobile support

Both Adobe Connect and Google Hangouts provide support for people attending on mobile/tablet/cell devices. It's fair to say that the Hangout experience is probably smoother across devices as it's a newer model and software and designed for this type of accessibility. However keep an eye on the Adobe Connect blog as there are lots of changes coming with the HTML5 development of Adobe Connect, which includes accessibility across devices as well as for various disabilities. 

Screensharing and presentations

Hangouts and Connect both offer the option to share your screen to others. This is useful when wanting to share information, presentations, demonstrations and so on. 

The advantage Connect has here is that you can upload your slides (or documents such as PDFs, Word, images and so on) into a persistent, perpetual, always-there room. This means that if the main facilitator or presenter disconnects the material is still there, and is permanently there for others and future sessions. It's also less bandwidth heavy and higher waulity to deliver this way.

Lack of breakouts, whiteboards and annotation

There are no breakout rooms, whiteboard or annotation features in Google Hangouts. This means that there's a lot of interactive, engaging and collaborative activities you can't design for your webinar or virtual classroom. For me, this is the biggest drawback to Google Hangouts. 

Recommendations

On the Trust Radius website they compared various aspects of Connect and Hangouts. Interestingly whilst there was high feedback for recommendations and support on Hangouts, it is Connect that wins out on scalability, implementation, online training, realiability and availability, usability and, most importantly, 100% on likelihood to renew:

Over to you

What do you think?