If you have been using products such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Viber or GoToMeeting for video conferencing, I recommend switching. Both alternatives presented here are trustworthy, free and open source.

Jitsi Meet

Jitsi Meet is a powerful and secure video conferencing system that does not require a separate login. You can start a conference directly in the browser via https://meet.jit.si and invite other participants. In addition to the possibility of a conference in the browser, there is also the possibility of installing a Jitsi Meet app, e.g. for iOS, Android or Linux.

With two conference participants, all content is transmitted end-to-end encrypted. With three or more participants, the data is encrypted on the way to and from the server (transport encryption). The data is available unencrypted on the server itself for the duration of a video session. All content of a session is automatically deleted after the session has ended, ie after the last participant has left the session.

End-to-end encryption for all participants is currently only possible as an option when using a Jitsi Meet app or a Chromium-based browser (e.g. Brave). More about this here at jitsi.org .

Since you can also set up your own video conference server with Jitsi Meet, there are many publicly accessible instances that you can use instead of http://meet.jit.se. Here are three offers with data protection declarations:

• Mike Kuketz – www.kuketz-meet.de,
• Chaostreff Osnabrück eV – meet.osna.social,
• Disroot.org – calls.disroot.org.

Alternatively, you can always be redirected to a Jitsi Meet server that is not currently busy via jitsi.random-redirect.de .

Linphone

https://www.linphone.org/

Linphone is a free, open-source internet telephony, voice and video service and is end-to-end encrypted. Registration via e-mail or telephone is necessary.

Linphone can be used in the browser or as an app for iOS, MacOS, Android, Windows or Linux.

Are there alternatives to Jitsi Meet or Linphone?

A quick alternative for 2 people is always the video conference via your secure messenger . In my experience, however, the quality of Jitsi Meet or Linphone (as of September 13, 2021) is much better.