Pandemic Slump Leads to Decline in Competition for Zoom
Verizon has announced that the basic and free trial versions of its Zoom rival BlueJeans app will be discontinued starting August 31
Members of the BlueJeans service have received an email stating that the app is “sunset,” reports 9To5Google.
“Thank you for being a valued user of BlueJeans by Verizon services. We want to let you know that we have made the difficult decision to discontinue our BlueJeans product line. As a result, BlueJeans Basic and Free Trials will be discontinued effective August 31, 2023, and your access to the Services will be removed. However, you may continue to use these services. until then,” it added.
In the email, the company also said that if users have saved recordings to BlueJeans, please upload them before August 31, as after that the content will be deleted according to BlueJeans’ privacy policy.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown, both businesses and individuals tried to stay connected and turned to platforms like Google Meet and Zoom.
Other companies, such as Verizon, saw an opportunity to enter the booming video conferencing market with their own products.
In May 2020, Verizon acquired BlueJeans, a business-focused video software launched in 2011.
Starting in 2022, Google and Verizon partnered to pre-load the BlueJeans app on Verizon’s Glass Enterprise Edition 2 smart glasses (now discontinued).
Recently, BlueJeans added a free tier in March of this year, bringing the app to more potential users and competing with the free consumer-ready services of Google Meet and Zoom.
