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Comment by macintux | Hacker News Reader

The problem with phone calls isn't the lack of video, but the lack of a "click here to join the meeting" interface.

Group meetings are much less hassle through Skype, or Teams, or Zoom, or whatever computer-based option you choose, than waiting for everyone to drag out their phones, dial the right number, type in the right meeting code.

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> The problem with phone calls isn't the lack of video, but the lack of a "click here to join the meeting" interface.

If "dial this number to join the conference call" is too hard for modern professionals, what the hell is happening to our society? (I do not believe it's actually too hard for them. I think it's incredibly patronizing to suppose that dialing a phone number might be too hard for otherwise capable members of the general public.)

I didn't say it was too hard, but frictionless wins out more often than not.

Why wouldn't frictionless + more features win over tedious and incapable of screen sharing?

Friction isn't a binary, and nothing is truly frictionless. Zoom requires you to install an application, while conference calls only require you to have a phone. I would say the former is more friction, particularly since this particular application is one I'd not like to install on any of my personal devices.

Plain phone tends to have worse audio quality

My experience with conference calls overwhelming confirms that dialing in and entering a code will waste ~10 mins of any meeting.

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