best video meet-up platform?

[Bimbleberries]

What platform would be best to suggest to my Mum to use, for, say, online knitting club or that sort of meeting that they would normally have in person? Many aren't used to this sort of thing, have a variety of devices/OS, , so I'd want to suggest one that is fairly straightforward, but at the same time, works well enough that they would enjoy it and want to continue.

Some have desktops, laptops, tablets. The laptops/tablets would at least have cameras, and anyone else could see the others on a desktop. They would probably have to mount it on something if they want to be able to chat/drink coffee and also show each other projects etc.

I think Facetime is just Apple. Skype? Other meeting apps/software? I've used Zoom but only for one to one meetings, or if someone else joined, it was always one person on the main screen and the others in little screens. It would be better to have everyone in equal sized windows on the screen. How many people would work? I'm guessing only about 6, on a typical ipad screen.

Which (free) platform do you think would work best for this kind of thing? I'd need to be able to explain it remotely

oh, looks like you can change the video settings on Zoom to see everyone equally; maybe i can persuade them to use that? Does this sound suitable to people who know more about it? I've used it only for 2 days! I also worry about it getting overwhelmed now that everyone is using it.

But group meetings are limited to 40 min. That might be a flaw.

Other suggestions?

Zoom has a paid subscription that removes those restrictions.

Costs money but might still work out cheaper considering no need to petrol money/taxis/bus fares to meet up

Presumably you just hang up and start again once your 40 mins are up?

Our church home group is using Zoom. We had some people on laptops, some on phones, etc.

yes I wasn't sure if that was the sort of loophole that would work, or if they'd have some way of preventing that. I did also see somewhere that they might have removed that restriction at the moment, but can't find it on their site.

None of this particular group of pensioners is going to buy a subscription to anything in all likelihood. I just wanted to suggest a way that they could still meet for their usual groups, and get something of the same social experience out of it, and was trying to find the best platform for them - that I could also help with remotely if needed.

Needs to be quite straightforward though for them to take it up.

How well did it work?

Our schools are using mainly Zoom (Italy) They've removed the 40 minute restriction because we've rejoined with our school verified email addresses but yes, you can just reschedule your meeting once your 40 minutes are up.