Does your teacher use Google Meet, Zoom, or both? Well, both platforms really have their own pros and—actually, you know what, I really don’t care. What I do care about, however, is having to switch between both of them when I can just be using one. I mean, seriously, what’s up with that anyways?

It’s Zoom for this class, Google Meet for that class, and it follows no rhyme or reason at all. To me, at least, video calls are a way for teachers to have student accountability and make sure that those they are teaching are actually present and ready for learning. What this usually entails is a requirement for cameras to be on and something that vaguely resembles a face to appear onscreen. Zoom accomplishes this, and a little more in the form of live audio transcription (just in case you find yourself hard of hearing), the ability to have your entire class onscreen at once (because who doesn’t want to see all those wonderful sleep-deprived faces in the morning?) and an appearance touch-up feature (come on, we all know you just rolled out of bed anyways). Google Meet did not have these small quality-of-life features, at least during the start of the pandemic, but sometimes simplicity is an appreciable thing in itself. Plus, now you can do most of the things Zoom can on Google Meet as well, and if you can’t, they can easily be added with extensions.

Back at the start of the pandemic, there might have been enough differences for me to lament over, but now, both Zoom and Google Meet are seen as equally viable options that accomplish the same goal. It’s not that I find it too difficult or not worth my time to switch between the two, it’s just the question of why we’re using two different video conferencing platforms when we’re just one school. And this can be seen in some other aspects of our learning as well. Why are we using Microsoft Outlook when all of our assignments have been coming from Google Classroom, even before the pandemic? Is Gmail not more compatible with Google’s extensive suite of educational tools? Is it an issue of security? Because if it is, I can attest that I have not ONCE had my personal Gmail account hacked, yet have had my school email hacked.

That aside, I really don’t care if it’s Zoom or Google Meet. Can we please just settle on one?