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In an exclusive interview with The American Bazaar, the Meet Hour team discusses the journey behind their new transcription and translation features — their purpose, technical design, and broader vision for the video conferencing company.
By Rumaisa Khusru
In a digital era where seamless and secure communication is paramount, Meet Hour has emerged as a versatile and privacy-first video conferencing solution. The platform was built with deep insight into user needs and brand customization.
Launched in April 2020, Meet Hour made its debut during the global COVID-19 pandemic, a time when the demand for robust and adaptable virtual communication skyrocketed. Initially created in response to an Indian government call for innovative video conferencing tools, Meet Hour has since evolved into a full-fledged platform catering to a global clientele with distinct needs in education, healthcare, banking, fitness, and more.
From end-to-end encrypted meetings, interactive whiteboards, and voice command features to fully branded video conferencing environments, Meet Hour addresses expectations from a variety of fields. The most recent leap forward? The launch of AI-powered transcription and translation, a game-changing feature that’s poised to make Meet Hour indispensable for global teams and multilingual audiences.
Meet Hour in conversation
In an exclusive interview with The American Bazaar, the Meet Hour team discuss the journey behind the new transcription and translation features, their purpose, technical design, and broader vision.
In conversation were Shukoor Ahmed, the Founder and CEO; Abdul Muqeet, Product Manager and Customer Engagement Lead; and Kareem Ahmed Ata Ul, Senior Developer and programmer.
The American Bazaar: Can you talk about Meet Hour’s origin story?
Muqeet: The journey of Meet Hour began in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the Indian government launched a contest seeking video conferencing solutions developed by startups. The idea was to identify a company whose product could be used for official government communications, particularly for large-scale conferences. We eagerly participated in this contest and started developing a full-featured video conferencing platform specifically to meet those requirements. Unfortunately, the selection process eventually expanded to include bigger tech companies like Google and HP, which meant our startup wasn’t chosen.
But despite this setback, we believed in what we had built. We had developed many strong features by that point, and we decided to take the product to market independently. That’s when we officially launched Meet Hour as a subscription-based platform. Since then, we have continued to enhance it and offer it to a wide range of users across industries.
We have three partners for Meet Hour. V-Empower is a development company, which is a subsidiary company of Meet Hour, and we have two other partner companies which are Global Alliant and ScaleCapacity.
What are some of the Meet Hour features?
From the very beginning, we wanted Meet Hour to be more than just a basic video conferencing tool. We included essential features like live recording, real-time chat during meetings, and screen sharing on both desktop and mobile devices. One of our standout features is the live whiteboard functionality, which allows users to write or draw directly on the screen during a session. This has been especially useful for education and collaboration. We also built in live streaming options to platforms like YouTube, as well as custom RTMP configurations. Our platform is end-to-end encrypted, ensuring secure conversations. Features like breakout rooms, lobby mode, and stylus-based whiteboarding were designed to provide flexibility and enhance interactivity. We even introduced polling tools so users can gather live feedback during meetings.
READ: Innovating video conferencing: Meet Hour’s CTO says it has edge over industry giants (June 27, 2024)
And what is voice command?
Muqeet: Voice command is one of our AI-powered features that brings a futuristic ease to video conferencing. Instead of manually clicking buttons, users can control key functions simply by speaking. For example, if you want to start screen sharing, you just say, “Start screen share,” and the platform responds immediately without needing to touch your keyboard or mouse. This is particularly helpful during presentations or when you’re multitasking. It’s part of our broader goal to enhance accessibility and user convenience through artificial intelligence. We’re looking to expand this further with additional commands in the future.
Tell us about the donation options…
Muqeet: We have integrated DonorBox and Click & Pledge into our platform. These tools are designed for non-profits, educators, and community organizers who need to raise funds while hosting virtual events. What makes this unique is that the donation form and button appear directly within the video conference interface. The host can set up a campaign by simply pasting a campaign link from DonorBox or Click & Pledge, and the system automatically pulls in the details. Participants can then click on the donation button and complete the transaction without leaving the meeting. This feature supports seamless fundraising without interrupting the flow of conversation or presentation.
What are some of your USPs?
Muqeet: Branding is one of our strongest unique selling points. Many of our users are businesses or professionals who want to maintain a cohesive visual identity during virtual meetings. With our branded conference feature, even users without any coding knowledge can create a fully branded meeting experience. They can use their own domain or subdomain, customize the landing page, insert their logo, and adjust the color scheme to reflect their brand. When they send out meeting invitations or host events, everything aligns with their chosen branding. We even offer branded apps for Android, iOS, or desktop that run Meet Hour in the background but present the client’s brand on the front. This makes it feel like their own proprietary conferencing system, which is especially useful for enterprises, consultants, and educational institutions.
Have you already launched the transcription and translation features?
Muqeet: Yes, we launched it officially last month, in April. It’s already live and available to all our users.
Kareem: The idea for transcription and translation stemmed from a simple yet powerful observation: communication should never be a barrier. In a globalized world, people speak different languages, and yet they need to collaborate seamlessly.
So we wanted to make sure that even if two people don’t speak the same language, they can still understand each other. That’s the problem our transcription and translation feature is solving. It works in real-time. You click the CC button, which opens a closed captions menu. There, you can toggle the transcription function, which immediately begins transcribing the spoken language, defaulting to English if the meeting is in English. If the meeting is in another language, like Hindi, the transcription will reflect that.
You can also choose to translate the speech into one of 28 supported languages, including Arabic, Japanese, Spanish, and Farsi. Once enabled, the speech is transcribed and simultaneously translated into the selected language. It’s incredibly fast and accurate, and all of this happens live during the meeting. It’s already making a difference for our users, especially in multilingual teams and international events.
How many languages do you support currently?
Kareem: Right now, we support transcription in 36 languages and translation into 28 languages. Some of these languages are not even available on mainstream platforms. We made a conscious effort to include less-represented languages to make our platform more inclusive. And we’re continuously working to expand this list based on user feedback and demand.
The team behind the Meet Hour video conferencing platform
How long did this feature take to develop?
Kareem: We started the project in November and spent about three to four months developing, testing, and fine-tuning it.
What else sets Meet Hour apart from platforms like Zoom or Google Meet?
Kareem: The key difference is customization. While Zoom and Google Meet offer solid core features, they don’t allow deep customization. We listen to what our users want and then build it. For example, one fitness trainer wanted a privacy feature where participants couldn’t see each other, but the trainer could see everyone. We implemented that. For banks and healthcare clients, data security is vital. So, we offer a self-hosting solution where the entire video conferencing system can be hosted on their own servers. We don’t provide source code, just an executable file, and the client has full control. That’s a game changer for industries that have strict compliance requirements. We’re also GDPR and HIPAA compliant, which is critical for clients in Europe and North America.
Can you give an example of such a custom solution?
Kareem: One recent example is the EVisit app we built for the Canadian government. Their healthcare system is free, and they wanted a digital triage tool to streamline how patients consult with doctors. Patients now use the app to select symptoms, confirm appointments, and communicate via video only when necessary. We customized the entire flow and integrated our video conferencing into it. The result is a smoother, more efficient process for both doctors and patients. That level of end-to-end customization is what makes Meet Hour unique.
Shukoor: Our biggest focus right now is on self-hosted video conferencing. Many organizations, especially in healthcare, government, and finance, are wary of storing sensitive data on public cloud servers. We’re working to make it easy for them to run our platform on their private servers while still getting all the functionality. We’re also building solutions for e-learning and telehealth. MyCaly is one such solution. So we built our own booking tool with native video conferencing support. Our vision is to create an entire ecosystem where scheduling, communication, and even payments are integrated.
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