The long lockdown days for the COVID-19 pandemic have locked the entire world. Because of the long lockdown, people are restricted to go out to meet their own needs. There is a lot of inhibitions, prohibitions, and restrictions to lead a normal life. People find it as a huge difficulty to sit at home without going for direct or personal communication with others. With the fear of spreading the disease, the government has asked the people to sit at home and avoid contact with others. Due to these schools, colleges, educational institutions, companies, and private and public offices have stopped working. So everyone was asked to attend online classes and for people who are working need to work from home. As a part of this people are using video calls with the help of apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Duo, etc.
Say Namaste is a video conference app developed by a Mumbai based company inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Vocal for Local’. This is a homegrown app that can connect 50 participants at a time. It also supports screen sharing via a desktop or a laptop and the participant can chat with others during the call. This app can be downloaded from the Google play store and Apple app store. But it will not browse with Apple Safari.
There is no need for the user to create an account on it. Instead, he can go to the website or on the app to create a new meeting. One has to enter his or her display name, meeting id, and the code to join a meeting. As this app is on its initial stage, users find a lag in connection as it may be due to ‘lakhs of Indians’ using ‘Say Namaste’. The app has got only 8 positions in the productivity category of the Apple app store. Some users say that the app is frozen sometimes when they tried to connect.
In the android version also users face a delay in connection even during having a stable wifi connection. Until ‘Say Namaste’ comes to its proper track Indians can use other apps to conduct meetings.
