RingCentral offers Glip Pro+ for video, messaging

RingCentral has added video conferencing to its messaging app Glip, rebranding it as Glip Pro+ and offering it as a competitor to Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

Unlike RingCentral Glip, Glip Pro+, introduced this week, is a standalone product. RingCentral had tied the original app to its cloud-based phone system and sold it as part of a software suite.

"By unbundling its services, RingCentral is able to expand its reach," said Dave Michels, an analyst at TalkingPointz. "Not all organizations want to change or pay for telephony in order to implement company-wide messaging and meeting services."

RingCentral acquired Glip in 2015 as a Slack-like messaging application. The company recently realized that the product was a "pretty good standalone application," Michels said.

Glip Pro+ is a combination of Glip messaging and RingCentral Video, which RingCentral released after partner Zoom released a competing cloud calling service. Released in 2019, Zoom Phone ended the partnership.

Will Moxley, chief product officer at RingCentral, said the company would try to garner enthusiasm for Glip Pro+ through a freemium version that rivals competitors' offerings. The free version, called Glip Pro, offers up to 24 hours of video for a maximum 100 participants. Subscribers can access the service through the RingCentral app or a web browser.

Zoom, Teams and Webex offer 40, 60 and 50 minutes of video, respectively, for up to 100 participants for free.

RingCentral Glip Pro+ has a maximum of 200 participants and offers storage, meeting analytics and administration capabilities like single sign-on. An annual subscription costs about $12 a month.

Moxley said RingCentral plans to introduce more integrations into the Glip Pro+ interface. The integrations will be similar to how Zoom users can access applications called Zapps from within the Zoom platform. Teams and Webex also have marketplaces.

Glip Pro+ users can only access Google Drive from within the app, but Moxley said integrations with Box and Dropbox will be available before June. Other integrations will come later in 2021.