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Beyond the Record Button: A Guide to Managing and Using Your Meeting Recordings

· 5 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

For many platforms, the "record" button is the end of the story. You get an MP4 file, and that's it. But what if your recordings could be more? What if they could be a structured, searchable, and accessible content library for your students, your team, or your customers?

With Plug-N-Meet's powerful API, your recordings aren't just video files; they are programmable assets.

This guide will show you how to move beyond simply recording a meeting and start building a true content management system using the Recordings API. We'll cover how to find your recordings, enrich them with metadata, and even attach subtitles.

Bridging the Gap: How SIP Dial-In Connects Your Meetings to Any Phone

· 4 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate

We've all been there: a crucial meeting is about to start, but a key participant has a spotty internet connection, is traveling, or simply doesn't have access to a computer. In a world increasingly reliant on video calls, how do you ensure everyone can still participate, even if they can't join online?

At Plug-N-Meet, we believe in inclusivity. That's why we're excited to introduce SIP Dial-In, a powerful feature that allows participants to join the audio of your video meetings using any standard telephone. No internet, no problem.

This feature seamlessly bridges the gap between your online conference and the traditional telephone network, ensuring that every voice can be heard, regardless of their connectivity.

BigBlueButton vs. Plug-N-Meet: A Modern Alternative for Scalable Video Conferencing

· 7 min read
Chaboud Simon
Community & Marketing Lead

If you're in the world of open-source education or communication, you owe a debt of gratitude to BigBlueButton. It was a pioneering platform that showed the world what was possible. However, as the web has evolved, the demands for scalability, developer experience, and cost-effective performance have grown exponentially.

Many long-time BigBlueButton users are now looking for a next-generation solution, one designed from the ground up to meet the new demands for scalability and flexibility that the modern web requires. This is where Plug-N-Meet comes in.

This article provides a direct, head-to-head comparison to help you understand the key differences in philosophy and technology, so you can make an informed decision about which platform is right for you.

A Developer's Guide: How to Build Your First Automated Workflow with Webhooks

· 5 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

You've set up your video conferencing service, but now you want to make it smarter. What if you could automatically log the duration of every meeting for billing? Or get a Slack notification when a VIP joins a call? This is where webhooks come in.

This guide will walk you through building your very first automated workflow. We'll create a simple but powerful service that listens for a meeting to end and logs its duration to your console—a perfect starting point for a real-world billing or analytics system.

For more high-level ideas on what's possible, check out our companion post on 5 Powerful Workflows You Can Build with Webhooks.

From Link to Live in 5 Seconds: How to Build a Frictionless Video Platform

· 4 min read
Chaboud Simon
Community & Marketing Lead

You sent a meeting link. Five minutes later, your most important client messages you: "It's asking me to install something." The momentum is lost.

This is a scenario every business, educator, and community manager dreads. In today's fast-paced world, friction is the enemy of engagement. The alternative? A world where users click a link and are instantly in the meeting, ready to collaborate.

This is the promise of a truly browser-based platform, and this guide shows you how to deliver that experience with Plug-N-Meet—without compromising on features.

How to Enable End-to-End Encryption in Your Video App

· 5 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate

In an age of heightened privacy concerns, offering End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) is one of the most powerful ways to build trust with your users. It provides a mathematical guarantee that conversations are confidential and that not even your server can access the media streams.

While the technology is complex, implementing it doesn't have to be. This guide will walk you through the two E2EE models available in Plug-N-Meet and show you how to enable them with a simple API call.

How to Add an Interactive AI Assistant to Your Video App in 15 Minutes

· 4 min read
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

In today's competitive landscape, a basic video call is no longer enough. Users expect intelligent, accessible, and productive experiences. What if you could offer an AI meeting assistant that provides live translation, generates AI meeting notes, and can even answer questions directly in the chat?

With Plug-N-Meet, you can. This isn't a complex, multi-month integration project. It's a 15-minute configuration change.

This guide will show you how to add world-class AI meeting assistant features—powered by Microsoft Azure for translation and Google Gemini for your meeting summary AI and live chat assistant—to your Plug-N-Meet integration.

Stream Like a Pro: How to Bring OBS into Your plugNmeet Room

· 4 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate
Chaboud Simon
Community & Marketing Lead

Have you ever wanted to share a high-quality video during a meeting, but the file was too large to upload? Or maybe you have a copyrighted video that you are allowed to show, but you can't share the file itself. Perhaps you're a power user who wants to create a professional presentation with multiple cameras, overlays, and smooth transitions using a tool like OBS Studio.

Traditionally, getting this kind of professional content into a live meeting has been complex or impossible.

At plugNmeet, we believe you should be able to use the best tools for the job. That's why we've built a simple but powerful feature called Live Stream Input. Think of it as giving your meeting its own private, secure TV channel. You can broadcast directly into your meeting room from professional software like OBS, and your stream appears as a regular participant.

A Smoother Call on Any Connection: Our Smart Approach to Video Streaming

· 5 min read
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate

We've all been in that frustrating video call. Someone is speaking, and suddenly their video freezes. Their voice becomes robotic and distorted. You miss a crucial piece of the conversation, and the flow of the meeting is completely broken.

Often, we blame our internet connection. But what if the problem isn't just the connection, but the software's inability to adapt to it?

At plugNmeet, we believe that a video conferencing platform should work intelligently to provide the best possible experience, no matter what your internet situation is. That's why we've built a "smart streaming" philosophy into our core, using advanced techniques to ensure your calls are smooth, stable, and use as little data as possible.

Privacy by Design: Why Plug-N-Meet is Built for the Zero-Trust Era

· 5 min read
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

In an era where data breaches are daily news and "free" services monetize your conversations, privacy can no longer be an afterthought. It must be the foundation.

When we built Plug-N-Meet, we didn't just want to create another video conferencing tool. We wanted to build a platform that respects the user's right to privacy by default. This meant making hard architectural choices—prioritizing security over easy data harvesting, and giving control back to the user rather than hoarding it on the server.

If you are building a telehealth platform, a legal consultation app, or simply a secure meeting space for your team, you need more than just a "secure" sticker. You need an architecture designed for the Zero-Trust era.

Here is how Plug-N-Meet delivers on that promise.

Smart Scaling: Leveraging Cloud HA and Prioritizing Your Recorder for Cost-Effective Performance

· 5 min read
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

When building any critical application, "scalability" and "high availability" (HA) are often top of mind. But for many, these terms conjure images of complex, multi-node clusters, expensive infrastructure, and a steep learning curve. The truth is, for most plugNmeet users, achieving both performance and resilience can be much simpler and more cost-effective than you might think.

This article will demystify the relationship between scalability and HA, and guide you through a pragmatic, phased approach to optimizing your plugNmeet deployment. We'll show you how to leverage the power of your cloud provider for HA, and why separating your recording server is almost always your first and best step towards true scalability.

Automate Everything: 5 Powerful Workflows You Can Build with plugNmeet Webhooks

· 5 min read
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

A great API-first platform doesn't just allow you to initiate actions; it tells you when actions happen. This is the power of webhooks. They are the key to transforming a simple video conferencing tool into a deeply integrated and automated part of your business ecosystem.

plugNmeet provides a rich set of webhook events that fire in real-time as things happen inside a meeting. By listening for these events, you can build powerful, automated workflows that save time, reduce manual work, and create a smarter application.

This article will explore five practical examples of workflows you can build today with plugNmeet webhooks.

The True Cost of Video: Calculating the TCO of Self-Hosting vs. SaaS

· 4 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate

How much does your video conferencing solution really cost? The answer is often more complex than just the number on your monthly bill.

For businesses evaluating a video platform, the choice between a public SaaS provider (like Zoom or Google Meet) and a self-hosted solution (like plugNmeet) often comes down to a calculation of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). While SaaS pricing seems simple at first, it hides long-term costs that can stifle growth. Conversely, self-hosting has a different cost structure—one that offers predictability, control, and significant savings at scale.

This article will break down the true TCO of both models to help you make a smarter, more strategic decision.

Introducing the AI Meeting Assistant: Automated Notes and Summaries

· 5 min read
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

With our major UI redesign on the horizon, we're also excited to unveil a feature that will fundamentally change how you experience meetings: the AI Meeting Assistant.

We've all been there: you're trying to lead a discussion while frantically typing notes, only to miss a key decision. Or you join a meeting late and have no idea what's going on. The AI Meeting Assistant solves this problem forever by acting as your personal scribe, powered by Google's Gemini Pro.

This isn't just a tech demo; it's a powerful productivity tool built on a sophisticated, cost-effective architecture.

A Whiteboard That Belongs in the Classroom, Not in Another Tab

· 4 min read
Chaboud Simon
Community & Marketing Lead

If you've ever taught a class online, you've likely experienced this frustrating moment. You're in the middle of a great discussion, and you want to illustrate a point on a whiteboard. You click the "whiteboard" button, and suddenly, a completely new application opens up in another window.

It has a different design, a different set of tools, and it feels... disconnected. Your students are now looking at a separate program, not your classroom. This is the "plugin" approach, and while it works, it's often clunky and unintuitive.

At plugNmeet, we believe your tools should feel like a natural part of your classroom, not a separate gadget you have to bolt on. That's why our whiteboard is truly built-in, designed from the ground up to be a seamless and powerful part of your teaching experience.

Don't Just Rent Your Video Solution, Own It: The Business Case for Self-Hosting

· 4 min read
Chaboud Simon
Community & Marketing Lead

For most businesses, video conferencing is a utility, like electricity or water. You sign up for a service like Zoom or Google Meet, pay a monthly fee, and use it for your internal meetings. You are, in effect, renting your video solution. And for many use cases, that's perfectly fine.

But what happens when video is more than just a utility? What happens when it's a core part of your product, your customer experience, or your brand identity?

Suddenly, renting becomes a strategic liability. You're building a critical part of your business on a platform you don't control, using an interface that looks just like your competitors', and sending your valuable user data to a third party.

This is why smart businesses are moving from renting their video solution to owning it. By leveraging powerful, self-hosted platforms like plugNmeet, they are transforming video from a simple utility into a strategic asset and a powerful competitive advantage.

Click a Link, Join a Meeting: The "No Installation" Philosophy

· 4 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate

Think about the last time a new application asked you to "download and install" something. A small wave of hesitation probably washed over you. Is this software safe? Will it slow down my computer? Do I have time for this? It's a moment of friction and uncertainty.

At plugNmeet, we believe that joining a video meeting should be as simple and frictionless as visiting a website. That's why we've built our entire platform around a core philosophy: No installation required.

This isn't just a convenience; it's a deliberate design choice that leads to a more secure, more private, and fundamentally better user experience for everyone.

From Black Box to Blueprint: Using Analytics to Understand Your Online Classroom

· 3 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate

For many educators, the online classroom can feel like a black box. Did the quiet student understand the concept, or were they just disengaged? Which parts of the lesson sparked the most discussion? Was a student's abrupt departure a technical issue or did they simply leave?

In a physical classroom, a teacher can read the room. Online, they are often flying blind.

At plugNmeet, we believe that data, when used ethically and transparently, can provide the insights needed to transform this black box into a blueprint for better teaching. Our built-in analytics feature is designed not as a surveillance tool, but as a source of raw material to help you evaluate and improve your virtual classroom performance. And we've built it with a "privacy-by-default" philosophy.

Bring the Web into Your Meeting: Seamlessly Embed Websites and Apps for Dynamic Collaboration

· 4 min read
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate

How many times have you been in an online meeting where the presenter says, "Okay, I'm going to share my screen now... wait, let me find the right tab... can you all see this? Now, let me switch to this other tab..."?

This constant switching, sharing, and re-sharing breaks the flow, distracts participants, and turns what should be a dynamic collaboration into a clunky, disjointed experience. Your meeting becomes a series of disconnected windows, not a unified workspace.

At Plug-N-Meet, we believe your meeting room should be as versatile as your web browser. That's why we built the "Share External Link" feature, allowing you to seamlessly display any website or web application directly within your meeting, transforming it into a truly interactive and engaging environment.

From Iframe to Integration: A Developer's Guide to White-Labeling Plug-N-Meet

· 5 min read
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

In our popular guide, "How to Build a Video Conferencing App in Under an Hour," we showed you how to get a fully functional video meeting running by simply embedding a URL in an <iframe>. It’s a fantastic way to get started, but to build a truly professional and seamless product, you need to go deeper.

An <iframe> is a box. It isolates the meeting client from your main application, creating a visible separation that can feel clunky and limit your branding potential.

This guide is the next step in your developer journey. We will show you how to break out of the box and create a deeply integrated, fully white-labeled video conferencing experience using Plug-N-Meet's powerful "headless" integration and design customization APIs.