Video Meetings

Around Competitors & Top Alternatives 2026

Around was a video meeting platform designed for frequent, short meetings with features like floating video bubbles, AI-powered noise cancellation, and automatic meeting notes. Acquired by Miro in 2023, its technology is being integrated into Miro's collaboration platform.

Market Position

Around targeted the gap between full video conferencing and quick team check-ins. Its lightweight approach differentiated from heavy meeting platforms, but the video conferencing market's consolidation around Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet made it difficult to sustain as a standalone product.

Key Competitors

Zoom
Video conferencing standard

Dominant market position with broad feature set. Established in organizations of all sizes with reliable infrastructure and ecosystem of integrations.

Google Meet
Workspace-integrated meetings

Integrated with Google Workspace (Calendar, Docs, Gmail). Bundled with workspace subscriptions, making it the default for Google-centric organizations.

Loom
Asynchronous video messaging

Asynchronous video recording and sharing instead of live meetings. Different paradigm that reduces meeting load rather than improving synchronous meetings.

Strategic Analysis

Meeting Fatigue Opportunity

Around addressed real meeting fatigue with lightweight, less formal video interactions. The insight that not every video interaction needs to be a formal meeting remains valid even after the standalone product was acquired.

Consolidation in Video Tools

The video meeting market has consolidated around a few major platforms. Standalone differentiated meeting tools struggle to gain adoption when organizations already have an established video platform.

Integration as Survival Strategy

Around's acquisition by Miro shows that innovative meeting features may be more valuable as integrations within larger collaboration platforms than as standalone products.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are Around's main competitors?

Around competed with Zoom (standard video), Google Meet (Workspace-integrated), Microsoft Teams (enterprise), and Loom (asynchronous video). It was acquired by Miro in 2023 and its technology is being integrated into Miro's platform.

What happened to Around?

Around was acquired by Miro in 2023. The standalone product is being sunset, with its video and collaboration technology integrated into Miro's visual collaboration platform.

What made Around different from Zoom?

Around used floating video bubbles instead of a grid, AI noise cancellation, and lightweight meeting launching. It was designed for quick, informal team interactions rather than formal scheduled meetings.

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