In our mobile and video-saturated world, you may think that audio conference calls are a relic of the past like VHS tapes and VCRs. While video calls have become the default for many organizations, audio-only meetings often provide a better experience depending on the context. Here's how to decide which format serves your specific needs.
Choose Video Conferencing When You Need Visual Engagement
Presenting complex information is where video truly shines. When you're walking through detailed spreadsheets, demonstrating software features, or sharing visual materials, participants need to see your screen and your reactions to the content. The ability to point, gesture, and make eye contact creates crucial connection points that pure audio cannot replicate.
Building relationships with new team members or clients also benefits enormously from video. Those subtle social cues—a nod of understanding, a smile of encouragement, or raised eyebrows of confusion—help establish trust and rapport that can take much longer to develop through voice alone.
Video becomes essential for collaborative workshops and brainstorming sessions. When teams are whiteboarding ideas, reviewing designs together, or making group decisions that require reading facial expressions and body language, the visual component keeps everyone aligned and engaged.
Choose Audio Conferencing for Focus and Efficiency
Status updates and routine check-ins often work better via audio conferencing. When team members are simply reporting progress or discussing straightforward topics, video might become a distraction. People can focus better on the speaker's words when they're not managing their own appearance or getting distracted by cute pets on others' video feeds!
Long strategy discussions or deep problem-solving sessions frequently benefit from audio-only formats. Without the pressure to maintain visual attention, participants can take better notes, sketch ideas privately, or simply think more clearly while listening.
Audio excels during calls where participants are multitasking appropriately—such as commuting, traveling to a trade show, or when team members are in different time zones and calling from home after-hours.
Technical and Practical Factors to Consider
Bandwidth limitations make audio the obvious choice when internet connections are unstable. A choppy video call frustrates everyone, while clear audio allows productive conversation to continue. This is particularly important for international calls or when participants are working from locations with limited connectivity.
Meeting duration also matters. Video fatigue is real—the cognitive load of processing multiple faces on screen while managing your own appearance on screen becomes exhausting in long meetings. For extended sessions, consider starting with video for introductions, then switching to audio-only for the bulk of the discussion.
Group size influences the decision too. Large meetings with 10s of participants often work better with video disabled for most attendees, allowing only the presenter or key speakers to remain visible.
The Best of Both Worlds Strategy
Many successful meetings use a flexible approach: begin with video for introductions and relationship building, then allow participants to turn off cameras during focused discussion periods. This acknowledges that different meeting phases have different requirements.
Some teams establish "camera optional" norms for regular meetings while maintaining "camera required" expectations for important presentations or client calls. This reduces weariness while ensuring video is available when it adds genuine value.
An OnSIP hosted VoIP account provides you with both audio and video conference call features. Our audio conference suites enable you to host a call for up to 15 simultaneous callers at an extension of your choosing. And our video conference feature—found in our web app and desktop app—lets you host group video sessions for both internal colleagues and external parties.
Teams that thoughtfully match their meeting format to their objectives often find improved participation, reduced fatigue, and more productive outcomes. By treating conferencing format as a strategic choice rather than a default setting, business leaders can create more effective, less exhausting meeting cultures that cultivate collaboration and propel you towards achieving your goals.