BlueJeans, the videoconferencing software company bought by Verizon in April, announced a series of new security features that aim to bolster meeting security.
The new features include restricted meetings, a new waiting room experience, screen share controls, a one-click meeting lock capability, and adoption of the ever important AES-256 encryption standard to secure user data in transit.
BlueJeans said all video, audio, and content in transit will be encrypted using AES-256 GCM encryption, a more widely tested and trusted solution compared to AES-128 and other encryption schemes. To date BlueJeans has relied on AES-128 standards-based encryption.
BlueJeans is also launching a series of features meant to improve the video chat experience, such as virtual backgrounds, meeting transcription, non-raise hand interactions, and an enhanced integration with Slack. The company said AES-256 GCM encryption, waiting room, non-raise hand interactions, and virtual backgrounds will be available for customer preview by the end of the summer.
Focused primarily on enterprises, BlueJeans competes in the unified communications and collaboration market against a number of players, including Zoom and Highfive. Its videoconferencing platform, BlueJeans Meetings, enables instant connections and integrates with hardware-based conference room systems as well as enterprise applications like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Facebook Workplace.
As part of Verizon, BlueJeans is set to become “deeply integrated” into Verizon’s 5G product roadmap, and sold as part of Verizon Business as a secure communications system. BlueJeans has more than 15,000 customers, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Red Hat, Intuit, Zillow and Nordstrom.
BlueJeans said it has seen a 300% increase in user activity over the pre-COVID-19 average. The surge in demand required rapid scale out on Amazon Web Services, the company said.
