There's also the product "treadmill" for chat and video apps that Google and Microsoft have had over the past handful of years.
There is buy-in even for a chat app. I often have to shuffle browsers, may or may not have to install something, have to judge if the other person is interested in trying new software. Does everyone have a Google account? If I'm joining someone else's meeting, what's the process? Is there a meeting id? Password? URL?
Joining a Meet meeting is easy, just like joining a Teams meeting is easy. Both are much, much easier than Webex & Zoom, which irritate with attempts at forcing client software installation.
I /used/ to prefer stuff built into the browser, but after years of pain I greatly prefer standalone software for a/v stuff.
When Firefox transitioned their plugin format they dropped support for over a year (after receiving more than a year of deprecation warning). At the time it require a separate installed plugin (which defeats most of the purpose of integrating with the browser). Safari support has also been spotty.
I really hate Google's account system. I don't even use Google, but find myself juggling 4 or 5 accounts for work, school, family. If I go to `classroom.google.com` I get a "Verify it's you <account I don't intend to use>". I'm expected to click "Next" and click a few more times before I can select the right account.
I don't have direct experience with Teams (I assume it's similar to Google). Being all-in is clearly the easiest solution--using it every day, having it as your only video solution, having an account and staying signed in. The annoyance is the friction that it can't be your only solution and when it's one of many there's a lot of mental energy to jump through the hoops.
Zoom does have a web version and the native app is almost inappropriately too easy to install. Joining a video chat just means having a meeting ID or clicking a URL.
Not really... You have to log out of one account, then login to the other; but then you need to use 2fa; but now 2fa is mad about something and making you jump through hoops while people are getting angry you aren't showing up as scheduled...
It sounds like you aren't taking advantage of browser profiles properly. I have two Google accounts, one personal and one for work, and they live in two separate Chrome profiles, both of which are always open. On MacOS the shortcut for switching between the two windows (when both are open) is command-`
That's totally missing the point. You shouldn't have to have browser profiles to call somebody on a video app. Most people don't even know how to use them.
The browser profiles are quite necessary for dealing with every other Google product too. Every day I'm using Gmail, Meet, Docs, Sheets, Drive, Keep, YouTube, Search, and more. If I was trying to do this all in one profile I'd be logging out and logging in dozens of times per day.
This isn't unique to Google; it applies to any kind of single sign on with lots of different products. You're always better off maintaining separate browser profiles so you can seamlessly switch between them than forcing everything into a single profile and endlessly logging out and logging in on all these different sites. I used to do this with Facebook too back when I was using a different account for work development.
And there's also the "poor man's" version of this which even many non-technical users know about, which is to use Chrome for one account and Firefox for another.
There is buy-in even for a chat app. I often have to shuffle browsers, may or may not have to install something, have to judge if the other person is interested in trying new software. Does everyone have a Google account? If I'm joining someone else's meeting, what's the process? Is there a meeting id? Password? URL?
I think "mental space" is quite appropriate.