How To Be Alone Together Using Zoom

Zoom is a web-based video conferencing tool with a local, desktop client and a mobile app that allows users to meet online, with or without video. Zoom users can choose to record sessions, collaborate on projects, and share or annotate on one another's screens, all with one easy-to-use platform.

Is Zoom free to use?
Zoom offers a full-featured Basic Plan for free with unlimited meetings. Try Zoom for as long as you like - there is no trial period. Your Basic plan has a 40 minutes time limit on meetings with three or more total participants.

Every video chat service has its limitations, and Zoom isn't some exception to that rule. The biggest problem new Zoom users might face as they try to stay in touch with friends and family is the 40-minute time limit on free video calls. That just won't work for most of us.
The good news is there are a few ways to get around this, and you don't have to pay any money for most of them. This is purely anecdotal, but I've hosted multiple two to four-hour calls recently that never ended, despite the fact that I don't pay for Zoom. The company has lifted the restriction entirely in China and for schools in the U.S., but regular folks in the states might be able to get away with long calls if they take a chance.
If you do get kicked off, the easiest thing to do is just start another call and invite all the same people back to it. If this is too much work for you, $15 gets you a month of calls with no limits. Regardless of how you choose to do it, circumventing the 40-minute limit is pretty easy.
In Zoom's preferences menu you will find a fun little box you can check to save yourself a few seconds every time you start a Zoom call for your friends. Behold, one of the first choices in the "General" area of the settings menu:That's turned off by default, but those of us who like to take initiative and start Zoom calls for our friends will appreciate it. Instead of having to click through the invite menu to find a link to post in the group chat, turning that option on will copy it to your clipboard as soon as you start the meeting.