Automate Your Virtual Appointments with the New Video Conferencing Add-on!
Table of Contents
Awesome news for all our customers using the MotoPress Appointment Booking plugin for various scheduling needs. Our new Video Conferencing add-on will help you manage virtual appointments way easier by integrating popular online meetings apps.
With the brand-new extension, online meeting details, whether for Zoom or Google Meet, are automatically generated and sent to customers as soon as they book a session through the appointment scheduling form.
If you had to do this job before, I believe a lot of back-and-forth emails and manual link sharing were involved, but you don’t need to wrestle like that anymore when you can opt for an automated routine.
Coaches, consultants, tutors, and fitness instructors will particularly love how it integrates with our Coachzee and Edme themes, which are widely used for online coaching and education by our customers.
That said, the add-on for video conferencing solutions can be used with any WordPress theme powered by the Appointment Booking plugin.
How to Get the Add-on
This is a premium WordPress video conferencing plugin add-on and according to our current pricing model, there are a few options to buy it:
- As a standalone add-on/individual product – click on the ‘Details’ below.
- In the discounted bundle of Appointment Booking add-ons. Within this awesome offer, a bundle comes with all premium extensions, now including the Video Conferencing add-on! Find it also on the product page.
- Subscribe to the MotoPress membership to get access to ALL MotoPress plugins and themes, including the brand-new add-on to the Appointment Booking plugin.
What Is Needed to Set up the Add-on?
Since this is an integration type of add-on (with third-party apps or services), you need to have an account with the chosen video conferencing provider.
Overall, here is what you need to get started:
- MotoPress Appointment Booking WordPress plugin.
- Appointment Booking Video Conferencing add-on.
- Google or/and Zoom account. You will need to get your API credentials to connect a third-party app to the MotoPress Appointment Booking plugin via the video conference WordPress add-on.
Find step-by-step guides here.
I’ll elaborate on the Zoom/Google Meet account requirements below.
Zoom Appointment Booking
Thanks to its feature-rich toolkit, Zoom is often chosen for video meetings with multiple interactions and tools, such as whiteboards or break rooms. That’s why teachers and tutors choose it extensively.
Is Zoom your preferred tool for video or audio meetings? Do you already have an account?
In this case, all you need to do to start getting Zoom appointment bookings is to create your Zoom app following our docs, thus, obtaining your credentials needed to connect your Zoom to the booking form.
So, what are the primary features of this WordPress Zoom integration?
- Accelerate your workflow with automatically generated meeting links to clients and staff.
- Allow multiple hosts assigned to different services (Zoom PRO account is required).
- Choose Zoom as a video conference provider only for selected services.
- Group reservations are supported when every customer in a group booking receives the same meeting link automatically.
- Track activities on a Zoom-enabled booking in the reservation logs.
- Enable staff members to control their own Zoom appointment reservations in their accounts.
A few more things to bear in mind about the WordPress video conferencing plugin extension:
– If an employee account is connected, it has a higher priority than the admin’s account.
– The Zoom integration currently supports one-way sync, which means you can’t delete or modify meetings within Zoom.
– You need to add the {video_conference_details} tag to emails to automate sending meeting details.
Google Meet Integration
If you want to handle virtual appointments via Google Meet, then this integration with MotoPress Appointment Booking is what you are looking for. Google Meet might not be considered as feature-packed as Zoom but it can handle most common meeting tasks smoothly (talking and screen sharing for sure).
To connect it to the MotoPress Appointment Booking plugin, you need to follow our tutorial on creating an app with the Google Developer Console. It will allow you to obtain your client credentials, which must be pasted to the Appointment Booking plugin (Integrations menu > Google Calendar Sync). Once created, connect the admin Google Calendar via Video Conferencing add-on.
Your options with Google Meet are pretty much the same as with Zoom:
- Google Meet meeting links are created automatically.
- Virtual appointments for face-to-face calls.
- Support for group meetings (everyone gets the same meeting link if the appointment capacity is more than one person).
- Enable multiple hosts by connecting Google Calendars of specific employees to the plugin, simultaneously enabling them to get instant updates directly to their Google Calendar app.
- Select only specific services to be provided as a virtual appointment.
- View booking logs for virtual link details.
- Copy meeting links directly from WordPress or open a meeting from Google Calendar.
Zoom or Google Meet?
Need to run virtual meetings but don’t know which video conferencing app to choose? Let’s visualize all these details.
| Feature | Zoom | Google Meet |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic Meeting Generation | Yes, for confirmed bookings | Yes, for confirmed bookings |
| Automated Meeting Details Sent | Meeting link, meeting ID, meeting passcode | Meeting link, meeting passcode |
| Employee-Specific Accounts | Employees can optionally use their own Zoom account (Zoom PRO required for the master account) | Each employee can connect their personal Google Calendar account for bookings and calendar sync |
| One-to-One Appointments | Supported | Supported |
| Group Appointments | Supported – One meeting link for all participants | Supported – One meeting link for all participants |
| Meeting Link Delivery | Sent automatically in confirmation & reminder emails (need to be set via tags) | Sent automatically in confirmation & reminder emails (need to be set via tags) |
| Integration with Google Calendar | No direct sync | Yes, employees’ Google accounts sync bookings with Google Calendar |
| Embedded Meeting Support | Meetings can be joined via the Zoom app | Customers must join via the Google Meet app or link |
| View All Meetings |
|
|
| Multiple Hosts Support | Yes, but requires a Zoom PRO account | Each employee can optionally connect their own Google Calendar account |
| API Setup Requirement | Required for Zoom integration | Required for Google Meet integration |
As you see, the add-on allows you to choose a video conferencing provider for every service individually, which means you can have both Zoom and Google Meet integrated on your site at the same time. Use either as your go-to WordPress video consultation plugin!
The only limitation is that you can’t choose both for the same service (alternatively, you could create two same services but with different video conference providers and let customers choose the meeting platform).
Compared to Zoom, there are a few advantages of using Google Meet – 1) connecting employees as hosts is free and 2) employees can also receive reservation updates directly to their Google Calendar.
Let’s Conclude: Get Started with the New WordPress Video Conferencing Plugin Add-on
So, if your service business relies on virtual appointments, fully or partially, this is the automation tool you’ve been waiting for: integrate your preferred apps and then simply select services for which virtual meeting links should be generated. No hassle of manual work, just seamless scheduling and video conferencing with Zoom or Google Meet.
Whether you offer one-on-one coaching, tutoring, fitness training, telehealth consultations, or group classes, our new Video Conferencing add-on provides a great booking-to-meeting experience to your customers and staff.
We can add more video conferencing solutions to the add-on – if you tell us which ones you need!
