Video and Audio Calls — Self-Hosted Video Conferencing
Video calls, audio calls, and screen sharing built into your team chat. All media stays on your server.
Video calls are table stakes for remote and hybrid teams, but most solutions come with their own set of problems. Zoom requires a separate subscription. Google Meet sends your video through Google's infrastructure. Microsoft Teams works best when you are already locked into the Microsoft ecosystem. All of them exist outside your workspace, creating yet another tab and another vendor to manage.
Zioan includes video and audio calls directly in the chat system. Start a call from any channel or direct message. Share your screen for code reviews, demos, or troubleshooting. The media layer uses mediasoup, a well-established media server framework, which means all audio and video data is processed on your server. No call data routes through Zoom, Google, or any external service.
For teams that self-host Zioan for privacy or compliance reasons, having video calls on the same infrastructure closes a gap that usually requires a separate (and often more expensive) tool.
What's included
- Video calls from any chat channel or DM
- Audio-only calls
- Screen sharing (full screen, app window, browser tab)
- Self-hosted media server (mediasoup SFU)
- TURN/STUN support for firewall traversal
- WebRTC-based peer connections
- Call notifications for channel members
- Integrated with chat history
- No external servers for media processing
- Admin-controlled feature toggle
How video and audio calls work in Zioan
Start calls from chat
Initiate a video or audio call directly from any chat channel or direct message. There is no separate "meetings" section to navigate to. You are already in the conversation, so starting a call is one click away. Team members in the channel receive a notification to join.
Screen sharing
Share your entire screen, a specific application window, or a browser tab during a call. This is built into the call interface, not a separate feature to install. Useful for pair programming, client demos, design reviews, or walking someone through a process.
Self-hosted media processing
Zioan uses mediasoup for WebRTC media handling. This is a production-grade selective forwarding unit (SFU) that runs on your server. Audio and video streams are routed through your infrastructure, not through a third-party cloud service. For regulated industries or organizations with strict data handling policies, this means call data stays within your network.
TURN/STUN support
For team members behind firewalls or NATs, Zioan supports TURN and STUN servers to ensure connectivity. Configure your own TURN server for complete control over media relay, or use public STUN servers for NAT traversal. The system handles network traversal automatically so calls connect reliably.
Integrated with conversations
Calls happen in the context of a conversation. The chat thread remains accessible during and after the call. If someone shares a link or types a message during a call, it stays in the channel history. No separate "meeting chat" that disappears after the call ends.
Why teams choose Zioan for video calls
No separate video conferencing subscription
Zoom Pro costs $13.33 per user per month. Google Workspace (for Meet) starts at $7 per user per month. For a 10-person team, that is $800 to $1,600 per year just for video calls. Zioan includes video and audio calls in the one-time license alongside chat, docs, tasks, and everything else. No additional subscription for a feature your team uses daily.
Call data stays on your server
When you use Zoom or Google Meet, your audio and video streams pass through their servers. Even with encryption, the metadata (who called whom, when, for how long) is logged on their infrastructure. With Zioan, the mediasoup SFU runs on your server. Audio and video streams never leave your network. For teams handling sensitive client calls or internal strategy discussions, this matters.
No context switching
You are discussing a task in chat. Someone suggests a quick call to sort it out. You start the call from the same conversation. During the call, you share your screen to show the code. After the call, the chat thread still has the context. Compare this to: copy a Zoom link, paste it in Slack, open a new browser tab, wait for Zoom to load, share from a separate tool, then go back to Slack to continue the conversation.
One less vendor to manage
Every SaaS tool in your stack is a vendor relationship: billing, security review, data processing agreement, potential outage dependency. Removing Zoom or Google Meet from the stack is one less vendor with access to your team's communication. One less set of terms to review. One less service that can have an outage while your team needs to meet.