Group Calls vs. Conference Calls

When we talk about conference calling pretty much everyone in the business world can relate. Picture a speaker phone (probably Polycom) in a board room with people speaking into it and voices coming out of it, fairly straightforward.

So why are we now calling it Group Calling? According to Wikipedia Group-calling is..

..similar to conference calling, is a means of communication where the calling party wishes to involve multiple parties. In comparison to conference calling, all parties involved in a call always have the opportunity to participate actively. Alternatively, group calling also functions as a means of leaving voice message to defined groups. The calling initiator calls a number that identifies the caller and inquires the caller as to which of the caller’s defined groups the voice message should be sent to.

Hmm, we may need to revisit that definition as it seems to have evolved a bit since it was written.

Today it seems that conference calling and group calling are terms that are almost interchangeable. I think group calling would apply to smaller conference calls that are more adhoc in nature and are not unnecessarily business oriented. The term group calling also seems to be used more in reference to mobile group calls and infers a less formal experience as opposed to traditional conference calls that have more participants and are generally business oriented. 

Now you know, err or at least you know my opinion.