Fourwaves
Fourwaves follows its participant inbox with a week of admin fixes and security hardening.
Comparison · Meetings
Element Call vs Intermedia
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Element Call and Intermedia — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Element Call vs Intermedia: at a glance
What is Element Call?
Element Call starts moving to new LiveKit transports and falls back to remote SFUs when needed.
Element Call ships a release candidate roughly every two to three weeks. v0.28.1-rc.1 adds a breaking change that falls back to publishing media on a remote SFU when possible, supports migrating to new LiveKit transport types and endpoints, and fixes room v12 power-level compatibility. It also brings in a MatrixRTC SDK and patches several dependency security advisories. The previous rc added a quick audio menu and redacted analytics IDs from rageshakes.
What is Intermedia?
Intermedia's public feed is SEO content about VoIP and AI for contact centers — no feature releases visible.
Intermedia's public changelog is an SEO content blog covering unified communications, VoIP, and CCaaS topics. The last 10 entries are educational and comparative pieces (IVR vs. conversational AI, AI vs. human agents, CCaaS vs. legacy call centers) with no specific product feature announcements. AI meeting notes and generative AI for customer service are recurring themes, suggesting the product is pursuing AI-differentiated positioning in the UCaaS/CCaaS market.
Element Call vs Intermedia: editorial side-by-side
Element Call
5.0MEETINGS
Element Call starts moving to new LiveKit transports and falls back to remote SFUs when needed.
◆ Current state
Element Call ships a release candidate roughly every two to three weeks. v0.28.1-rc.1 adds a breaking change that falls back to publishing media on a remote SFU when possible, supports migrating to new LiveKit transport types and endpoints, and fixes room v12 power-level compatibility. It also brings in a MatrixRTC SDK and patches several dependency security advisories. The previous rc added a quick audio menu and redacted analytics IDs from rageshakes.
◆ Where it's heading
With the MatrixRTC protocol cutover finished in August, the team is now working on the media transport layer itself: how calls find and publish to SFUs and how LiveKit endpoints change underneath them. Packaging the RTC logic as an SDK suggests it is meant to be reused beyond the Element Call app.
◆ Prediction
Expect a 0.28.1 final and follow-ups to the LiveKit transport migration; whether the MatrixRTC SDK gets its own release isn't clear from the entries.
Intermedia
5.0MEETINGS
Intermedia's public feed is SEO content about VoIP and AI for contact centers — no feature releases visible.
◆ Current state
Intermedia's public changelog is an SEO content blog covering unified communications, VoIP, and CCaaS topics. The last 10 entries are educational and comparative pieces (IVR vs. conversational AI, AI vs. human agents, CCaaS vs. legacy call centers) with no specific product feature announcements. AI meeting notes and generative AI for customer service are recurring themes, suggesting the product is pursuing AI-differentiated positioning in the UCaaS/CCaaS market.
◆ Where it's heading
The content strategy is clearly oriented toward AI in contact centers — automated call recap, IVR replacement, generative AI for customer service. This signals either that AI features are shipping and being seeded with content, or that the product is using content to establish positioning ahead of feature work. Without a formal product release log, the actual capability timeline is opaque.
◆ Prediction
The AI meeting notes and conversational AI themes suggest these are active product bets. A formal feature launch for AI-powered call transcription or contact center automation is a plausible near-term move, likely announced through a press release rather than this blog.
Alternatives to Element Call and Intermedia
Other Meetings products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Element Call or Intermedia.
HOMER
HOMER 11.0.369 fixes S3 auth on Ceph-based storage and stops compaction memory growth.
JW Player
JW Player moves CMAF VOD into the dashboard, adds AV1, and opens Broadcast Live to audio-only feeds.
rtpengine
rtpengine opens the mr26.3 branch with a rollback message and leaner call state.
Nextcloud Talk Desktop
Nextcloud Talk Desktop 2.3.3 adds accessibility options and bundles Talk v25.0.6.
Nextcloud Talk
Nextcloud Talk patches v22 and v23 while v25 stable sits five weeks past its last RC.
See all Element Call alternatives → · See all Intermedia alternatives →
Recent activity from Element Call and Intermedia
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoElement CallElement Call 0.28.1 rc adds remote-SFU fallback and LiveKit migration
- 23d agoElement CallQuick audio menu, bell reaction sound and redacted analytics IDs
- 1mo agoElement Callv0.26.1-rc.1
- 1mo agoElement Callv0.26.0-rc.2
- 1mo agoElement Callv0.26.0-rc.1
- 1mo agoIntermediaAI Meeting Notes and Call Transcription: How It Works
- 2mo agoIntermediaWhat is Outlook on the Web (OWA)?
- 2mo agoElement CallMatrixRTC legacy mode removed — all calls now run on the new protocol ⚡
- 2mo agoIntermediaBest VoIP Phone Systems for Small Businesses in 2026
- 2mo agoIntermediaWhat Is Outlook Web Access (OWA) and How Do You Use It?
- 2mo agoIntermediaIVR vs. Conversational AI: When to Use Each in Your Contact Center
- 2mo agoIntermediaAI vs. Human Agents: When Automation Helps and When It Hurts
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Element Call and Intermedia?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Element Call and Intermedia are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Element Call better than Intermedia?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Element Call and Intermedia are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Meetings products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Element Call?
Top Element Call alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Element Call alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/element-call for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Intermedia?
Top Intermedia alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Intermedia alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/intermedia for the full list with editorial commentary on each.