Well, I guess the problem with ‘never’ or ‘always’ type statements is that it only takes one exception to falsify them. (That’s why I added the ‘I don’t know if it’s true’ disclaimer at the start) Not sure the video proves much though. There is a person in the room with the cats after all. That said, I enjoyed watching it, so that’s something.
Just speculating here, is it possible that meowing in adult cats is a form of neoteny? Perhaps in cats’ wild ancestors, meowing was something only kittens did to attract their parents attention and since domestication the behaviour is simply retained into adulthood.
Yeah, that’s a possibility. Fact remains, all the domestics can do it and seem to be about to figure it out even without help from other cats. My cat has figured it out all on his own that meows are like ringing that little bell for service at the desk of a fancy hotel.
Those are trills and chirps. A meow is a meow.
Haha, yes. Jokingly, of course.
I don’t believe you. 
Why not? 
Opposite experience here. Cat No. 1 meowed a fair bit when I first got him, doesn’t ever meow now. Cat No. 2 meowed so much and so loudly when he first arrived I had to hastily switch his safe room to one further out of the neighbours’ hearing. Now it’s pretty much only to tell me to hurry up with that food I’m putting in his dish.
Both of my most recent cats meowed at me and other humans, but did not meow at each other, although occasionally they had other things to say to each other.
I had a deaf cat (white, blue-eyed, so congenitally deaf) who made loud sounds on occasion but nothing you could call a meow. Since i teach all my cats to come to me, I taught her to come with the “come to me” finger gesture, and it worked. Sign language for cats. Bonus: she did not mind baths, as she liked when we used the hair dryer on her. Good thing as she was always getting grease on her white fur.
Mine’s not. He’s a standard issue orange and white American Shorthair, one of three juvenile ferals that we rescued from a cafeteria dumpster. When we got them, two were probably just under a year old, and the third a bit older – all meow, but the little silent guy much more frequently than the other two, even if you can’t hear him when he does it.
Is it possible kitten got a little sick from whatever mama had?
I once had an adolescent cat that had been severely ill as a kitten (as in it was amazing he lived), and … he obviously had some brain damage from the fever. There were a few instinctive behaviors that he just didn’t have. Like he had to be taught to squat down when he pooped. Before being taught, he’d just look confused and start pooping while standing, then walk away. But once he’d been taught to squat, he’d bury his poop when he was done. Like the beginning part of his “how to poop” file was corrupted, but once he got past there it ran just fine.
Anyway, he didn’t meow. At all. He finally started making a meow-like sound, but it was really obvious that he was imitating the sound my sister-in-law made when she meowed at him.
Definitely in the top two for “weirdest cat I’ve lived with”, and that’s some stiff competition.
My dumpster rescue chihuahua couldn’t bark for the first month or so. She would squeak.
I’ve often wondered if she picked it up from her “older brother.”
The biggest noise my cat makes is knocking stuff of my desk.
A sigh is just a sigh… 
When we first adopted our cats, they hardly ever meowed. That changed over the past 15 years and now sometimes I can’t shut the fuckers up.
They generally meow at us to get us to give them snacks or to pet them. Rita has a very distinctive cry that means, “Ohhh! I’m gonna puke!”
Rita also has a set of chirping noises she uses to talk to birds. They don’t sound at all like birdcalls to me, but the birds reply so what the hell do I know?
Whatever she’s saying, I don’t think the birds believe her for an instant.
I wish mine chose not to do it. The question now is, can cats learn to shut up?
Our adult cat Archie, in the 1960s, would meow when he saw fit, in order to summon us (his staff) to serve him.