ZOOM Cloud Meetings

August 25, 2022: ZOOM Cloud Meetings’ New Functions

ZOOM was updated on August 23. Here are some new functions you may want to know about.

· Support up to 25 custom languages for interpretation

· Support for multi-language and translated captions in Webinars

· External users notice when composing messages in chats

· Restricted Calls/SMS hours and location

· Enhancements to call history

· Resolved an issue regarding unretrievable SMS messages

· Security enhancements

· Minor bug fixes

April 21, 2022: Gesture recognition feature

Zoom is rolling out a set of new features, including its refreshed digital whiteboard and a new gesture recognition feature. The gesture recognition feature can detect users’ motion and automatically display a corresponding meeting reaction, allowing users to share feelings with others in a much easier way. This feature currently supports Raise Hand and Thumbs Up reactions, with more options coming in the future. Zoom is also updating its whiteboard feature to bring a new cross-platform, online collaboration solution, providing new features like shapes, sticky notes and more.

April 18, 2022: New Avatars

Zoom has rolled out a new feature that allows users to replace their appearance with a virtual animal during the meeting. This new avatar feature can automatically mirror a user’s head movements and facial expressions, bringing more fun to the meeting experience. Users can now choose from animal characters like a fox, cat, rabbit or raccoon, and more avatar options will be added in the future.

March 28, 2022: Stream a Zoom meeting to Twitch

You can now stream your meeting or webinar to Twitch by adding native integration with the streaming service to Zoom. Once you connect your Zoom and Twitch accounts, you can start broadcasting your meeting within a few clicks, which is a quite easy option for people who want to do a live podcast, share a sermon or make something publicly available.

February 17, 2022: Sign documents during meetings

Zoom and DocuSign have announced a new integration that allows users to review and sign documents during a video conference call. The new tool simplifies online document signing and provides users virtual, face-to-face signing experiences in the midst of a global pandemic. To enable the new feature, users can add DocuSign from the Zoom marketplace, and then click the DocuSign button during meetings to start the workflow and select the documents to be signed. The integration could be particularly useful for organizations with operations across the globe.

February 14, 2022: Glimpse is going to launch new remote feature on Zoom

Recently, Glimpse had been testing a new integration that would allow event hosts to add speed networking to their Zoom meetings, webinars and events. The forthcoming “twine for Zoom” product will give customers access to matching tools, networking and virtual watercooler tools that can be used not only for virtual events, but also other types of meetings, like company socials, community meetups and more.

January 28, 2022: Default Language Interpretation & Video option for Waiting Rooms

Zoom is rolling out a series of new features that help to create a better meeting experience, including Default Language Interpretation, Video option for Waiting Rooms and more. Account owners and admins can now enable the language interpretation feature by default when scheduling Zoom meetings, so as to promote international collaboration. Another new feature allows meeting hosts to add a video to the virtual waiting room, thus allowing participants to view the video when they wait for the host to allow them into the meeting.

December 27, 2021: Focus Mode and Workspace Reservation

Zoom is rolling out new features that allow users to enjoy more focused and customisable meeting experiences. Users can now schedule meetings with Focus Mode starting automatically, which helps to provide fewer distractions to all meeting participants. Another feature Workspace Reservation will be released in public beta later this month, enabling users to easily book spaces using an interactive map.

December 9, 2021: Slide Control and New Call Icon

Zoom announced new updates and features to further enhance customer service. An enhanced slide control allows users to select multiple people to control the movement of slides in a presentation. To recreate networking moments, Zoom events now allow hosts and moderators to turn chats on and off at any time. Furthermore, a new caller verified icon for incoming calls now allows customers to identify unwanted incoming calls quickly.

November 30, 2021: Updates will be made automatically

Zoom is rolling out a new automatic update feature that helps users easily receive important security fixes and helpful features. Users no longer have to check for updates themselves as the new feature help them install the latest updates. Users can choose update frequencies according to their personal preferences: The Slow setting mode provides less frequent updates and a focus on maximizing stability, while the Fast option offers the latest features and updates once they become available.

November 5, 2021: Show ads to Free Users

Zoom is planning to experiment with an advertising program for free Basic users in certain countries. When Zoom users on the free Basic plan follow meetings hosted by other Basic users, they will see ads on the browser page once they end their meetings. Zoom explains that the ad program can help them support investment and continue providing free Basic users with access to the platform.

October 26, 2021: Automatic captions available for free users

Zoom enables free members to get auto-generated captions on their accounts, a feature which was previously limited to paid accounts.

In order to make zoom more accessible to everyone, zoom will offer AI-powered live transcription to all members, regardless of whether they pay for their account. To enable the captions in Zoom, users can simply find “account management” in the navigation menu, choose “account settings,” then click the “meeting” tab. Under “in meeting (advanced),” click ‘closed captioning’ to enable it.

At present, users can only get access to live captions in English, but captions in more languages will be available in the future so as to further promote communication.

Key Features

Send group text, images, and audio from your device

Screen share photos, web and Google Drive, Dropbox or Box files directly from your device

Give you control over how screen sharing can happen

Easily invite phone, email or company contacts

Join meetings as interactive participant or view-only webinar attendee

Quickly start meetings by the given fixed link to your own meeting room

Add conference call details quickly through the Google Calendar plugin

Safe driving mode while on the road

Connect with anyone on both mobile devices and desktops

Pros

Make large-group video calling easy

Supports lots of callers

Invite participants with a link

Cons

Sometimes unstable

Hard to know who drops the call

How to use Zoom?

To use Zoom, you have different alternatives: log in on their website, download the program for Mac or PC, or download the app for mobile devices.

After download and installation, you need to create an account if you don't have one. You can create one very quickly by linking your Google or Facebook account, or you can create a new using your E-mail address.

When all is set up, you will be asked to enter the Meeting ID or Personal Link Name that should have been given to you. Enter this, you are in connection with up to 100 people.