Yes, Zoom is now definitely a "thing". While Microsoft continues to be busy building the monster of nothingness that is Teams and managing the complexity of its integration with Office, Zoom Communications is eating away the market that was once dominated by Skype... from Microsoft! And while Zoom keeps growing with integrations for all operating systems and devices, CRM, cloud tools and office suites, Cisco and Blue Jeans are now remote memories in the UC&C space, while Google continues to create browser-based extensions features that work but are irrelevant and Apple finally realized that FaceTime should also work horizontally (!).
The market for online communications is now largely dominated by Zoom and Microsoft (Skype + Teams), followed by countless secondary apps that work great, but either focus on just one thing, or try to do many things at once (Slack). Which means that Zoom will grow its reach into the corporate and education markets even more in the future, while dominating personal communications as well, as Skype used to do. And in the process, they will probably start buying other smaller companies in order to accelerate growth and control key technologies.
At the Zoomtopia 2021 event, Zoom unveiled plans for innovations across its platform, mainly designed for dynamic working environments and collaboration. Zoom is developing new products, features, and partnerships designed to empower and engage the modern workforce with connected "workstreams." This concept, as Zoom defines, consists in virtually replicating the various ways users interact with Zoom Meetings, Chat, Webinars and Phone all as one unified communications solution, with the ability to navigate between them.
“In the last decade, we have been honored to become the ‘go-to’ video communications platform, but there has never been a more dynamic period in the company’s history than these last 18 months,” says Eric S. Yuan, Founder and CEO at Zoom. “We have released hundreds of new features, enhancements, and capabilities this past year alone and we have exciting new features in our development pipeline. With the ability to visually brainstorm on a virtual whiteboard and collaborate with colleagues similar to an in-person experience, or the endless opportunities of live transcription and translation services powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) – previously considered ‘futuristic’ technologies are on the verge of becoming a reality and could reshape the way we work.”
Zoom’s recent study on the role of video communications in daily life examined people’s preferences for how they envision using this technology in a future world. Globally, the majority of respondents agree that everything will have a virtual element – including celebrations and events.
Because of that trend, Zoom decided to launch Zoom Events Conference, a new event type on Zoom Events, allowing hosts to organize multi-track and multi-day events and webinars in a sophisticated format, with rich functionality, including, event lobby, chat, networking, sponsors, surveys, recordings, analytics, and more. Zoom Events Conference allows sending out branded emails, surveys, recordings, analytics, and more.
With Zoom Events Conference, organizers can host up to 13 concurrent sessions at once, host an event over five days and showcase sponsors in dedicated ways. The platform also provides attendee networking via individual chat sessions and offers an itinerary builder for attendees. Emulating many of the features of existing applications created for online events, Zoom Event Conference adds a green room Backstage feature, which gives speakers, panelists, and production support a centralized space where they can respond to Q&A, monitor chat, or mingle before going live. The new platform will only be available to organizations with Zoom Events licenses.
But Zoom is also expanding its reach with dedicated corporate tools, such as the new Zoom Video Engagement Center (VEC), which allows companies to connect experts with their customers on video using an immersive virtual environment. Zoom will also introduce a new Hot Desking solution later in 2021, allowing employees to reserve desks and spaces in their offices using an interactive map and enable easy authentication. With industry-specific solutions, Zoom VEC offers cloud-first scalability and video tools that will be familiar for both sides.
An exciting new feature for companies is the new Video Voicemail. Available later in 2021, Zoom describes it as "a personable alternative to standard voicemail with the ability to leave video messages for colleagues, right into their voicemail inbox."
The new Zoom Whiteboard collaboration tool was designed for today’s hybrid, remote and colocated workforces and will throw many companies' plans in the space completely out the window - particularly for interactive display companies. The declared goal for Zoom Whiteboard is to set a new standard for working together, the company states. "We envision that Zoom Whiteboard will act as a digital canvas, enabling seamless, real-time and asynchronous collaboration, with the ability to interact with the whiteboard similar to an in-person experience, creating more visually engaging and efficient meeting experiences."
Another new announcement was Zoom Continuous Collaboration, a concept that, "could make it easier to collaborate across tools with tighter integrations across the Zoom platform and third parties." These planned enhancements are designed to allow the ability to share files, recordings and chats from Zoom Meetings to Zoom Chat for easy reference and collaboration on documents and integration with file sharing solutions - all without having to leave the Zoom client.
The company also envisages turning Zoom meetings even more inclusive with the addition of new real time, automated translation tools, as well as the expansion of its existing live transcription, with support for multiple languages coming later in 2022. The declared intention will probably put a few companies in this space as clear targets for acquisitions.
"We’re committed to removing the barriers to effective and dynamic communication, and as part of that commitment, we’re planning to extend Zoom’s automated transcription to 30 languages and add live translation to 12 languages in the next year. Zoom connects users across the world, and this expansion of our transcription and translation features will help to overcome the language barrier that can prevent dynamic communication and collaboration," the company stated.
To foster a more inclusive hybrid, remote and colocated work experience, Zoom also plans to expand its Zoom Rooms Smart Gallery for meeting spaces of all sizes by creating individual video feeds of in-room participants, so they’re viewed clearly and equally by remote employees. And Zoom is planning to release native integrations with more cloud-storage tools, including SharePoint and Box, later this year.
www.zoom.us
