Zoom is including new email and calendar features to take on other workspace platforms

As expected, Zoom is hoping to take on the likes of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace in additional areas than group video calls and chats. At its Zoomtopia conference, the organization declared a lot of features that are coming to its platform, including two vital ones for productivity: email and calendars. You can connect third-party email and calendar services to Zoom and access them through the desktop app. The organization says that can assist with saving you time as opposed to switching between apps and maybe expecting to hunt after the right tab in your browser.

At the height of the pandemic, Zoom was the go-to application for meetings with people stuck at home in lockdown. During FY 2021, the organization was developing at an unreasonable triple-digit rate, peaking at a mind-blowing 369% growth in Q3 2021. By Q2 2023, its latest quarter, it was down to single-digit (8%) growth (however with $5.5 billion in cash on hand).

That is all in all a swing, and the organization remembers it can’t depend totally on online meeting software. That is the reason it has been hoping to branch out beyond the core meeting service over the most recent few years by moving into regions like contact centers, sales intelligence, and phones while growing the meeting platform into regions like whiteboarding.

To push that thought considerably further, the organization declared the beta of email and calendar software at the Zoomtopia customer conference today. Organization founder and CEO Eric Yuan perceives there are individuals who spend a lot of their time on Zoom and he wants to give everyone the tools to do that without task switching.

Those on the Zoom One Star or Zoom Standard Pro plans will actually want to set up email accounts through the platform, and people with specific plans have the option to use custom domains. You’ll get up to 100GB of storage included. The key selling point is that messages sent directly between Zoom Mail Service users (for example the individuals who use Zoom’s email hosting services) will have end-to-end encryption. You’ll likewise have the option to send external emails that can expire and contain access-restricted links.

With respect to Zoom Calendar, there will be options to see which of your contacts has joined a meeting, and you can schedule Zoom voice and video calls in the app. Zoom’s own calendar service will incorporate the ability to book appointments.

On the way in 2023 is a feature called Zoom Spots. The organization depicts this as a virtual coworking space where partners can remain more connected during the workday through video-first conversations. While the organization didn’t uncover a lot of insight regarding Zoom Spots in its blog post, there might be a disadvantage as the feature could enable bosses to watch out for what their workers are doing.

Businesses will soon be able to employ Zoom Virtual Agent, a conversational AI, and chatbot intended to assist clients with resolving issues. That tool will be accessible in mid-2023. Different things in the pipeline incorporate a way for developers to bring in cash from the Zoom Apps Marketplace and a virtual coach to assist sellers with perfecting their pitches.

Concerning the core functions individuals know Zoom for, there’s a feature in the way that interfaces team chats with in-meeting chats. You’ll have the option to carry the discussion from one to the next and back again to keep things streaming. The organization is likewise seeking to carry out translation options for team chats in 2023. Soon, you’ll have the option to schedule a chat message to send at a later time.

Zoom Phone is coming to the web, which ought to be convenient for some people. A progressive web app will be accessible for ChromeOS as well. In the interim, clients will actually want to use a one-click chat message as a response when they can’t answer a call. With respect to Zoom Rooms, there will be a way for people in one of those to join a Google Meet room and vice versa.

Last, however, in no way, shape, or form at least, Zoom uncovered a series of updates for meetings. The Smart Recordings feature uses AI to create summaries, next steps, and chapters to make archived meetings more digestible and assist you with getting to the part you’re searching for. There will meet templates that can automatically configure the right settings and a method for recording videos with narration and screen sharing that you can send to partners. Additionally, you’ll have more avatar options, including the ability to use a Meta avatar.

Different announcements

While the email and calendar stand out, they aren’t the only announcements the organization is making this week. The organization is likewise declaring Zoom Spots, which is a watercooler sort of experience where individuals can drop in for a few minutes, have a spontaneous conversation, and leave. It’s not unlike Slack Huddles, which Slack presented last year for a comparative sort of fast chat.

“We are introducing a new service called Zoom Spots, which is essentially a persistent video where you can look around, see who’s there and you can join these conversations and you don’t have to schedule meetings. And it’s a pretty interesting concept to support hybrid work,” he said.

The organization is likewise presenting several different tools outside the pure meeting sphere, including a customer service chatbot for its contact center service, which is presumably connected with its acquisition of Solvvy in May. It is likewise presenting a new sales intelligence tool, which goes about as a virtual coach for sales teams, simulating different sales situations. The latter is part of the Zoom IQ for Sales toolkit declared earlier this year.

The organization is obviously working hard to move beyond its online meeting roots and to track down ways of keeping individuals on the platform as it extends further into the adjacent regions of the core meeting business.