Zoom Will Now Let You Know When People Miss A Meeting

Zoom has announced a stack of new features for its web conferencing platform, including one that means that missing meetings could become slightly trickier in the future.

The updates are designed to give users more control, such as enabling more than one user to move slides on during a presentation, and new tools for creating polls.

With remote working and web conferencing showing no sign of fading, Zoom seems focused on enhancing its users experience with these quality of life updates.

Updates for Zoom Meetings

The updates to Zoom, announced via the company’s official blog , includes a clearer way for meeting organizers to see who is actually in the meeting at a glance. Thanks to Google and Outlook calendar integrations, hosts will be able to see who has accepted or declined the meeting, and whether or not they have joined, which should mean a bit less waiting around (and perhaps the odd, awkward email afterwards for those that don’t attend…).

Polls have been a feature of Zoom for some time now, but with the newest update, new tools have been added, including the ability to create ranked responses, short and long answers, as well as matching and fill in the blanks. These can be used in a variety of ways, from generating feedback in meetings, to more fun activities such as quizzes.

If you’ve ever co-hosted a meeting, this next one could be a big one for you – enhanced slide control. Now, more than one person can control the slides on screen, meaning that there will be no more waiting around for someone else to hit the button before you can continue with your presentation.

Lastly, and perhaps the smallest update of them all, you’ll be able to adjust the watermark on your Zoom calls, changing size and placement.

Updates for Zoom Phone

Zoom Phone has also received a batch of features that are worth talking about. Zoom Phone now natively supports Nomadic 911 services, in compliance with Kari’s law and the Ray Baum’s act, aiding in location detection for emergency services.

Zoom has also added enhancements to its queue analytics, with the Zoom Power Pack, making it easier to monitor call queue KPIs, including missed calls, service level, and waiting time. Managers can now choose to receive these updates via Zoom Chat, as well as email notifications. It is now also possible to customize call queue wallboards and display on digital signage.

A new verified caller feature means that calls from numbers that have been authorized by the carrier will display a ‘caller verified’  symbol, which could help reduce spam or unwanted calls.

Zoom Phone also adds some new integrations with the latest update. SMS for Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Dynamics means that it’s now possible to send a text message to your external contacts via Zoom Phone to these services.  Zoom Phone also now integrates with ServiceNow, allowing direct access to Zoom Phone and click and call functionality from ServiceNow workflows.

Should My Company Get Zoom?

Zoom has blossomed in the last couple of years, there’s no doubt about it. Once stuck to side lines web-conferencing , it’s now synonymous with them, even getting its own dictionary definition.

However, it hasn’t been the smoothest journey. Its meteoric rise has drawn some criticism, as the company appeared to be caught out by it’s overnight popularity, lacking security features that were standard on more established services. However, those days are over, and Zoom’s offering is now as robust as the likes of Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, in some cases even surpassing them. In fact, we’d happily recommend Zoom as an excellent web conferencing service for businesses.

You can take a look at our dedicated web conferencing reviews, as well as our table below, which provides an at-a-glance view of the best providers out there.