Zoom New Features on Head-on Collision with Google and Microsoft

Credit: Zoom

After a less-than-impressive second quarter, Zoom looks to evolve as a brand and business platform. It intends to go beyond offering video conferencing and instant messaging solutions. The company recently reported that it plans to turn its instant messaging functionality into a collaboration hub. And more recently, Zoom intends to develop email and calendar tools, which set it on a collision course with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

To mark its new direction, Zoom updated its visual identity. The new logo takes on a bolder blue hue and has a stylized version with six “Os” that contain product icons reflecting each of the platform’s core features. This tacks down Zoom’s new face as a work app producer for today’s remote and hybrid work environments.

Zoom Team Chat

Zoom is renaming its instant messaging feature as Zoom Team Chat, which is marketed as a collaboration solution. It carries functionalities like instant messaging, file sharing, voice communication, video, whiteboard, and third-party integrations. It also has enterprise-grade security and can identify when external users are present.

Unlike its previous iteration, Zoom Team Chat isn’t confined to the app and can be accessed on a web browser. This brings more flexibility for business users who prefer to have all their work solutions on browsers. In addition, the messaging platform will integrate with ServiceNow and other solutions that complement its core features. It also enables users to share in-meeting chats, schedule Zoom meetings, create reminders out of messages, and respond to meetings through instant messaging.

Email and Calendar Apps

Zoom is reportedly planning to release email and calendar applications before the end of 2022. The company has yet to bare the details on the two, but the apps are known internally as Zmail and Zcal. Based on the software’s current functionalities, a calendar app improves the experience of the video conferencing platform since users can properly schedule meetings and receive notifications within the Zoom ecosystem. An email app, on the other hand, widens the modes of communication users can leverage.

There are rumors that the email and calendar will be announced in November at the company’s Zoomtopia conference.

Intelligence and Support

Besides the new features and functionality upgrades, Zoom is adding items to its product roster. The brand will offer a standalone whiteboard solution called Zoom Whiteboard. It serves as a collaboration tool on which teams can exchange ideas, come up with new solutions, and collaborate remotely. Another upcoming product is Zoom Contact Center. It allows call centers and enterprises to provide video-optimized customer service solutions to multitudes of clients from different locations in the world.

Joining the roster is Zoom IQ for Sales, an intelligence solution that analyzes communication. In using the platform, teams can receive a wide variety of insights from voice, video, and written communication. These can be leveraged to raise sales, improve customer service, and forge deeper connections with clientele.

An Uphill Battle

Zoom might be the industry leader when it comes to video conferencing but it will be up against far bigger players in the workspace app segment, namely Google and Microsoft. Many of Zoom’s users are accustomed to leveraging the platform alongside its competitors’ work apps. As such, while using Zoom as a video conferencing tool will remain unchallenged, the company’s new offerings will have to contend with routine and the effort it takes to migrate data between workspace platforms.

Zoom will have to innovate on email and calendar solutions, offer functionalities that aren’t available on competitor platforms, and intelligently price its products if it is to compete with the leaders of its new segment. It will be a long and pricey battle. But if there’s a brand that can pull it off, it’s probably Zoom, given how it easily garnered a huge global audience during the COVID-19 pandemic.