The back-to-school season has taken on a whole new meaning in recent times, with virtual and hybrid learning becoming increasingly common. As educators, students, and parents adapt to these changes, Zoom continues to be a vital tool in the educational landscape. In this post, we'll explore 13 features Zoom has to help with back-to-school.

ZOOM NOTES

Taking notes during online classes just got easier with Zoom Notes, This feature allows students to jot down important information directly within the Zoom app. Notes can be saved and shared for later review, helping students stay organized and engaged.

RAISED HAND ENHANCEMENTS

In a virtual classroom, it's crucial to maintain a sense of order. The Raised Hand feature has been enhanced to make it even more intuitive, ensuring that teachers can easily identify and address students who have questions or want to contribute to the discussion.

SCREEN SHARE PREVIEW 

Teachers can now have a sneak peek at what they're about to share with their students. Screen Share Preview allows educators to review their content before presenting it, reducing the chances of sharing the wrong information or files.

IPAD EXPERIENCE ENHANCEMENTS

For iPad users, Zoom has rolled out several enhancements, making the app more user-friendly and versatile. These improvements include better annotation tools, multi-pinning, and an improved virtual background experience. 

PRESENTATION SLIDE CONTROL

Instructors can now navigate through presentation slides seamlessly within the Zoom platform. This feature simplifies the process of sharing slides and makes virtual lectures more engaging. Explore this feature in detail here.

ATTENDANCE STATUS

Tracking attendance in virtual classes can be challenging, but Zoom has made it easier. With the Attendance Status feature, educators can see who's present, who's absent, and who joined late.

WAITING ROOM VIDEO

The Waiting Room has been upgraded to allow educators to display a custom video or message to students while they wait to join the meeting. This personalized touch can set the tone for a positive learning experience.

ADVANCED WHITEBOARD

Zoom's whiteboard tool has advanced features like improved drawing tools, shapes, and templates. This is perfect for educators who want to illustrate concepts visually. Learn more about the Advanced Whiteboard feature.

SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION

Zoom is committed to inclusivity, and the Sign Language Interpretation feature is a testament to that. It allows interpreters to join the meeting and provide sign language translation, making virtual learning more accessible.

Q & A FOR  MEETINGS

Promote engagement and address questions efficiently with the Q & A feature, Students can submit questions during the meeting, and instructors can answer them in real-time or save them for later.

TIME REMAINING TIMER

Keep everyone on track with the Time Remaining Timer. This handy feature displays the remaining time for the meeting or breakout sessions, helping educators manage their schedules effectively.

BREAKOUT ROOMS BASED ON POLL RESULTS

Zoom now offers the option to automatically assign students to breakout rooms based on the results of a poll. This streamlines the process of group work and ensures balanced distribution. Learn how to use this feature here.

LOW LATENCY AUDIO

To improve the real-time communication experience, Zoom has introduced low-latency audio. This feature reduces audio lag, making discussions and interactions more natural and engaging.

As education continues to evolve in the digital age, tools like Zoom are essential for facilitating remote learning. These 13 features demonstrate Zoom's commitment to enhancing the virtual classroom experience for educators and students alike. Whether you're looking for better engagement tools, improved accessibility, or streamlined features, Zoom has you covered. Embrace these enhancements, and let Zoom be your trusted partner in education this back-to-school season. To explore these features in detail, head over to the Zoom support website and start enhancing your virtual classroom experience today!

In today’s fast-paced work environment, maximizing productivity and enhancing collaboration are top priorities. Fortunately, AI technology can help with that, and many organizations are seeing the benefits. A global survey conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of Zoom* found that among teams that use AI, more than 75% of leaders reported their employees completed tasks faster, were more productive, and produced higher-quality work.

Zoom AI Companion, your generative AI assistant, can help revolutionize the way you work and communicate. Included at no additional cost with the paid services assigned to your Zoom user account, it’s designed to seamlessly integrate with your Zoom experience, offering a range of capabilities that can help you work smarter, not harder.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to activate AI Companion, explore its key functionalities, and share some tips and tricks to help you make the most of this incredible AI assistant.

• What Zoom AI Companion can do for you
• How to activate AI Companion
• Getting the most out of your AI assistant

What Zoom AI Companion can do for you

Whether you’re new to AI or have been exploring its benefits for a while, you may be wondering how AI Companion can help you. One of the great things about AI Companion is that it’s woven into how you use Zoom — and like everything else about our platform, it’s simple and easy to use. Here are some ways it can help you:

Composing messages

Employees spend more time drafting and sending emails and chat messages than anything else at work, according to the Zoom Morning Consult survey. Adding to that, 44% of employees say they spend more time on those tasks than they want to.

As an AI writing assistant, AI Companion can compose email messages with the appropriate tone and length, helping you craft professional and effective communications.

You can also use it to compose Zoom Team Chat responses with the right tone and length, helping you to save time and enabling efficient communication within your team.

Summarizing information to help you get up to speed

If you’re short on time and have a mountain of chat messages to catch up on, AI Companion can quickly summarize your chat threads, enabling you to grasp the big picture and respond efficiently.

AI Companion can also provide meeting summaries, so you don’t need to take notes during meetings to remember what was discussed or the next steps you and your team need to take. What’s more, you don’t need to record the meeting for AI Companion to generate a meeting summary.

Coming soon, AI Companion will be able to provide an analysis of recorded phone calls and summaries of SMS messages and voicemails on Zoom Phone, helping you save even more time.

Helping you before, during, and after meetings

According to the Zoom Morning Consult survey, the top task for which leaders would be most willing to use AI is real-time help during meetings, making an AI meeting assistant a valuable tool.

AI Companion can answer your questions about a meeting in progress. If this capability is enabled by the host, just ask AI Companion for a summary of what’s happened so far, if your name was mentioned, or if there were any action items you missed. Meeting hosts have privacy settings to control whether they want participants to be able to ask questions about the meeting, including finding out about what happened before they joined.

After a cloud-recorded meeting, AI Companion can automatically create smart recordings organized by chapter, highlight important information, and create action items for attendees. This helps you review recordings faster for meetings you may have missed and quickly find the information you need to take action.

If you need help scheduling a meeting, AI Companion will be able to do that, too. Coming soon, AI Companion will be able to automatically detect meeting intent in chat messages and display a scheduling button in Team Chat to help streamline the scheduling process.

In the future, you’ll be able to interact with AI Companion through a conversational interface, enabling you to request assistance on a wide range of tasks.

Improving the quality of your work

AI Companion can help boost productivity and collaboration, but it can also help you improve the quality of your work.

NEW! With just a few clicks, AI Companion can help generate ideas on a digital whiteboard and organize content into categories for you, leveling up your brainstorming session.

 📷 New! AI Companion can help you generate ideas in Zoom Whiteboard.

In the future, you’ll be able to receive real-time feedback on your communication and presentation skills during meetings, so you can improve in the moment.

How to activate AI Companion

Now that you’re familiar with all the ways AI Companion can assist you during your workday, here’s how you can get started using it right away. You have access to the AI Companion features available with the paid services assigned to your Zoom user account at no additional cost.** Simply follow these steps to activate it:

1. Check with your admin: By default, all AI Companion features are disabled, so admins must enable the features through account and group-level settings first. If you’re in a Zoom meeting and you see the AI Companion  icon in your toolbar, you can click it and follow the instructions to request that your admin enable that feature.

2. Log in to and update your Zoom client: Go to your Zoom client and make sure you’re logged in. Also check to make sure your client is updated (minimum version 5.16.0 required).

3. Go to your web portal account settings (click “Settings” in the left panel) and look for the AI Companion tab. For features that have user-level settings, you’ll be able to turn each capability on and off.

📷 New! You can now manage your AI Companion settings all in one place.

4. Begin exploring: You can find the AI Companion icon () in multiple products within the Zoom client, such as in your Zoom Meetings controls toolbar or Zoom Team Chat window. Once you’ve located the AI Companion icon, you’re ready to start exploring its capabilities as an AI meeting assistant, writing helper, and more.

Getting the most out of your AI assistant

Want to know how to use AI Companion to help save time and streamline collaboration? Here are a few pro tips:

1. Set it and forget it. If you love the note-taking capabilities of an AI meeting assistant but keep forgetting to click the AI Companion “meeting summary” button at the start of your meetings, enable the setting to automatically start the meeting summary at the beginning of all meetings you host.

2. Get specific with your prompts. When you want AI Companion to help compose an email or chat message for you, you can include specifics like the desired tone or the purpose of the message in your prompt. This will help AI Companion generate a message that’s more in line with what you’re looking for.

3. Keep an eye out for the AI Companion icon. The great thing about AI Companion is that it’s present throughout the Zoom platform, so it’s integrated into how you work. Just keep your eye out for the  icon as you work in Team Chat or join your next meeting. Clicking it will show you how AI Companion can help you be more productive throughout your workday.

Start using Zoom AI Companion today

If you’re ready to enhance your productivity and collaboration, start using AI Companion today — all at no additional cost with the paid services assigned to your Zoom user account.

If you don’t have an eligible paid Zoom plan, upgrade today to access the benefits of AI Companion. It’s time to work smarter, collaborate more effectively, and achieve your goals with ease.

To hear the latest on Zoom AI, join us at Zoomtopia 2023 on Oct. 3 and 4 (in-person and virtual options available). We’ll be sharing exciting news about AI Companion and hearing from industry leaders and Zoom customers on how they’re incorporating AI into their work. Register now!

___

*Based on an online survey of 11,023 full-time knowledge workers in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Germany, France, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. Conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of Zoom Video Communications, Inc., from August 10 to 25, 2023.

**Note: AI Companion may not be available for select verticals and select regional customers.

Original article posted in the Zoom Blog

Zoom Chat: How to configure account settings

By default, users are allowed to chat with others in Team Chat. Admins can configure Team Chat settings in the Zoom web portal at the account level for all users in the account or the group level for a specific group of users. Some settings are only available at the account level.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. Click the Team Chat tab 

    

4. Adjust settings as needed in the following areas:
   • Sharing
   • Visibility
   • Security
   • Storage
5. Click the toggle next to a setting to enable or disable it.
6. (Optional) Click the lock icon   

    

   next to a setting to prevent users from changing this setting.

Learn about available Team Chat settings.

We have been experiencing serious lag in videos played in Zoom since February 28th. Before that time, we never had any issue with it. These are videos played during the same training by different trainers, using different computers, at different locations, all plugged into internet connections. (Not using wireless.) The lag is experienced by the attendees, but not the trainer playing the video. Audio is fine, but the picture is extremely jumpy. All the usual suspects are eliminated as all the trainers are experiencing it from different ISPs, locations, and computers.  Any idea what happening? Is there some issue with Zoom?

We all need balance. Whether you’re trying to balance your workload and personal life, the time you spend at the office with the time you spend working remotely, or the desire to be productive with the need to care for yourself, achieving that equilibrium is essential. But let’s face it, with so much to juggle in today’s world, finding balance is not easy.

Zoomtopia 2023, our seventh annual customer conference, is all about bringing balance to your life. While you’re navigating things like choosing new AI tools or understanding the shifting landscape of modern work, we invite you to attend Zoomtopia to see how technology fits into it all and helps you create a more balanced approach.

So mark your calendars for Oct. 3 and 4 — we’ve got an amazing experience waiting for you no matter where you are. See why you should attend our biggest customer celebration of the year:

1. Experience a true hybrid event

In San Jose, we’re gathering in person to celebrate you, our customers and partners. And for our virtual attendees around the world, you’ll have access to keynotes and learning sessions with opportunities to engage with others through our Zoom Events platform.

Last year’s award-winning hybrid event experience was recognized by Event Marketer’s Ex Awards for its direct connection between in-person and virtual audiences. And you can expect more of the same this year — live reactions, real-time chats, questions, and social feeds will keep virtual attendees engaged during the live keynotes and breakouts.

2. Learn about our latest innovations

Zoomtopia is where you can learn about our latest and greatest: the products and solutions that’ll help you make meaningful connections and allow hybrid teams to collaborate better. Get a front-row seat as we announce how we’re innovating across our AI-powered platform, and how Zoom’s newest features and products can help you achieve better balance, more flexible work, and more delightful customer experiences.

3. Get a glimpse into the future

Everyone wants to know what’s going to happen next with AI and our evolving ways of working. Our keynotes will dive into how we at Zoom are approaching modern work, and our thought leadership sessions featuring guest experts will focus on what we can expect in the near future, providing you with valuable insights to implement right now.

4. Hear from your peers

Our customer panels give you an exclusive look at what’s happening inside your industry — what challenges other companies are facing, what’s working, and what’s not. These conversations happening across healthcare, education, ecosystem, customer experience, employee experience, and AI will help you and your organization prepare for the future.

5. Celebrate with us

Lastly, Zoomtopia is all about you — the customers and partners that make Zoom what we are today. Our mission to deliver limitless human connection wouldn’t be possible without you using our platform to innovate, create, connect, communicate, and get work done, together. Across Zoomtopia, we’re celebrating your stories and everything you achieve with Zoom, culminating in our Celebration of Happiness concert exclusively for attendees, featuring the one and only Ludacris!

Register today!

We can’t wait to see you at Zoomtopia! Visit zoomtopia.com to register to attend in person or virtually.

Original article posted in the Zoom Blog

Hi.  I'm trying to schedule a 5 day training where the first three sessions occur in one week (say Wed, Thur, & Fri) and the remaining two sessions occur the next week (say Mon & Tues) and I want to be able to provide the participants with just one invitation.  Any ideas?  Thanks!

By now, with most of us doing hybrid work (or 100% remote), we are already running out of ideas to drive engagement and make virtual meetings enjoyable.

This is also true for the Operations Director that I met yesterday. We had a very serious conversation about their account’s usage, metrics and adoption of the Zoom platform. The tone changed when I shared our new features and the session ended on a positive note when I showed him how the Immersive View works.

Zoom’s Immersive Scenes make you and your team feel like you’re in the same room, even when you’re not. This brings everyone into a consistent virtual environment, whether it’s a boardroom, classroom, or cafe which makes the meeting more fun because you can communicate more naturally, feel much closer with your team, and get more tasks done.

While we’ve provided a few scenes to get you started, you can also upload a custom scene to align with your company’s branding. Hosts can easily change the scene or revert back to Speaker or Gallery View at any time too. 

When I switched our view to Immersive, the customer was so delighted and said that he’ll try this at their Friday meeting since they’ll be having a game night to which I responded, “Please do. You can either surprise or scare them.😀”

Immersive View is not a very new feature as this has been initially announced at Zoomtopia 2020 and yet, a lot of customers aren’t aware that this cool feature exists. Up until now, I still get smiles, positive feedback and good vibes when I end my account reviews with Immersive View.

It's definitely one of the simplest ways to create a fun, cohesive, and collaborative virtual space for your meeting or webinar. An oldie but a goodie indeed! 

What’s your favorite Immersive View experience?

Join the Zoom Healthcare team for an engaging and informative webinar on Zoom One for Healthcare on Wednesday, September 27 at 10 AM PT. During the webinar, you will: 

• Learn about Zoom One for Healthcare and available packages
• Hear about the benefits of bundling for better care delivery and operations
• Review customer use cases

There will also be time for live Q&A with the team, so come prepared with questions. We hope you'll be able to join us! Register here: https://ev.zoom.us/webinars-events/zoom-one-for-healthcare/. 

By now you’ve probably heard of the toggle tax — the time and cost wasted by switching between apps to get work done.

If you’re using different apps to get work done, you’re likely paying a toggle tax. And this tax doesn’t come due just once a year — when you have to constantly jump between a mix of solutions to get your work done, your productivity suffers on a daily basis.

Finding ways to bring all of your workflows into one place where you can focus on getting your work done can help save time and money.

The good news: the Zoom platform integrates with dozens of popular service providers, so you not only get a (toggle) tax break — you can also unearth new ways to help make your work more efficient.

Streamline connections with voice communication integrations

Voice communications are evergreen — they have been a cornerstone of the workplace for decades and are now key to unlocking the agility needed to enable hybrid work. While phone solutions often come with a standard set of features — many designed to enable flexible communications — you can extend their impact with relevant integrations that can help you build connections from one place.

Zoom Phone connects with business-critical applications from leading providers, all of which are designed to bring your everyday workflows right into our phone experience (or vice versa). Forget hopping between your phone and computer to jot down important customer information, or chatting someone to ask for five minutes so you can switch from one app to another to get the right information. These three recommendations can help you build connections over our phone solution without skipping a beat:

1. Put the power of a fax machine where you need it: The FaxSIPit integration (NEW!) brings fax machine capabilities directly into the Zoom platform. This Zoom App lets you send and receive faxes via Zoom Phone (and Zoom Meetings), so you can jump between communication methods in one place.
2. Deploy CRM integrations to avoid slowing down cycles: From integrations like Zendesk to Salesforce to Service Now, use Zoom Phone in your native CRM environment to simplify tasks, keep better track of customer conversations, and get quick access to essential information.
3. Make compliance part of the process: When you work in highly regulated industries, like financial services, you need compliance built into your workflows so you don’t have to worry about dropping the ball. Zoom Phone integrations like Theta Lake, Nice, Global Relay, and more help bring necessary archiving and data loss prevention functions into your voice calls, voicemails, and SMS messages so you can support compliance without compromising experience.

Make the most of chat with these apps

A chat product should be the glue that holds the pieces of a communications platform together, connecting the tools you need in one centralized space so you can share and organize important information. That’s how we approach things at Zoom — Zoom Team Chat serves as a collaboration hub that unifies meetings, mail and calendar, phone, whiteboard, and more in one centralized client. It can also bring many of your favorite work applications right into the Zoom client.

Zoom Team Chat is integrated into the Zoom platform to enable continuity across your communication channels, and the same goes for its integrations. So many Zoom Team Chat integrations are designed to create that same sense of continuity, making chat a single source of truth not just across Zoom solutions, but also the broader workplace collaboration space. There are a few ways to leverage these integrations to stay on top of things:

1. Manage high-priority projects and stay productive: Whether you’re using Jira, Asana, Confluence, or Trello to stay on top of tasks, you can add their integrations to get notifications, keep organized, and track projects directly in Zoom Team Chat. So you can spend less time tracking down information and have more time to get work done.
2. Keep customer information up to date: When you’re building relationships with customers, you need to pay attention to detail. Integrations like Salesforce for Team Chat and Microsoft Dynamics bring record updates right into Zoom Team Chat, so you don’t have to switch back and forth to update and manage virtual customer details.
3. Share important info and docs: Take notes or store documents in Google Drive or Evernote? Now you can do the same thing, right in Zoom Team Chat. With these integrations, you can quickly jot down, store, and send information all in one place, so important details don’t slip through the cracks. And for you Microsoft users, stay tuned: there’s a OneDrive integration coming soon.*

*Support for Microsoft OneDrive is currently in beta.

Get time back with the right integrations

Your workday may require you to use a variety of solutions — that’s unavoidable. But you have control over how you use those applications, and the right integrations can ultimately help make your workday work better for you. Consolidating your workflows in the Zoom platform can help you keep better track of important information, increase productivity, and make more time for what matters.

To discover the apps and integrations that can help you never skip a beat, visit the Zoom App Marketplace.

Taken from Zoom Blog. Original post can be seen HERE.

Recently, I had the absolute privilege of collaborating with an outstanding non-profit organization that is laser-focused on advancing the awe-inspiring world of bio-research. 🌱🔬

Guess what? Zoom is playing an absolutely pivotal role in their groundbreaking research endeavors, and it's beyond mind-blowing! 🚀 Especially when it comes to igniting global collaboration like never before! 💥

Hold onto your hats because this is the good stuff! Through the magic of Zoom, they've cracked the code in connecting students from all corners of the globe with their team of brilliant scientists. 🌍🧪 The result? Real-time, electrifying discussions that are propelling their research to unimaginable heights! 🌟

But wait, it gets even more amazing! 🌈 They've taken it to a whole new level with Zoom Rooms, decked out with multiple cameras strategically placed that give them a front-row seat to their research subjects. 📸 This isn't just about convenience; it's about creating an interactive wonderland! 🌠

And as if that weren't enough, they've teamed up with Learn Design Apply, unlocking the treasure chest of extra funding opportunities! 💰 It's like a superhero alliance for science! 💪

It truly warms the heart to witness our technology empower enthusiastic students and unwavering scientists, forging a path to infinity and beyond in the captivating realm of bio-research! 🌌🔍

Isn't that just unbelievably exciting?! 🤩🌟