Zoom keeps stealing focus

[FunkyBob]

When I click to join a meeting, Zoom spawns a succession of windows, which may live for a few seconds or a few minutes depending on the window and  other things beyond my control.

Each and every one will steal keyboard focus from whatever I'm doing.

So if I try to continue to be productive whilst waiting to join a meeting, I'm repeatedly interrupted.

Other posts have been told this is "by design"

What possible excuse is there for interrupting the user this way?

[FunkyBob]

Additionally, any time someone else in a meeting shares their screen, focus is again stolen.

Which is detrimental to anyone trying to keep minutes for a meeting, or trying to resolve ongoing production issues if the meeting is about a production outage.

[RobertS]

Cannot answer you question  i.e. What possible excuse is there for interrupting the user this way?

I have an external monitor attached to my laptop and in this way keep ZOOM on one monitor and the work I am doing on the second monitor...... 

I hope this helps!

[FunkyBob]

I have two external monitors on my laptop, but have not found a way to constrain Zooms windows to just one.

I don't see how that would fix the focus stealing issue, anyway.

[RobertS]

Are you duplicating your screens? If so switch the settings to extended mode and you should be able to move Zoom to whichever monitor you desire.

[FunkyBob]

Zoom does not stay within any one screen, no matter what I do.

And I don't see how this is related to it stealing keyboard focus. No matter what screen it's on, it will steal keyboard focus when it spawns a new window or someone shares their screen.

[Crash83K]

I've spoken with Zoom's customer support about it. They won't tell me WHY they force this option on us. But they did say they're unwilling to listen to anyone on this. Their position is that focus-stealing is the intended and unavoidable functionality of the app. Basically, they could turn it into a key-logger if they wanted. I can't even describe how many times window focus was stolen while I was typing a password or writing code and those key strokes are now being sent to a ZOOM window, of all the wrong places.

They don't have a real reason for this, but they're unwilling to fix it. I've started a campaign at our company to move our entire company (thousands of users) off Zoom for this reason.

[Jpeterson]

They should then give us the option to turn it on or off. That's my stance. I hate the focus stealing and many others do too. But if they're going to say it's "intended", then at least give us (believers) the option to turn it off. It shouldn't be that hard for them to put a toggle in the settings. It's as though they are forcing it upon us and also forcing some of us to move on to other companies. 

[Crash83K]

I agree. Either they're incompetent or too stubborn for this industry.

@Zoom needs to get their butts in gear and fix this. There's dozens of threads about this on almost every platform. Enough people hate it. You would think zoom sees a business choice here, but they're blind and I'm definitely working to move our entire company off it. The company that just bought us uses Microsoft Teams. We're still using zoom and intended to keep using it. But this is really the last straw.

I've also complained to zoom about their terrible Linux support and how far behind it is for literally no reason, and they basically told me to pound sand.

Obviously, zoom doesn't want the tech industry as clients.

[FunkyBob]

I would @ the original response but this system requires at least 3 characters to @ someone, and they have only a 2 character name.

https://community.zoom.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/6

[Jpeterson]

I agree with the OP. I work at a call center and every time I'm writing a note on a customer's account and a call comes around on Zoom, the call steals the focus as the OP says. For those that watch the keyboard while typing, this is a huge issue. They'll type a full paragraph note and look up to find out they didn't type anything or typed a few words due to a call going around that stole the focus off their typing.  According to other forums, this is a huge problem for many of us and would like a fix. As a call center representative, this is a big inconvenience and very annoying when someone is trying to place an order, and you have to ask them to repeat what they said just because another call going around in the queue interrupted your typing. Especially if they're a fast talker and in a hurry to get an order placed. I hope this helps @RobertS . As I believe this is what he was referring to. The same complaint and issue I and many other are experiencing. 

[jdenormandie]

Agreed.  This behavior is just terrible.  I have lost count of the number of times I have used a keyboard shortcut to close a window only to find out Zoom has stolen focus so I end up losing the Zoom connection window instead.  

[gbisaga]

I can't see the linked post which says it's "by design", but I agree this is wrong behavior. I understand that, in general, it's not good to be multitasking during meetings. But zoom should NOT be enforcing this. Right now I am in a meeting I was included as optional on; I'm not participating, but want to overhear the discussion. I hope they don't change screensharing, because the window I'm typing in will lose focus... AGAIN.

Does zoom not trust people to be adults and pay attention when they need to?

[jdenormandie]

I am more likely to close a Zoom window while waiting for it to connect to the meeting, which means I'm rushing to get through emails or something before the meeting even starts.  

[ianheath]

came here looking for a way to stop this behaviour when someone else shares their screen.  Good god, can we not be trusted to switch back manually when we want to really pay attention?  This needs to be a setting so we can turn it off!!! God forbid we want to take notes during a meeting... 

[Crash83K]

I've made so many feedback submissions and talked directly with Zoom. They have no intention of changing this behavior. They believe they are the arbiter of what is good UX. Literally, any UX engineer will tell you that focus stealing without the user's consent is "Dark UX" and is a general no-no, which tells you that Zoom doesn't know what they're doing.

Focus stealing is a cardinal sin. Whomever decided this was a good idea SHOULD be fired. Not because of the wrong decision, but because they don't know what they're doing in the tech industry and should be knocked down a few pegs and have to earn their way up to making decisions in tech.

[DJG214]

This is ridiculous. How hard would it be to give people a choice about whether they want zoom to steal the focus from whatever they are doing. I'm always doing work related to the zoom session when it steals the focus. Again, why not give us a choice?