Video communication service Zoom has announced its first new features of 2023. The features, four in total, will help users stay connected, enhance their productivity and create engaging experiences for them, the company said on its official blog.
(1.) Avatars: The latest addition to Zoom’s collection of filters, Avatars are customizable virtual characters users can create and use in meetings. Avatars can be created with numerous personalization combinations and mirror movements and facial expressions of a user.
You can even use these to present yourself in a meeting, if you are in attendance but do not want to switch on the video. Currently, this feature is available in beta to everyone globally.
(2.) Meeting templates: To simplify the process of adjusting settings for each different meeting, now you get to create, save and choose from custom templates, which automatically apply the right settings for your needs.
For now, three ‘out of the box’ templates are available, one each for a large meeting, seminars and K-12 classrooms.
(3.) Threaded messages, reactions in in-meeting chat: To be released later this month, these will allow participants to create threads and consolidate emoji reaction in the in-meeting chat. This will help organize chat messages, as well as clarify which messages participants are responding to.
(4.) Q&A in meetings: Available in Zoom One Business, Zoom One Business Plus, Zoom One Enterprise and Zoom One Enterprise Plus accounts, this feature gives a host (and co-host) the ability to view, answer or dismiss a question. With this, the host can also decide whether the participants should see all questions, or only the ones that have been answered.
