The Zoom Evolution: From Video App to Communications Platform

Zoom has always been a company built to connect and bring people together.

What started as a video meeting app quickly moved into broadcast webinars, connected conference rooms, and more, and it continues to evolve and expand. Now you can use Zoom to connect teams on and off video, reimagine your workspaces, engage new audiences, delight your customers, and build new innovations –– all on the Zoom platform you know and love.

This evolution is more than a decade in the making. You will see it reflected today in our new look and refreshed visual identity. You’ll also see it in the innovation in our product offerings. 

In a world where teams span locations and time zones, connection is everything. So I’m excited to share more about how we are continuing to evolve, as a company and platform, to deliver that connection and better support all the ways you work.

Zoom is one platform to connect because of people like you. Everything we do is grounded in our core value of Care, and we care about our global customers, who face new collaboration challenges every day.

Employee expectations have changed. Remote and hybrid work are now just work. Communication happens across more channels and collaboration across oceans. And there’s no playbook for organizations to adapt.

We strive to continuously enable meaningful team collaboration in support of these evolving workstreams through technology.

One way we’re doing that today is through the expansion and evolution of our chat messaging product.

Our comprehensive platform makes it easy for people to connect across places, spaces, and devices, so work is … well, less work. Central to the success of our platform is our persistent team collaboration and messaging hub.

We used to call it Zoom Chat. As of today, we are officially renaming it Zoom Team Chat, to usher in the future of persistent messaging and further enhance teamwork and collaboration. We’ve already made significant investments in Zoom Team Chat’s capabilities, and we’ll unveil even more enhancements later this month.

Chat is the backbone of collaboration in today’s hybrid and flexible work environments. It’s where teams track projects, build culture, and instantly and asynchronously collaborate. It’s where teams begin and end their workdays. And it’s more ingrained in our day-to-day than ever.

According to a 2022 survey of IT decision-makers conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of Zoom: 

• 95% agree messaging services are important for those in a remote/hybrid environment
• 86% indicated messaging services were very important to their organization
• 90% reported using a messaging service daily

So why the name change? Because something was missing. 

We believe collaboration is at the heart of human creativity, and the magic happens when people work together, as a team. Conversations begin during video calls and in the meeting chat box, but those conversations turn into something more in our persistent chat product.

Modern chat technology helps dispersed teams consolidate workflows and gain efficiencies, and enables people to work better together. With one-touch access to video meetings, phone, whiteboarding, and more, Zoom Team Chat brings people together in modern ways.

We feel Zoom Team Chat better reflects that value.

Team Chat extends beyond instant messaging. It’s a powerful collaboration hub that leverages 1:1 and group chats as well as channels to integrate workstreams, keep projects on track, and connect stakeholders.

Team Chat brings together messaging, file sharing, third-party integrations, video, voice, and whiteboard in one place to simplify how you collaborate. When you need to elevate a chat conversation to a phone or video call or share an idea via whiteboard, you can do so at the touch of a button right in Zoom Team Chat.

Additionally, Team Chat is a valuable external communication tool. It provides a seamless and secure communication experience for external contacts, including consultants, vendors, clients, and more. A notice in the chat or channel “compose” message box even identifies when an external user is present.

Team Chat is also backed by our enterprise-grade security and reliability, giving remote and hybrid teams peace of mind knowing they can confidently share information.

And the best part: Team Chat is already included in your Zoom Workplace offering, which has all the collaboration tools you need - chat, phone, whiteboard, video meetings, and more - in one Zoom license.

We’ll also continue to evolve other areas of our portfolio to meet your current and emerging demands. We’ve introduced three new products this year alone to elevate visual collaboration, enhance the customer experience, and improve sales motions:

• Zoom Whiteboard is a persistent, digital canvas on which teams can brainstorm and collaborate across locations and devices.
• Zoom Contact Center is a video-optimized omnichannel contact center platform that helps businesses deliver prompt and highly personalized customer support.
• Zoom Revenue Accelerator is a conversational intelligence solution for Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone that uses AI to analyze customer conversations, surface key insights, and empower your sales teams.

Marketing and event teams continue to use Zoom to elevate virtual and hybrid events, and the builders of the world leverage our developer solutions to bring Zoom into their apps and services.

And as our product portfolio expands, so too does our brand. We’ve enhanced the Zoom brand to better explain to current and potential customers the benefits of our communications platform. 

We’ll lean on a new visual - the main image on this post - to help people better understand everything they get with our platform. We are also updating Zoom’s visual identity, including color palette, typography, product icons, and more. Most notably, we updated Zoom’s core blue to enhance legibility and advance accessibility on our platform. 

One thing that won’t change, however, is our commitment to delivering happiness to our customers. Zoom exists because the people, teams, and organizations innovating for the future trust our platform to help them do their best work. And we’re honored to continue that journey with you.

We’re excited to share this moment in Zoom’s evolution with you. But evolution is gradual and perpetual, and there’s even more to come!

Join us Nov. 8-9 as we share our vision for the future of communications and collaboration at Zoomtopia 2022. Register today for our annual customer celebration and take in engaging sessions, hear from inspiring speakers, get exciting product updates, and more!

To learn more about the power of Zoom Team Chat as part of a consolidated collaboration offering, Sept. 29 webinar, “Intro to Zoom Workplace: Increase Productivity with an All-in-One Solution.” Or sign up for our Oct. 12 webinar, “New Ways to Collaborate with Zoom Team Chat.”

And as always, please do reach out to us if there’s any way we can better support you.