Zoom announces enhanced features for Team Chat users

Zoom has announced new features and enhancements across its Zoom Workplace suite, focusing on improved functionality within Zoom Team Chat.

The updates introduced by Zoom include a revamped Team Chat sidebar that is designed to increase efficiency and personalisation for users.

This new sidebar allows for better organisation of chats, channels, and apps through drag-and-drop arrangements and advanced sorting and filtering capabilities.

Smita Hashim, Chief Product Officer of Zoom, explained, "We're all looking for ways to optimise how we work in the new year, and catching up on chats can be overwhelming."

"With Zoom Team Chat, you can do cross-product work and be more productive with Zoom Workplace's AI-first products like Zoom Docs, Zoom Meetings, and Zoom Whiteboard." She continued, "Our new Team Chat sidebar design takes this to the next level by empowering users to collaborate smarter and customise their workspace to fit their preferred workflow."

"With AI Companion included at no additional cost for our eligible paid users and enhanced Team Chat organisation tools, users can triage and track their messages more easily, saving time and allowing them to focus on what matters most."

New features in the Zoom Team Chat sidebar allow for greater personalisation, including the ability to pin and reorder tabs, and customise notifications for each tab. This is aimed at making the chat interface more effective for users.

Kristian Needham, Senior UCaaS Engineer at Werner, has noted that, "The new sidebar is sure to be a hit with our users. With the ability to customise tabs, navigation becomes smoother and more intuitive, while eliminating the need for endless scrolling."

Additional enhancements include support for code blocks and in-line code. This allows users to format and share code within chat messages, which is intended to optimise workflows by making code snippets distinct from other messages.

The incorporation of AI Companion provides further functionality. Users can utilise AI to summarise unread conversations, search for topics or files within channels, and get action items from conversations.

These features aim to enhance productivity and collaboration.

For meetings, the updates allow continuous meeting chat, meaning that discussions and links shared during meetings persist across a dedicated group chat.

This enables continuity in conversations before, during, and after meetings.

With these enhancements, Zoom Team Chat provides a centralised search experience across chat, meeting summaries, SMS, documents, and more, allowing users to find necessary information quickly and efficiently.

These enhancements are part of Zoom's broader commitment to improve its communication tools and offering AI-enhanced productivity solutions without additional charges for its eligible paid users. The updates are now available, providing numerous options for users to streamline their communications within Zoom Workplace.