To broaden capabilities to the work environment, Zoom for Home - the personal home office solution for video meetings, phone calls, interactive whiteboarding - will be available on a range of smart displays. It will be available on Portal from Facebook in September, and assistant-enabled smart devices including Amazon Echo Show and Google Nest Hub Max by the end of this year.
"We're excited to bring Zoom to these popular devices. It's more apparent than ever that people are looking for easy-to-use displays for their video communications needs, both professionally and personally," says, Oded Gal, Chief Product Officer at Zoom.
According to Zoom Video Communications, by adding Zoom to these devices, users will be able to easily connect with friends, family, and now, colleagues, helping them to work smarter, build stronger relationships, and meet face-to-face through video collaboration. As a part of Zoom for Home, Zoom Meeting users will be able to extend integrated calendar and HD video and audio for Zoom Meetings on the smart displays.
"It's more important than ever to offer features like these to help people stay connected with their friends, family, and co-workers. We look forward to the launch of Zoom on Echo Show and to bringing another great video calling option to Alexa customers," says, Brian Oliver, Director of Alexa Communication.
Zoom for Home will be optimised for smart displays. On Portal, the smart camera will automatically take care of the framing for immersive video calls with colleagues and family. Zoom on Portal will be available on Portal Mini, Portal and Portal+ with support for Portal TV in the future. Alexa customers will be able to join Zoom video conferences from select Echo Show devices. With Zoom on Echo Show, customers will be able to access high-quality meeting experiences by simply saying, "Alexa, join my Zoom meeting." And, if linked to the calendar in the Alexa app, Alexa will automatically start your scheduled meeting entirely hands-free without you needing to know your meeting ID or passcode. Zoom will be rolling out to Amazon Echo Show devices in the US later this year, beginning with Echo Show 8. Zoom on Google Nest Hub Max will extend the capabilities of native high-quality Zoom video meetings onto the device. Fully integrated with Google Calendar and Google Assistant, users will be able to enjoy hands-free controls with commands such as "Hey Google, join my next meeting." Zoom is scheduled to come to Assistant-enabled Smart Displays, including Nest Hub Max by the end of the year.
Emerged as one of the most popular meeting platforms, Zoom for Home was announced in July this year. The idea was to allow anyone to deploy a dedicated personal collaboration device for video meetings, phone calls, and interactive whiteboarding. This category combined Zoom software enhancements with compatible hardware to upgrade the home office experience.
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