Zoom has unveiled updates to its Team Chat, including a redesigned sidebar that aims to improve user experience and productivity through AI tools and customisation capabilities.
This new feature aims to streamline chat communication by allowing users to organise their workspace according to personal preferences and do time-saving administrative tasks with AI.
“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,”
Smita Hashim, Chief Product Officer of Zoom, said.
“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.”
Customisation Key to Productivity
This redesigned sidebar will aim to improve user experience and communication by allowing users to triage and track messages more effectively.
This starts with a redesign of the sidebar layout.
To make it more intuitive, Zoom has made new dedicated tabs for direct messages, channels, apps, and folders.
Equally, to give users better control and adapt to situational changes, it has added the ability to drag and reorder tabs.
This customisation allows for personalised organisation and prioritisation of a user’s most important conversations and projects throughout the day.
Advanced sorting and filtering options make it easier for users to locate relevant chats quickly.
For example, the “Today” filter on the Meeting chats tab helps users follow up on time-sensitive discussions efficiently.
Additionally, the AI Companion integration improves a number of core tasks in Zoom.
It allows users to generate action item lists from conversations within channels and summarise unread messages, further streamlining communication.
Messaging gets an upgrade, with the AI Companion empowering users to compose chat messages.
Plus the AI Companion also extends to the search tool, which can find a file within a channel faster than traditional search.
But just because it is offering drag and drop customisation doesn’t mean there isn’t anything for the technical part of a teams.
Zoom Team Chat now supports code block support and in-line code formatting to enhance collaboration among technical teams by enabling them to share and format code snippets directly within chat messages.
This feature ensures that important information is visually distinct and delivered in a correct format, saving them time.
Zooming In on The Big Picture
The updates to Zoom Team Chat signify a shift towards more efficient and effective workplace communication.
By targeting both user experience through customisation, integrating AI capabilities, and better accommodating technical communications, Zoom is enhancing overall organisational communication.
The upgrade of its core capabilities comes at a time when it announced a new office in Bellevue, USA, where its UCaaS rival Microsoft has an office.
Equally, long-time Microsoft leader Michelle Chang joined Zoom in October last year as its new CFO.
