Zoom Mail and Calendar Products Launch in Beta
Zoom is launching today new mail and calendar products in beta. Zoom Mail and Zoom Calendar are integrated into the Zoom desktop app, where they will allow users to connect third-party email and calendar services and reduce what the company calls the “toggle tax.”
“These new products work together with the communication and collaboration offerings already available within Zoom Meetings, Phone, Whiteboard, and Team Chat. Now, teams can move quickly and seamlessly from email to a video meeting, elevate a chat message to a phone call, collaborate on projects, and early next year, they can share out whiteboards, all without ever leaving the Zoom app,” wrote Zoom Chief Product Officer Oded Gal.
In addition to these new Zoom Mail and Calendar clients coming in beta today in the Zoom desktop app, the company is also launching its own hosted email and calendar services for Zoom paid customers in the US and Canada. These new Zoom Mail and Calendar services are free to use with Zoom One Pro or Zoom Standard Pro plans, and there’s also custom domain support for customers with a Zoom One Business or higher plan.
The Zoom Calendar app
Zoom is targeting SMBs with its new hosted Mail and Calendar services, and it’s hoping to leverage seamless integrations with the Zoom app to get Zoom commercial customers on board. The Zoom Calendar Service will include an appointment booking feature and let users access recordings, notes, and attachments without leaving Zoom. The Zoom Mail service also offers end-to-end encryption support for emails sent directly between active Zoom Mail Service users.
Zoom announced other updates at its Zoomtopia event today including Smart Recording for meetings, as well as human and “meta” avatars to use in video calls. Overall, Zoom trying hard to grow beyond its video meeting roots to compete more seriously with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. The Zoom One offering now includes various productivity features including Zoom Team Chat, Zoom Phone, as well as a Zoom Rooms solution for conference rooms. Zoom Spots, a new virtual coworking space in Zoom has also been announced for early 2023.