Zoom (software) facts for kids
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Participants in a shared Zoom call in 2020
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| Original author(s) | Eric Yuan |
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| Developer(s) | Zoom Video Communications |
| Initial release | October 12, 2011 |
| Stable release |
6.0.11 / May 24, 2024
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| Operating system |
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| Platform | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, ChromeOS |
| Available in | 15 languages |
| Type | Videoconferencing, VoIP, and Instant messaging |
| License | Freemium |
Zoom (stylized as all lowercase) is a proprietary videotelephony software program developed by Zoom Video Communications. The free plan allows up to 100 concurrent participants, with a 40-minute time restriction. Users have the option to upgrade by subscribing to a paid plan, the highest of which supports up to 1,000 concurrent participants for meetings lasting up to 30 hours.
History
A beta version of Zoom that could host conferences with only up to 15 video participants was launched on August 21, 2012. On January 25, 2013, version 1.0 of the program was released with an increase in the number of participants per conference to 25. By the end of its first month, Zoom had 400,000 users. By 2013, Zoom had more than one million users. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, by February 2020, Zoom had gained 2.22 million users in 2020 – more users than it amassed in the entirety of 2019. In March 2020, the Zoom app was downloaded 2.13 million times.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a major increase in the use of Zoom for remote work, distance education, and online social relations. Zoom was one of the most downloaded mobile apps worldwide in 2020 with over 500 million downloads.
As of April 2020, Zoom had more than 300 million daily meeting participants (calculated as the number of times someone joins a meeting, which can happen multiple times per day).
Features
Zoom One has six tiers: Basic, Pro, Business, Business Plus, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus. Zoom is compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, and Linux. It is noted for its simple interface and usability, regardless of technological expertise. Features include one-on-one meetings, group video conferences, screen sharing, plugins, browser extensions, and the ability to record meetings and have them automatically transcribed. On some computers and operating systems, users are able to select a virtual background, which can be downloaded from different sites, to use as a backdrop behind themselves.
Use of the platform is free for video conferences of up to 100 participants at once, with a 40-minute time limit. There is a 10-minute timeout period between free 40-minute meetings. For longer or larger conferences with more features, paid subscriptions are available. Features geared towards business conferences, such as Zoom Rooms, are also available. Up to 49 people can be seen on a desktop or laptop screen at once, up to 4 people per screen in iPhone and Android mobile phones and tablet computers, and up to 16 people per screen on iPad.
Zoom security features include password-protected meetings, user authentication, waiting rooms, locked meetings, disabling participant screen sharing, randomly generated IDs, and the ability for the host to remove disruptive attendees. As of June 2020, Zoom began offering end-to-end encryption to business and enterprise users, with AES 256 GCM encryption enabled for all users. In October 2020, Zoom added end-to-end encryption for free and paid users. It is available on all platforms, except for the official Zoom web client.
Zoom also offers a transcription service using Otter.ai software that allows businesses to store transcriptions of the Zoom meetings online and search them, including separating and labeling different speakers.
In July 2020, Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone became available as hardware as a service products. As of July 2022, Zoom Phone is available for domestic telephone service in 47 countries, and the company has sold 3 million seats for the service. Zoom for Home, a category of products designed for home use, became available in August 2020. Zoom Phone Provider Exchange, which gives customers options for voice services, reaches more than 70 countries. In July 2022, an option was added on Zoom Phone to turn on end-to-end encryption during one-on-one calls between users on the same company account.
In September 2020, Zoom added new accessibility features to make the app easier to use for those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or visually impaired. New features include the ability to move around video windows in gallery view, pin video windows to be spotlighted; improved keyboard shortcuts; new tools to adjust the size of closed captioning text; and sign language interpreters' windows can now sit directly next to the speaker.
In October 2020 at Zoomtopia, Zoom's annual user conference, the company unveiled OnZoom, a virtual event marketplace with an integrated payment system where users can host and promote free or paid live events. With OnZoom, users will be able to schedule and host one-time events or event series for up to 1,000 attendees and sell tickets online. The company also announced Zoom Apps, a feature integrating third-party apps so they can be used within the Zoom interface during meetings. The first such apps were expected to be available around the end of 2020, from companies including Slack, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Qatalog. In October 2020, Zoom gave its users better security with an upgrade to end-to-end encryption for its online meetings network.
Also in October 2020, Zoom signed a carrier agreement with Global BT Business to offer a fully managed Zoom Meetings service featuring a choice of connectivity and integration with its global voice network.
In February 2021, Zoom added a "virtual receptionist" feature in the Kiosk Mode for Zoom Rooms. Created for in-person visitors to a business to interact in the lobby without physical contact.
On March 22, 2021, Zoom announced that it would start selling its videoconferencing technology as a white-label product, so other companies can embed it in their own products, with the calls running over Zoom but not carrying the company's brand name.
In July 2021, Zoom released Zoom Apps which integrated a marketplace of third-party applications such as Dropbox Spaces, Asana, and SurveyMonkey.
In August 2021, Zoom launched Focus Mode, designed for use in educational settings. When active, the mode will hide participants' screens from each other (though they can see each other's names) while the host retains the ability to see everyone's camera stream or screen share. The feature is available across all Zoom accounts, including free ones.
In September 2021 at Zoomtopia, the company announced that end-to-end encryption would now be available as an upgrade for Zoom Phone users. The company also announced Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) (for users to manage their own encryption keys that Zoom cannot access or see), Verified Identity (a multi-factor authentication feature working through Okta that allows users to confirm the identity of meeting participants), and Video Engagement Center (for businesses to digitally interact with customers). Other updates include revamped virtual whiteboard features, including touchscreen whiteboards that can be digitized for remote participants, and improved collaboration between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Chat.
In October 2021, the option to automatically generate closed captions in English for Zoom meetings was expanded to all accounts, including free ones. The feature had previously only been available for Premium users.
In April 2022, Zoom added features including gesture recognition, a virtual whiteboard, and Zoom IQ for sales. In February 2022, the company launched Zoom Contact Center, a cloud contact center optimized for video calls and integrated directly into Zoom.
In June 2022, Zoom One, which brings together chat, phone, whiteboard, and video conferencing capabilities into a single offering, was launched. Also in June 2022, Zoom opened its Zoom Apps developer program to all developers, via Zoom Apps SDK. With the release of Zoom One, the company offers video conferencing translation and captioning for 11 languages: English, simplified Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian. This feature is available with the Business Plus and Enterprise Plus plans.
Usage
Zoom is used by a variety of individuals and private and public organizations, including banks, schools, universities, healthcare providers, and government agencies, and for ceremonies such as birthday parties, funeral services, and bar and bat mitzvah services. In 2020, Zoom formed a partnership with Formula One to create a virtual club where fans can go behind the scenes and take part in virtual activities through Zoom, beginning with the Hungarian Grand Prix. An article published in July 2020 in the San Francisco Chronicle noted a new real estate trend in San Francisco and Oakland where some listings include "Zoom rooms" with backdrops for Zoom calls.
Richard Nelson's play What Do We Need to Talk About? takes place on Zoom, with its main characters congregating online during the COVID-19 pandemic using the platform. Written and directed by Nelson, it was commissioned by The Public Theater and premiered on YouTube on April 29, 2020, as a benefit performance. The New Yorker called it "the first great original play of quarantine". Oprah's Your Life in Focus: A Vision Forward was a live virtual experience hosted by Oprah Winfrey on Zoom from May 16 through June 6, 2020. In Source Material's 2020 play, In These Uncertain Times, directed by Samantha Shay, characters communicate on Zoom. The British found-footage horror film Host, directed by Rob Savage, features a group of young people attempting to contact spirits through a remote séance on Zoom, and premiered on Shudder in July 2020. A live reading of Kristoffer Diaz's 2009 play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity over Zoom streamed on Play-PerView from August 15t to August 20, 2020. In the 2021 film Locked Down, directed by Doug Liman and starring Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, characters communicate through Zoom conferences.
From July 3 to 4, 2020, the International Association of Constitutional Law and Alma Mater Europaea used Zoom Webinar to conduct the first "round-the-clock and round-the-globe" event, featuring 52 speakers from 28 countries and several time zones. Soon after, a format of conferences that "virtually travel the globe with the sun from East to West", became common, some of them running for several days.
On September 17, 2020, a live table read of the script for the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High was hosted by Dane Cook, with performers including Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, original cast member Sean Penn, Matthew McConaughey, Shia LaBeouf, Morgan Freeman (who served as the narrator), Jimmy Kimmel, Ray Liotta, and John Legend, to raise money for the charity CORE. The broadcast of the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards on September 20, 2020, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, featured nominees participating through Zoom. On an alternate music video for the 2020 single "Ice Cream" by Blackpink featuring Selena Gomez, the artists appeared via Zoom from their homes. The series Zoom Where It Happens, airing on Zoom as a partnership between Zoom and Black female artists, launched in September 2020 with a virtual table read of an episode of The Golden Girls, reimagined with an all-Black cast. The second episode featured an all-Black cast in a table read of an episode of Friends, hosted by Gabrielle Union and featuring Sterling K. Brown and Uzo Aduba. Familiarity with Zoom meetings in nation-state diplomatic and bureaucratic circles, partially due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, substantially contributed to the efficacy of the Western response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
See also
In Spanish: Zoom (software) para niños
- List of video telecommunication services and product brands
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and technology
- Zoom fatigue
- Zoom town
