Zoom rolls out new Rooms, Chat features in latest platform update

Zoom on Tuesday announced a series of feature updates that are aimed at streamlining the Zoom experience and making the platform better optimized for hybrid work environments. The updates include a new user interface for Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone, simplified chat management, and improved chat channel organization.

Launched two years ago, Zoom Phone is an enterprise-focused communications platform that complements Zoom Meetings, Zoom Chat, Zoom Rooms, and Zoom Video Webinars. Available on the Zoom Pro tier and as a bolt-on, the cloud service can be used for domestic calls for central telephone management, call routing, and contact center operations.

With the latest update, Zoom said Zoom Phone has been bolstered with stricter caller ID verification compliance. Specifically, Zoom said its caller ID attestation is now using the STIR (Secure Telephony Identity Revisited)/SHAKEN (Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) framework, an industry standard that's designed to prevent scammers and robocallers from spoofing someone's phone number.

With that framework in place, outbound calls from Zoom Phone users using Zoom-provided US numbers will have the calls attested as mandated by the FCC. 

Meanwhile, as part of its ongoing expansion efforts, Zoom Phone is now available in Japan, the 47th country where the service is now live.

As for the Zoom Chat updates, the new features are designed to help users better organize their chat conversations. For instance, users will be able to jump to any message, bookmarked messages, shared files, and contact requests that mention them directly. Zoom also added new icons to Chat to help users identify one-to-one conversations, group chats, and channels.

Zoom has also enabled Admin Channel Management for customers with advanced chat encryption enabled, which allows users to can see who has access to their information.

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