Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Zoom, a leader in cloud-based business meeting solutions, is promoting its Zoom Phone as key aspect of its overall unified communications portfolio. First launched into general availability in January 2019, the software-based Zoom Phone now touts significantly expanded service.
As announced at the company’s Zoomtopia annual event, Zoom Phone is now in a handful of countries in addition to the US, including the UK, Canada and Ireland. Beta service is now available in nearly a dozen new countries, including France, Germany and Italy.
Additionally, Zoom Phone, a cloud pbx solution, has an expanded feature set, include global dial plans and location-based call routing.
Zoom phone has seen “hockey stick growth,” said Nitasha Walia, Group Product Manager at Zoom. The rapid growth has been both “in terms of development and features, as well as user adoption.” Helping to fuel this growth: users can use their own phone or their own carrier, she noted.
“The big value of Zoom phone is that it’s part of the unified communications platform that Zoom offers – it’s not a stand alone audio product,” Walia said.
This integration enables considerable flexibility. A call can easily be migrated to the various outlets in a Zoom conferencing solution, Walia explained. For instance, a voice call to Zoom Phone can be transferred from a mobile device to a Zoom room (an audio only call); the call can then be transferred to a Zoom meeting, allowing screen sharing and video conferencing.
At the macro level, the growing capabilities of the Zoom Phone reflect the rapid growth in the UCaaS sector. The boundary between the myriad forms of messaging is blurring, as voice and chat and video all combine into a single flowing stream of business communication.
Additional Enterprise Messaging News
Among the many announcements at Zoomtopia were the following:
- Zoom for Microsoft: Single-click scheduling within Microsoft Teams is now enabled. Plus, Outlook on mobile has enhanced ability to connect with Zoom meetings.
- Live Transcripts: Following up on the roll out of recorded transcripts, an AI-based tool now transcribes Zoom meetings in real time. This functionality is powered by Otter.ai.
- Enhanced virtual backgrounds: Zoom already offers stationary virtual backgrounds for video conferencing; going a step further, Zoom will now offer a virtual background that incorporate full-motion video.
