Start or join a 100-person meeting with crystal-clear, face-to-face video, high quality screen sharing, and instant messaging – for free. Zoom brings video conferencing, online meetings and group messaging into one easy-to-use application.

It’s super easy: install the free Zoom app, click on “Host a Meeting” and invite up to 100 people to join.

Zoom offers video, audio and screen-sharing experience across Windows PC, macOS, iOS, Android and H.323/SIP room systems.

What is the difference between paid and free Zoom?

Zoom free license gives you unlimited time for individual meetings, but group meetings are limited to 40 minutes with up to 100 video participants. A free license also allows for screen sharing. Zoom Pro (paid) gets you unlimited group meetings, a personalized meeting ID, and access to add-ons like Zoom Webinars, Zoom Rooms, Cloud Room Connector, etc.

What happens if I go over 40 minutes on Zoom?

After 40 minutes, the meeting will end, in this case users can restart the meeting after waiting 1 minute by clicking the same meeting link or starting a new meeting.

Do I need an account to attend a Zoom meeting?

No, you do not need an account to attend a Zoom meeting. However, if you want to host a meeting, you must first sign up for an account.

Is Zoom secure?

By default, free and paid Zoom accounts use 256-bit AES encryption to share audio, video, and application sharing. Right now, Zoom also offers End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) as a technical preview, though enabling this setting also disables some features.

Can I record a meeting with Zoom?

Yes, you can record meetings on your local device with a free license. Pro accounts add 1GB storage for cloud recording.

What are the best Zoom alternatives?

There are several Zoom alternatives, some of them include free plans to host meetings like Google Meet, Cisco Webex, Skype, and MS Teams.

Features

Android

• Screen share directly from your Android device
• Screen share photos, web and Google Drive, Dropbox or Box files
• Send group text, images and audio from mobile and desktop
• Contact availability status
• Easily invite phone, email or company contacts
• Join as interactive participant or view-only webinar attendee
• Works over WiFi, 4G/LTE and 3G networks
• Safe driving mode while on the road
• Connect with anyone on Android, other mobile devices, Windows, Mac, iOS, ZoomPresence, H.323/SIP room systems, and telephones

Chrome

The Zoom Chrome Extension allows participants to schedule Zoom cloud meetings directly from Google Calendar. With the click of a button, you can start an instant meeting or schedule a future meeting. The meeting URL and information is sent via a Google Calendar invitation so the attendee can join with a single-click. Zoom Chrome Extension allows you to:

• Start an instant meeting
• Schedule a meeting
• Schedule a meeting for other

Focus Mode

In focus mode, only the host can see participants’ videos and profile pictures. You can start Focus Mode from the “More” menu on the toolbar of the desktop client. This setting is available at the account-, group-, and user-level settings pages. This requires the desktop client for Windows or macOS version 5.7.3 or higher.

What’s New

Complete release notes here.

Zoom app now named Zoom Workplace app

• The Zoom app for desktop and mobile is now named Zoom Workplace, in order to align the app name with Zoom’s extensive product offerings that are designed to help users reimagine the way they collaborate. Users updating to this version will see the new Zoom Workplace branding in the app and as the app name in their app directory. This change also affects installer file names, so admins with mass deployments should adjust any scripts to account for the new file names (Zoom Workplace (32-bit), Zoom Workplace (64-bit), and Zoom Workplace (ARM64)).

Late joining participants no longer blocked from unmuting or starting video

• Participants joining a meeting that has already started recording, live streaming, or using an AI Companion feature will no longer be blocked from unmuting or turning on their video. They will still see the applicable consent prompts and have their audio (recording, live streaming, AI Companion) and video (recording and live streaming) muted, but will not be blocked from using these controls while the prompt is still visible. Previously, these consent prompts prevented users from unmuting or starting their video until the prompt was acknowledged and consent provided.

Consolidated Meeting and Calendar tabs –

• The Meetings and Calendar tabs are merging to provide the greater visibility of the calendar view with the meeting details needed for your daily tasks. Easily view and filter upcoming meetings, view the invitees and their responses, and review shared materials ahead of the session, while also reviewing previous meetings and their assets, such as recordings, continuous meeting chats, whiteboards, and more. This change will be rolled out to accounts over time and be controlled through a web setting available at the account, group, and user levels. Initially, Basic, Pro, and some smaller Business accounts will have this available with the March release, with this enabled by default for those Basic and Pro accounts. Other accounts can expect this in an upcoming release, which can be managed for eligible accounts through the Feature Release Controls.

End of support for Windows 7 and 8

• With this release, Windows users will need to be on Windows 10 or higher. Devices still using Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 will no longer be supported and will have 5.17.10 (or any additional patches in the 5.17.X branch) as the last version available.

New and enhanced features

General features

• Zoom desktop app color themes and visual overhaul
• The appearance of the Zoom desktop app is overhauled with a new color scheme and icons. These color schemes, including bloom (blue), agave (green), and rose (red), are available when running the client in the light mode and can be chosen through app settings. These color themes are applied to the app global navigation bar, and the in-meeting window.

Additional MSI/GPO/MDM options

• Keep only one section open in Team Chat – KeepOnlyOneSectionOpenInChat
• Disabled by default, this corresponds to the Only allow one section opened at a time setting for the desktop app, found under the Team Chat section of app settings.

Organize chats by section – SeparateIMChatAndChannel

• Disabled by default, this corresponds to the Organize by section setting for the desktop app, found under the Team Chat section of app settings.

Disable Team Chat file transfers – DisableIMFileTransfer

• Disabled by default, admins can enable this policy to prevent file transfers through Team Chat for any account signed-in.

Allow file transfers for specific domains – AllowedIMFileTransferDomain

• Disabled by default, admins can enable this policy by specifying specific domains that their users are allowed to share files with other users associated with that domain.

Meeting/webinar features

Multi-speaker video layout

• The Multi-speaker video layout helps provide meeting participants a more engaging experience, dynamically adapting to current speakers by highlighting and enlarging their video tiles over others, while still providing a view of other participants in a smaller gallery view below. This will also be available when viewing shared content in side-by-side mode, with the speakers being more prominently displayed next to the shared screen or app window.

Updated icons and meeting visuals

• The in-meeting experience is updated with new icons and other visual changes to menus and toolbars.

Personalized in-meeting toolbars

• Zoom Meeting participants can personalize the in-meeting toolbar by dragging-and-dropping to add, move, and remove meetings feature options to suit their needs. Buttons can be reordered, or dragged to/from the More menu. Personalizations for signed-in users will be synced across their desktop experiences. Additionally, the default in-meeting toolbar has fewer buttons and consolidated many options under the More menu to support improved ease of use. The Audio, Video, More and End options cannot be removed from the in-meeting toolbar. Additionally, the floating screen-sharing toolbar is updated and simplified to make it easier to use and more focused on core tasks while presenting during a meeting.

Improved collaboration with Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive files

• Sharing files from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive is updated to make it easier to select files and share them for in-meeting viewing or collaboration. First, the third-party service’s native file picker will be used to select a file, instead of the Zoom file picker. After selecting a file from Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, choosing Collaborate (which will grant participants file editing permissions), invites all participants to join in collaborating on the document using their system browsers,

Improved voiceprint for personalized audio isolation

• The Personalized audio isolation audio profile is enhanced to allow for users to make a short voice recording of them reading a predefined script. This helps to enhance audio isolation performance whether headset or non-headset microphones are used, even in open environments. Zoom will store and use your voiceprint for this purpose, until you delete it, which you can do at any time in your audio settings.

Improved Companion mode

• Connecting a device in Companion mode allows for easier video, chat, and sharing across multiple devices in any meeting. Connect in Companion mode from the Zoom app to view and respond to in-meeting chat or begin sharing the camera or an image on the device, all without joining the meeting as additional duplicate versions of yourself in the meeting. Start the meeting from another client, then connect on the desktop app and continue sharing a slide deck, managing participants, conducting a poll, and more. Additionally, when connected to a local Zoom Room in Companion mode, the Zoom Rooms Controller app, if enabled by admins, will no longer automatically open, but will still be readily available as an option in the control toolbar. Clicking will open the Zoom Rooms Controller app as a side-panel in the meeting window. This change in behavior to the Zoom Rooms controller app will currently only be available for the Zoom desktop app for Windows, with macOS to follow soon. This feature will be rolling out to accounts over the next few months.

Portrait lighting for video

• The new portrait lighting setting allows Zoom to dim your background while brightening you in the foreground, making you stand out even more in your meetings. This is available through in-app video settings and has hardware prerequisites similar to using virtual backgrounds without a greenscreen.

SIP/H.323 interoperability UI enhancements

• When a Zoom user client calls a SIP or H.323 Room System or destination, the caller ID will indicate the user name, instead of “Zoom” followed by the meeting ID. Also, some indicators embedded in the video stream sent to the SIP/H.323 destination, such as quality bars, participant counts, and participant name labels, are hidden to avoid duplicative or unnecessary information display.

Exclude hosts and panelists from survey participation

• A new web setting can prevent individuals with hosting roles from participating in surveys, streamlining the administration process and ensuring more accurate and unbiased feedback from participants. This includes the host, co-host, and webinar panelists.

Consolidated notifications for enabled/disabled features

• Unnecessary and redundant in-meeting notifications are removed or set to not appear multiple times, clearing up visual clutter that may interfere with the live meeting. The initiator of a feature will not see a confirmation notification, as they are aware of the feature they are selecting, and when certain features are disabled, the corresponding notification is suppressed as well.

Automated captioning and translated caption support for Hebrew

• Automated and translated captioning support is expanding to include captioning for the Hebrew language. This language is enabled by default, but admins can control the availability of this language through the Automated captions and Translated captions settings within the web portal.

Greek, Bengali, Norwegian, and Welsh support for translated captions

• Accounts using the translated captions feature will be able to have automated captions translated from any currently supported language to Greek, Bengali, Norwegian, and Welsh, facilitating easier communication between participants in Zoom Meetings. Translated captioning is not yet supported when translating from these languages, as they are not yet supported for automated captioning. These languages are enabled by default, but admins can control availability of this through the Translated captions setting in the web portal.

Meeting features

In-meeting AI Companion disable and delete

• Hosts, co-hosts, and participants (in the absence of a host) can choose to turn off all AI Companion features at once in a meeting. Additionally, they have the option to delete meeting assets generated thus far, such as recordings, summary, and transcript, to help ensure these assets are not unintentionally shared with anyone after the meeting. These options are available to the host and co-hosts by default, with participants able to request disablement as well. In the absence of either the host or co-host in a meeting, any participant will be able to disable and delete assets.

In-meeting AI Companion features combined enablement

• The host and co-hosts in a meeting can more easily enable both AI Companion features in a meeting with just a click of a combined Turn on all option under the AI Companion option in the meeting toolbar. This enables both Meeting Summary and Meeting Questions features for the current meeting.

Simplified AI Companion consent notifications for hosts

• When the meeting host initiates the meeting summary or meeting questions features, they will no longer see the consent prompt, and instead will see a simple toast notification along the top of the meeting window, which will disappear after a few seconds. Other meeting participants will see the consent notification as a prompt along the top of the meeting window, but must acknowledge the prompt before it will disappear.

Meeting wallpapers

• Meeting hosts can customize the wallpaper in their meeting, adding more color and customization to their meeting view. The host or co-host can choose from preset images provided by Zoom or their account admins. With a selection made, they can also adjust how much to blend the participant videos with the wallpaper image. Admins can control use of this at the account level, as well as provide additional default images, which are available to the host and co-host during meetings. Images uploaded through the web portal by admins must be JPG/JPEG or 24-bit PNG with a maximum size of 15 MB. The recommended resolution is 1920x1080px.

Dynamic emoji reactions for video tiles

• Meeting reactions appearing in a user’s video tile, either in gallery or speaker views, are more dynamic with emojis appearing and floating up and around the user. This provides a greater visual indication of other video participant’s reactions for the presenter or speaker. These reactions only appear for video-on participants and can be disabled through the in-meeting Reactions settings.

Support for expanded remote control settings regarding external participants

• The Zoom app supports recent changes to web settings to control the use of the remote control feature when external participants are present, which includes preventing guests from controlling other guests’ screens and preventing internal users from controlling a guest’s screen.

AV1 video codec

• To provide higher quality video while conserving bandwidth usage, Zoom continues rolling out this video codec to Pro accounts. Use of codecs, including AV1, is adaptive, and Zoom dynamically chooses the most appropriate codec.