Announced at Zoomtopia 2022, Zoom Huddles are video-enabled virtual coworking spaces designed to foster inclusive discussions by bringing the fluid interactions of in-person work to distributed, hybrid teams throughout their work day. Zoom Huddles replicate the ‘working alongside’ aspect of an open office for workers and encourages free-form video-first conversations.
Zoom Huddles are designed to be used throughout the work day and acts as a virtual anchor, just like you would be at your desk in the office, surrounded by your colleagues no matter where and what timezone they may be working from. As you jump in and out of meetings or take phone calls, you can automatically return to your huddle after a meeting, much like you would be in a physical office.
Zoom Huddles complement Zoom’s current portfolio, while serving a different purpose. Zoom Huddles are video-enabled virtual coworking spaces that provide a new way for workers to replicate the experience of “working alongside” each other throughout their work day outside of scheduled meetings. It is a place workers can start and return to after meetings.
Yes, this product was originally announced at Zoomtopia 2022 as Zoom Spots. The product was renamed to Zoom Huddles to more clearly communicate its value proposition within our product suite.
Huddles replicate an open-office environment - so yes, everyone within the huddle can hear you if you have your microphone enabled. Currently only admins can create Zoom Huddles for their account, but participants in a huddle can create their own virtual space to have a discussion with a narrower group of huddle participants. These private spaces are known as Conversations.
Once in a huddle, users can join specific existing Conversations or start their own. Conversations are a way to form smaller groups within a huddle, to have a more private side discussion. Users can give their Conversation a name, so others in your huddle can join in as well. Only the Conversation creator can change the name of the Conversation.
When in a huddle, you can leverage two different views to fit your preference. The first is an expanded view, where you can see others participating in a huddle and is used more commonly when you want to be actively engaged in a huddle. The second is a minimized view, which collapses your huddle into a small sidebar, allowing you to keep an eye on who is in a huddle without taking too much of your screen.
Each huddle comes with a dedicated Team Chat channel that can be accessed whether you are in that huddle or not. This allows you to chat with others during your time in the huddle, as well as refer back to the discussion at a later time.
Zoom Huddles is now currently available for select customers in early access. If you’d like to be considered for early access to Zoom Huddles, please fill out the form on this page.
When Zoom Huddles is released, customers with Zoom One Business plans and above have access.
No, account admins can control the enablement of Zoom Huddles for their accounts.
There are no specific hardware requirements. Users just need to have the Zoom desktop client for Windows or macOS, version 5.14.0 or higher, to access and use Huddles.
Huddle admins can create as many huddles for their account as they need, and users can join any huddle and move between them. It is analogous to an open office space: while an employee may have a dedicated desk, they are also free to walk around the office and mingle with other teams.
A user can join a Zoom Huddle and can control their camera and microphone at all times.
Huddles can be as small as two individuals, and as many as 1000. The maximum number of videos shared at one time will be 49, and they will appear in a circular gallery view.
A huddle can remain open for up to 30 hours, similar to the maximum limit for Zoom Meetings.