Release notes for March 20, 2022
Changes to existing features
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Co-host enabled by default for On-Premise users
On-Premise users can use the co-host feature by default. Previously, this feature had to be enabled by Zoom. -
Adjustments to Attendee Count and Meeting Minutes in reports and Dashboard
Starting April 1, 2022, Dashboard and reporting data for Attendee Count and Meeting Minutes is being adjusted. The definition of how attendees are counted is changing, and Zoom is addressing an issue where meeting minutes might have been under-reported for meetings with over 500 attendees:
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Attendee Count: Measuring attendee count will be updated to ensure it is consistent across Account Reports and the Dashboard. This includes counting participants once when they enter the meeting, and excluding them when they join via failover (disconnect and reconnect or join the meeting via waiting room).
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Meeting Minutes: More accurate meeting minute totals will be provided for meetings and webinars that are over 500 attendees. Due to this change, users might see a significant increase in their meeting minute values for Meeting Minutes, Top 10 Users by Meeting Minutes, and Usage by Meeting minutes within the Dashboard for meetings that are over 500 attendees.
Account owners and admins will likely see an increase in meeting minutes and a decrease in attendee count, with no change in actual user behavior. This affects Business, Education, and Enterprise accounts.
Note: This change does not require Zoom enablement, as previously communicated. It will take effect for the aforementioned account types on April 1, 2022. -
In-meeting chat disabled when a regulated user joins an internal E2EE meeting with archiving enabled
When a regulated user joins an end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) meeting with archiving enabled, in-meeting chat is automatically disabled for all participants because the chat cannot be archived. All participants will receive a notification that in-meeting chat is disabled. Account owners and admins can override this setting by enabling Allow chat when a regulated user joins an internal end-to-end meeting in the Zoom web portal. -
Lock meeting/webinar topic settings available at the group level
Account owners and admins can choose to always show “Zoom Meetings” or “Zoom Webinars” as the meeting or webinar topic for a group of users. Previously, these settings were only available at the account level. -
Hide profile pictures for panelists and attendees in webinars
Account owners and admins can enable the Hide participant profile pictures in a meeting setting to restrict the use of profile pictures for panelists and attendees in a webinar. Hosts can toggle this setting as needed during a webinar through the Participants panel. This feature requires version 5.3.2 or higher. Previously, this setting only applied to meetings, but it now also applies to webinars when enabled.
New and enhanced features
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Administrator features
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Support for Avatars
Account owners and admins can allow users to select an avatar to represent themselves during meetings. This setting is available at the account, group, and user level; and can be locked at the account or group level. This feature requires 5.10.0 or higher. -
Enhancements to Chat History report
Account owners and admins can view and download all messages sent and received by users on the account in the Chat History report, including files, images, emoji reactions, animated GIFs, audio files, and code snippets. Threaded messages are also displayed in a grouped format (instead of the existing flattened and chronological format), for easier viewing and deletion. -
Bulk update users’ email addresses
Account owners and admins with proper role permissions for editing user information can bulk update users’ email addresses through CSV file import. This feature must be enabled by Zoom. -
Support for sharing links to messages and channels in Zoom Chat
Account owners and admins can allow users to copy links from Zoom Chat (deep linking) by enabling Share links to messages and channels in Zoom Chat. When enabled, a user can create shareable links to public channels or specific messages in the channel, and then share links within or outside of Zoom to open directly in Zoom Chat. Only users with existing access and those who belong to the same account with the channel admin, will be able to join and view referenced channels. This setting is available at the account and group level, and can be locked at either level. -
Support for video messages in Zoom Chat
Account owners and admins can allow users to send short video messages to others in direct messages or group conversations by enabling Video Message. Asynchronous video allows users the time to consider their responses and then record as needed to provide thoughtfully crafted responses. This setting is available at the account and group level, and can be locked at either level. -
Show invitee list in Participants panel
Account owners and admins can enable the Show invitee list in Participants panel setting that allows hosts, co-hosts, and alternative hosts to view a Not Joined section in the Participants panel of the meeting. This section lists the people who were invited to the meeting but have not yet joined, as well as their calendar response. This feature requires hosts and users to have the Calendar and Contacts Integration (Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar) configured in the user Profile. This setting is available at the account, group, and user levels, and can be locked at the account or group level. This feature requires version 5.9.6 or higher. This feature was initially available to limited account types, and now is available to all account types. -
Allow host/co-host to rename participants in the waiting room
Account owners and admins can allow hosts and co-hosts to rename participants while they’re in the waiting room. This setting is available at the account, group, and user level; and can be locked at the account or group level. This feature requires version 5.10.0 or higher. -
Show meeting encryption type in Dashboard
Account owners and admins can view detailed encryption status in Dashboard that is at parity with the status shown in the meeting client. They can see if a meeting used enhanced encryption, end-to-end encryption (E2EE), or if there were any exceptions to encryption. -
Enable/disable Webinar Session Branding
Account owners and admins can enable or disable Webinar - Session Branding, which allows hosts to visually customize their webinar sessions. This feature requires version 5.10.0 or higher to see branding. Panelists that join with a lower version will not have access to the virtual background or name tag. -
Support for hiding sensitive content in push notifications
Account owners and admins can enable the setting Hide Push Notification Content to hide sensitive content, such as the name of an upcoming meeting or chat content, from displaying in push notifications on both iOS and Android devices. This setting is available at the account level. -
Allow live streaming to Twitch
Account owners and admins can allow hosts to live stream their meeting or webinar to Twitch directly, rather than manually configuring the stream as a custom live-streaming service. This setting is available at the account, group, and user level; and can be locked at the account or group level. -
Enable/disable webinar reactions
Account owners and admins can enable or disable the use of webinar reactions. If enabled, hosts can control when attendees and panelists can use reactions in webinars, similar to reactions in meetings. The stream of submitted reactions are displayed in the bottom-right corner of the main webinar window, visible to the host, panelists, and attendees. This setting is available at the account, group, and user level; and can be locked at the account or group level. This feature requires version 5.9.6 or higher to be able to send and see reactions. -
Enable/disable Webinar Backstage
Account owners and admins can allow hosts to enable webinars with Backstage access. The webinar host and other panelists can move between the backstage area, which is not visible or heard by attendees, and the mainstage, which is visible to and heard by attendees. Panelists in the backstage can still hear and view the mainstage to keep an eye on the presentation and know when to rejoin. This feature requires version 5.10.0 or higher and the host must have a Zoom Events license. This feature will not be immediately available, as it is dependent on a backend server update currently scheduled for April 17, 2022.
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User features
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Webinar Session branding
If enabled by an account owner or admin, hosts can customize their webinar session’s appearance by uploading a wallpaper image behind the video tiles, setting a virtual background, and applying name tags to panelists. This feature requires version 5.10.0 or higher to see branding. Panelists that join with a lower version will not have access to the virtual background or name tag. -
Schedule a recurring meeting with a saved Breakout Room assignment
When a host saves a breakout room configuration and participant assignments during a Zoom meeting, they can select the saved breakout room assignment they want to use when scheduling a recurring meeting in the web portal. This is limited to 10 saved configurations per account/user. -
Support for signing in with Apple ID on all platforms
Users can sign in with their Apple ID on the Zoom desktop client, mobile app, and web portal. This setting is enabled by default, but account owners and admins can disable the Allow users to sign in with Apple ID setting to prevent users from signing in with this method.
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Integration features
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Support for third-party cloud storage services (SharePoint and Box)
Account owners and admins can choose SharePoint or Box as the default file storage option for newly created channels. This setting is available at the account level. This feature requires version 5.10.0 or higher and must be enabled by Zoom.
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Developer features
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Cloud Recording added to Usage Reports
For Video SDK accounts with a Cloud Recording plan, cloud recording metrics are available under Usage Reports to view detailed information about cloud storage usage by the host.
Resolved issues
- Minor bug fixes
- Security enhancements
- Resolved an issue regarding an incorrect alert appearing for accounts with multiple login methods trying to disable the Single Sign-On method
- Resolved an issue where custom text in a webinar follow-up email was not visible
New and enhanced features
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Meeting/webinar features
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Virtual background support for devices with sufficient hardware
Virtual Background, instead of the current Mask feature, can be enabled by users on devices with sufficient CPU cores. Only available on devices with at least 4 logical cores, including 4 real cores or 2 cores with 4 threads. This may cause performance issues on lower-powered devices and users can easily switch back to the simpler Mask feature. -
Audio/Video statistics
When connected to a meeting, web client users can view meeting statistics, such as latency, jitter, packet loss, frames-per-second, and bitrate.
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Meeting features
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Rename participants in Waiting Room
Hosts and co-hosts can rename meeting participants in the waiting room before they enter the meeting. After locating a participant's name in the waiting room section of the participant list, an option appears in the ... menu to rename that participant. The participant is notified of this change. -
Save Breakout Room assignments for future use
When breakout rooms are created, the host can save that current configuration and participant assignments, which can be used in future sessions. This is only available for recurring meetings and limited to 10 saved configurations per user. -
Optional include co-host when automatically assigning breakout rooms
When creating breakout rooms and choosing to assign participants automatically, any co-hosts will not automatically be included in the assignments, but the host can choose to include them.
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Webinar features
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Webinar Session Branding
Hosts can customize the appearance of the in-webinar experience by adding a wallpaper behind the video tiles, setting a common virtual background for all panelists, and providing name tags for each panelist. -
Reactions for Webinar Attendees
Webinar Attendees can use reactions, similar to reactions in meetings. The stream of submitted reactions are displayed in the bottom-right corner of the main webinar window, visible to the host, panelists, and attendees. This can be controlled within the webinar, as well as at the Account-, Group-, and User-level settings.
Resolved issues
- Minor bug fixes
- Security enhancements
- Resolved an issue regarding bypassing the Waiting Room when rejoining a meeting
New and enhanced features
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Administrator features
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Group management policies
Account owners and admins can use group management to set Zoom Phone policy settings at the group level. Certain policy settings under Phone System Management in the web portal will also appear under User Management > Groups > Zoom Phone tab. This allows for more granular control of policy settings. Sites typically reflect location (for example, the San Jose site), while groups typically reflect organization (for example, the Accounting group). By using Zoom Phone group management policies, phone users can belong to multiple sites but inherit the policies set at the group level. This is not available for standalone accounts. Account owners and admins can also lock policy settings at the account. group, or site levels. This feature does not change any existing configurations of policy settings.
Important: This feature will be visible on March 20 and deployment will be complete by March 27. We recommend customers wait until after March 27 before activating group-level Zoom Phone policies. -
Enhancements to soft delete feature
If soft deletion is enabled, account owners and admins can permanently delete soft-deleted users after a predefined period of time. Calling plans and numbers will be removed from the user when they are permanently deleted. -
Enhancements to role management
There are several enhancements to Zoom Phone role management to improve the experience for account owners and admins:
- They can assign the new Compliance Admin default role to Zoom Phone users. This new role can access and manage call logs, recordings, voicemails, and SMS.
- When adding members to a role, they can copy an existing member list from another role. They can also copy the associated targets if the target type matches.
- When viewing a voicemail inbox they have access to, they can view voicemails in the Logs page instead of their personal voicemail page.
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Create templates for user, auto receptionist, call queue
Account owners and admins can easily create users, auto receptionists and call queues by using templates. Modular configuration is now supported for business hours to apply only business hours to your target. Templates can be created at the account level in addition to the site level. -
User feature entitlement reports
Account owners and admins can view and track features that are enabled for phone users in the account. For example, they can view users with call recording enabled. -
Enhancements to real-time analytics and historical reports
There are several enhancements to analytics and reporting to improve the experience and add new metrics:
- For real-time analytics, Missed Calls have been renamed to Overflowed Calls. Account owners and admins can also view metrics for calls overflowed within business hours versus overflowed outside business hours.
- Filter call queue real-time analytics and historical reports by department and cost center if these are configured.
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Enhancement to call logs
The following details appear in call history logs:
- The third person that joins a three-way call.
- The associated site of the call queue when a call is forwarded from a call queue to a PSTN destination.
- The associated auto receptionist that routed calls to call queues.
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UI enhancement to call usage reports
If a call is answered by other agents, this is tracked in the new Answer by Others column. Previously, these were included in the Missed Call metric. -
Call handling setting for unanswered calls
Account owners and admins can allow callers to leave a voicemail for the callee after the call is routed to other extensions that do not pick up. -
Call queues “group rotating” call distribution mode
Account owners and admins can configure their call queues to simultaneously ring and rotate incoming calls to equitably distribute calls across all available members of larger call queues. Contact technical support to get this feature enabled. -
Audio Intercom
Account owners and admins can set up audio intercom, which allows for hands-free, peer-to-peer conversations. When an intercom call is received, the phone will notify the user of the incoming intercom call, and automatically answer the intercom call. Common use cases include announcing parked calls or notifying visitors in an area. Only the desktop client (5.9.3 or higher) and desk phones can receive intercom calls.
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Devices
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Firmware upgrades
The following Poly devices will receive firmware upgrades. Devices will automatically reboot to upgrade firmware.
- Poly OBi302 (3.2.5.8732)
- Poly OBi508 (4.0.5.7707)
- Poly Rove B2/B4/30/40 (8.0.2, Build: 0003)
- Poly VVX101/VVX150/VVX201/VVX250/VVX301/VVX311/VVX350/VVX401/VVX411/VVX450/VVX501/VVX601 (6.4.2.3176)
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Certified devices
Zoom Phone supports the following devices. Account owners and admins can add these devices to the Zoom web portal as part of the provisioning process.
- AudioCodes RX50 Conference Phone
- Poly OBI 300 ATA
- Poly OBI504 ATA
- Cisco Multi Platform devices:
- CP-6821-3PCC-K9
- CP-6851-3PCC-K9
- CP-6861-3PCC-K9
- CP-6871-3PCC-K9
- CP-7861-3PCC-K9
- CP-8811-3PCC-K9
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Cisco IP Phone Key Expansion Module support
Zoom Phone supports the Cisco IP Phone Key Expansion Module (CP-8800-A-KEM-3PC and CP-68KEM-3PCC), which extends the capabilities of these certified Cisco IP phones: 6851, 8851 and 8861. The expansion module provides additional keys for BLF, Speed Dial, and Call Park Retrieval. -
Desk phone call control from Zoom desktop client
Users can perform desk phone call control actions from the Zoom desktop client, including making and accepting calls. Users can also easily select/de-select which IP phone is used for call control. This feature requires client version 5.8.0 or higher; and is supported on certain Poly and Yealink desk phones. -
Change to call monitoring interaction for Yealink
Phone users who have supported Yealink devices and are in a call monitoring group can use all call monitoring features (listen, whisper, barge-in, takeover, conference barge) regardless of their call monitoring role (executive or assistant). -
Sequential or random key assignment for call park
Account owners and admins can choose how parked calls are assigned to a BLF (Busy Lamp Field) key on phone users’ desk phones. Sequential assignment will park the call at the next available BLF key. Random assignment will park the call at a randomly selected BLF key. The key assignment must to set to Sequential for users to use call park BLF key on the desk phone -
Directed call pickup for call pickup groups
Account owners and admins can enable the directed call pickup option for call pickup groups. This allows group members to answer another member’s call by pressing the associated BLF key. If disabled, group members will answer incoming group pickup calls by pressing the DTMF code (*97) followed by another member’s extension. This is supported on Poly VVX, Yealink, and AudioCodes desk phones.
Resolved issues
Resolved issues
New and enhanced features
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Support for Zoom Webinars practice session
SIP/H.323 devices joining webinars as panelists can now enter and interact with the host and other panelists when joining the webinar practice session. -
Support for joining meetings and webinars utilizing authentication profiles SIP/H.323 devices can now join meetings and webinars that utilize authentication profiles via the join on behalf feature.
Resolved issues
- Minor bug fixes
- Security enhancements
- Resolved an issue where video was being transmitted via the share content channel.
- Resolved an issue where there were volume fluctuations when on the join meeting splash screen.
- Resolved an issue where users connecting through the Pexip cloud servicer were receiving 360p resolution instead of 720p.
- Resolved an issue where noise can be heard intermittently while in a Zoom meeting.
- Resolved an issue where Huawei devices were unable to receive screen share content via the H.323 protocol.
New and enhanced features
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Device firmware out of date notification
If a device’s firmware is multiple versions behind, admins will be prompted to update the firmware when viewing the device in the web portal. -
Account-level settings for provisioned devices
Settings for devices provisioned using the enhanced Zoom Connector, can now be managed at the account level. This is to allow configuration changes to multiple devices simultaneously, instead of at the device level.
Resolved issues
- Minor bug fixes
- Security enhancements
- Resolved an issue where the Zoom Connector was showing as offline after deploying a new version of the Zoom Connector.
Resolved issues