Zoom is rolling out a number of features that’ll help ensure users show up to meetings on time. Zoom has exploded over the past year thanks to the pandemic and an increased reliance on remote working and learning. Beyond work and school, Zoom has also proved to be a popular way for friends and families to stay in touch when meeting up in person isn’t possible.
Zoom has also been making a number of changes recently. For example, the service is now testing the use of ads for free users. This, along with the limiting of Zoom call length, are some of the ways the service looks to incentivize users to upgrade to a paid subscription. Fortunately, video calling isn’t a monopoly and users have other options when Zoom isn’t ideal, including Skype, FaceTime, and Facebook Messenger, among others.
If sticking with Zoom for remote working, the app might soon prove additionally problematic for those that tend to show up to meetings at the last minute. In a press release, Zoom confirmed it is introducing an “Attendance Status” feature that integrates with Google or Outlook calendars to see if an invitation has been accepted (or declined) and if the person has joined the meeting. Those who have not joined the call will be visible under a new “Not Joined” list in the main Participants view. The feature is currently in beta and only applicable to free accounts. Zoom says it will be rolling out Attendance Status to more accounts in the coming months.
Make Sure You’re On Time
While this is a useful feature for administrators and hosts to keep track of who’s shown up and who hasn’t, it’s just another thing to worry about for those that are temporarily working from home due to the pandemic. Although not an issue for those who are traditionally early to meetings, it could prove to be a problem for those who are a bit tighter on time and sometimes a few minutes late to a meeting.
Fortunately, Attendance Status doesn’t push a notification to let the host know who is late, at least not yet. For now, the host will need to view the Participants list to see who has joined, who hasn’t, and who is waiting to be let in. In addition, all participants will need to be running Zoom version 5.8.0 or later on Mac or Windows in order to enable the feature. For now, it won’t work for those running Zoom on iOS, Android, or any other platform.
