Zoom renames chat product as it faces heavy competition from Slack and Microsoft

Zoom Inc. today announced that it has renamed its chat product and added some features, including third party integration, as it looks to compete with rivals including Microsoft’s Teams and Slack.

Zoom’s app, now known as Zoom Team Chat, will also include features such as the ability to share in-meeting chat to Team Chat, schedule a meeting from chat or channel.

“We used to call it Zoom Chat. As of today, we are officially renaming it Zoom Team Chat, to usher in the future of persistent messaging and further enhance teamwork and collaboration. We’ve already made significant investments in Zoom Team Chat’s capabilities, and we’ll unveil even more enhancements later this month,” Janine Pelosi said in a blog post.

I used to wonder the difference between the chat feature during Zoom meetings and the platform’s separate communication suite. Renaming the product to Zoom Team Chat makes it clear that Zoom wants to copy Slack.

“Chat is … where teams track projects, build culture, and instantly and asynchronously collaborate. It’s where teams begin and end their workdays. And it’s more ingrained in our day-to-day than ever,” the company says describing its “Modern chat technology” as exactly the functionality of Slack.

Zoom is saying you can now use the Team Chat as a singular collaboration hub where you can work with colleagues in real time on calls or asynchronously over text chat. This is more like a solution to having to do video calls, audio and text to talk using different platforms or apps.

For example, I use Zoom (sometimes Google Meet) for video conferencing, WhatsApp for voice calls and chats. The Zoom Team Chat closes all those gaps as you can theoretically do much of your workplace communication in one place with Zoom Team Chat without having to jump from app to app.

By the end of the month, the company hopes to roll out a few new features to enhance the experience of utilising Zoom Team Chat.

The ability to share in-meeting chat directly into Zoom Team Chat is one addition that will make it simpler to read any crucial notes (or your clever comments) after the meeting has ended.

If you’re having a text conversation that might benefit from a call, you may also book a Zoom conference directly from a Zoom Team Chat channel.

However, Slack, Microsoft, and Google are all quickly developing their own office communication products to aid organisations in adapting to hybrid work environments.

As a result, Zoom is up against fierce competition. Although the enhancements for Zoom Team Chat appear to be useful, it may be difficult for the company to persuade businesses to migrate from existing platforms to Zoom Team Chat.