Zoom launched its newest offerings at CES 2023. Similar to Apple's Memoji and Metaverse' humanoid characters, the video meeting app now has human avatars that users can customize to themselves, mirroring their movements and facial expressions during meetings.
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Participants are displayed on a laptop screen as the Chairman of the German Bishops Conference, Cardinal Georg Baetzing (R) attends a video conference of a virtual meeting in Bonn, western Germany, on February 25, 2021. - The council of 68 bishops were meeting via videoconference in a virtual spring council.
Participants are displayed on a laptop screen as the Chairman of the German Bishops Conference, Cardinal Georg Baetzing (R) attends a video conference of a virtual meeting in Bonn, western Germany, on February 25, 2021. - The council of 68 bishops were meeting via videoconference in a virtual spring council.
Zoom's Human Avatars
Conference meetings can now be fun and less formal as Zoom launched human avatars to the video meetings application. Engadget reported that these are customizable and can mimic the users' facial expressions and movements.
It will roll out along with the new facial features, hairstyles, and customization options. Currently, this feature is only available to beta users which requires a paid account. But once the development of the feature became successful, expect this to be released publicly.
Last March, Zoom also launched cartoon animal avatars, including rabbit, cow, fox, and even domesticated pets like dogs and cats. This was labeled as an option for users who don't want to appear on camera.
Avatars will be used for users when eating, do not want a static profile picture when the cameras are off, or feel like livening up the mundane.
To obtain this feature, users have enable the video first, proceed to the meeting toolbar and select the stop menu, open now the other video options and click the "Choose Virtual Background or Choose Video Filter", users will now see the option of avatars from there.
When it comes to privacy and security, Zoom assures users that the company will not use any facial recognition tech for this feature to work. Privacy concerns are matters that users should not worry about, as per the company.
Other Announced Features
Zoom will also be adding threaded messages and reactions in meeting chats. This will make users' lives easier to figure out which message they are replying to. This feature can be seen in various messaging applications like Slack, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, iMessage, and more.
Emoji reactions will also help users to clean up the chat and pair the response with the original message. As per the company, threads and reactions are expected to roll out later this month when all of the features are ready to launch.
Lastly, Q&A in meetings will be added to the app. Through this, it will make your meetings more organized during group questions as it is placed in one area of the application. The meeting host will have full control in Q&A pop out, for them to dismiss and answer the lined up questions.
Hosts will also be given an option of whether participants can view all questions or only answered ones. This feature will be included in the premium plan of the platform, which means that it will not be free to everybody.
Also Read: Zoom Reports Its Slowest Quarterly Sales Growth, Revenue is Weaker Than Expected Guidance
Dell and Zoom collaborated on a product that was launched at CES 2023. Economic Times reported that Dell Premier Collaboration Keyboard comes with dedicated touch controls for Zoom calls like mute/unmute options for the microphone and an on/off video button for the cameras.
Aside from these, the sleek keyboard features smart backlighting, hand proximity detection, and 15 programmable keys.
Related Article: CES 2023: Proto Beams You as a Hologram for Your Next Virtual Meeting, Presentation via WiFi
