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As part of the filter collection, video conferencing service Zoom has launched virtual avatars in beta worldwide.
Announcement (opens in new tab) the new feature on its blog, Zoom said the avatars would make meetings “more flexible and fun,” allowing users to “display [their] ‘virtual you’”.
The “original and fun” feature comes relatively close behind Microsoft Teams add similar, albeit better looking avatars to users in the Technical Access Program in October 2022, which in turn are reminiscent of those in Meta’s Horizon Workrooms workplace metavers.
Why?
In its post, Zoom claims that avatars help people appear present and engaged, allow them to present more “dynamically” and enable “fun activities” in the hybrid workplace.
While it is possible users of the service who prefer to turn off their cameras perhaps avatars find a suitable middle ground, others who are more ambivalent about the concept of “fun in the workplace” may struggle.
Figuring out ways to make meetings more painful seems to be a top priority for the greatest collaboration tool providers out there.
December 2022, Tech Radar Pro reported that Google Meet deemed three bizarre face filters ready for human consumption, following Zoom’s own unveiling of similar filters in March of that year.
However, innovations in video calling can create much more dangerous problems than embarrassing filters. As Tech Radar Pro reported in November 2022, Zoom announced at its annual Zoomtopia event that the app would be coming to “all new Tesla models” soon.
Avatars for Zoom were just one of four features the company recently announced. Following in the footsteps of Team Premiumnow offers customizable meeting setup templates based on size and situation, including large meetings and classrooms, to make meeting setup easier.
Threaded conversations, a staple of Slack (and now also Google Chat) are also now available, in addition to a rollout of the Q&A feature, previously reserved for webinars, for all meetings, when enabled by an administrator.