Zoom takes Notes to collaboration suite

Zoom Video Communications has announced Zoom Notes, a workspace to create and collaborate on before, during and after meetings.

The fundamental aim of Notes – available for all users at no additional cost and set to roll out in the coming weeks – is to allow users to collaborate by letting them create and share content in a Zoom Meeting and collaborate with others on the call for real-time inputs – eliminating the distraction of jumping between Zoom and third-party documents and tools. Users can continue to work in Notes outside of meetings asynchronously and share them for collaboration anytime, anywhere.

Ensuring all necessary stakeholders are on the same page, literally and metaphorically, Notes allows users before a meeting to create a note, build an agenda and share it with attendees in advance of proceedings.

Users can open a note and share it with others so they can collaborate during the meeting. Afterwards, they can share a note with anyone else who may benefit from the content.

Note creators will have the ability to initiate a sharing session during the meeting to collaborate in real-time, just like Zoom Whiteboard. Formatting options on Notes include an editor with features such as font, styling, bullets and colours.

Additionally, users can add images and links to their Notes, and content is auto-saved at regular intervals to preserve work. From quick and simple memos to robust notes and documentation, Zoom said Notes provides a clean workspace to capture and share content in and out of meetings.

Extending the collaboration aspects of the product, Notes creators have the ability to grant access to other attendees during a meeting only or to extend access afterwards. If an attendee joins late and a note has already been shared in the meeting, they will see the shared note at the top of their tab in the Zoom client.

Users also have the ability to multitask by taking notes alongside the meeting, or by expanding and collapsing the right panel so they can take notes on another screen. The Notes dashboard also offers the ability to sort, filter and share. Users can take advantage of key management functions such as starring and favouriting a note for later, and deleting, editing or sharing one directly from the dashboard.

“We wanted to offer a clean user experience that allows users to create agendas and notes while staying within the Zoom platform instead of jumping to other content management tools,” said Zoom head of productivity applications Darin Brown. “With Notes, it’s seamless to create and share personal and collaborative notes in and out of meetings.”