• by Ray Schultz , November 8, 2022

Zoom is adding email and a calendar feature to its platform, the firm announced at its Zoomtopia conference on Tuesday. 

Users will no longer have to leave Zoom to access their email and calendar, the firm says.  

“The Zoom Mail and Calendar Clients (beta) will let any Zoom user — free or paid — access their existing email accounts from popular third-party email services directly in the Zoom desktop app,” writes Zoom’s Chief Product Officer Oded Gal in a blog post.  

The post continues: “A recent Harvard Business Review study found that employees spend almost four hours a week reorienting themselves after toggling between applications. By giving users the ability to access their email alongside other modalities, Zoom reduces this “toggle tax” and enables users to better focus on their work.”

For businesses focused on privacy, Zoom has debuted Zoom Mail Service (beta) -- an end-to-end encrypted solution for emails sent directly between active Zoom Mail Service users.

Zoom Mail and Calendar Clients and Zoom Mail and Calendar Services will launch in beta. 

“Zoom Mail Service is designed for small-to-medium businesses without dedicated IT resources who also have a need for enhanced privacy in their business communications, such as law firms or any business needing to share private information within their team,” Gal writes. 

Gal adds that “Zoom customers in the U.S. and Canada with Zoom One Pro or Zoom Standard Pro plans will also have the ability to set up an email account hosted by Zoom at no additional cost, through the new Zoom Mail Service. Customers with a Zoom One Business or higher plan will even have the ability to set up a custom domain.”