Zoom’s gesture recognition is coming to its desktop apps

Image: Zoom

One of the best features of the platform is the ability to quickly applaud a co-worker or send a heart to a friend. A couple of those reactions are easier to find with the latest update to its desktop apps. When you raise your hand in a meeting, it will show a raised-hand emoji, or a thumbs-up one.

The same two gestures have been supported by the iPad and iPhone apps since last summer. It can be frustrating for those who have used it. At least in my experience, it only responds to the most when it is read by zoom. It's not surprising that the company is still investing in the idea because it helps bridge the gap between natural and digital communication. Someday I will be able to register a heart symbol with kisses on the screen.

Image: Zoom

A big improvement to the zoom whiteboard is one of the features in the latest version. Whiteboard has been an add-on to a meeting for a while, but now it's a separate product. It's trying to make it easier to manage rooms and polls, and run large events on the platform. The chat etiquette tool by Zoom automatically enforces corporate policies on communications. The artificial intelligence writing police is often wrong and often ridiculous, as we have seen from companies like Google.

The bigger picture is that platforms tend to suck the best ideas from the rest of the industry, even those developed on top of its platform, into its core product. For a while, apps like Mmhmm have been exploring gesture recognition, while companies like Figma and Miro have turned digital whiteboards into a huge industry. The last couple of years have seen the company make noise about being an open platform for developers but still take the best ideas for itself in an effort to be the primary place we communicate online.