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Brett Molina:
Hey there, listeners. It’s Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. I love Zoom. I love all the video tools that we’ve been using amid the pandemic, whether it’s Zoom, yes, even Microsoft Teams. I love all of it, but now there’s a new feature coming to Zoom, and I’m little worried here, because I feel like maybe it’s going to tattle on me.
Here’s why. Zoom Meetings is going to introduce a feature called attendance status, which makes it easier for hosts to track whether people in the meeting are there, but also, if they were late for the meeting. Participants that are invited to the meeting, who haven’t joined, will be singled out under a not-joined section in the participant’s panel of the call, along with their response.
If there’s a calendar invite, it’ll say whether they accepted, declined, it’ll explain whatever it is you need. You can read more about this feature in a story on tech.USAtoday.com. The host can then click ask to join, and then it’ll invite all the people that were not there and bring them into the current meeting.
It’s available to folks with Google and Outlook Calendar integrations, and it’s currently beta testing. It’s not available right now, but it’s currently in beta testing. Now, Zoom says there are certain limits to how you can use the tool. It can’t be for a recurring meeting. It seems like it’s only like a one-time meeting that you set up. Also, it has to be scheduled after the tool has rolled out, so you can’t like retroactively have a meeting and then add this integration. It has to be done right after they roll out this attendance status.
I’m not going to lie. I’m not a fan of Zoom kind of, sort of snitching on me because I’m late for a meeting. It’s kind of funny. I mean, I don’t know. It’s definitely interesting to have that as an option. I guess if you’re a manager or a boss, it’s great because if you want to really keep close track of attendance, and who’s on time, and who’s not, but it’s just funny how these new features are popping up.
Now, it’s one of several that Zoom has announced. This isn’t the only thing they’re planning. Soon, there’s going to be enhanced slide control, so if someone’s doing a presentation, you can have multiple people control the slides, instead of just one person. You’re also going to have updates to polls, so you can have things like ranked responses, or other stuff. That way, if you want a little more of a dynamic experience, polling a group of people within a meeting, that’s easier.
It’s safe to say Zoom has been a lifeline for all of us over the last close to two years now, with the start of this pandemic. It has really helped us stay connected with our coworkers, with our family, and, obviously, it’s a super useful tool, but I am very interested to see how this attendance status all plays out down the road. You could read more about this and anything else Zoom on tech.USAtoday.com.
Listeners, let’s hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas? What do you think of Zoom taking your attendance? Let me know about it on Twitter I’m @brettmolina23. Please don’t forget to subscribe and rate us, or leave a review on apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts.
You’ve been listening to Talking Tech. We’ll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Zoom will soon take your attendance: Talking Tech podcast