Dial Into Zoom Calls From Smart Displays by Amazon, Google & Facebook

Zoom for Home is coming to Google Nest Hub Max, Amazon Echo Show, and Portal from Facebook by the end of the year.  Remote workers can enjoy HD video and audio along with integrated calendars on their home smart displays.  

Zoom, the famously stick meeting app, is working closely with its well-heeled rivals.  With the work from home economy booming, the video communications major is bringing its videoconferencing experience to popular smart home displays — Amazon Echo Show, Portal from Facebook, and Google Nest Hub Max suite. 

A recent Gartner surveyOpens a new window indicated that nearly 47% of leaders plan to allow employees to dial into work from home.

Meanwhile, a Morning Consult studyOpens a new window says the number of adults working exclusively from home has tripled since pre-COVID with one-third wanting to upgrade their work-from-home set-up if their company subsidized it.  

This announcement comes close on the heels of Hardware-as-a-Service launch last month that enables businesses to equip remote workers with video communications and collaboration hardware. Zoom‘s Chief Product Officer, Oded Gal, believes the need for easy-to-use displays for personal and professional video communication needs is now “more apparent than ever.” 

Going All-In On Remote Work 

Tech heavyweights like Facebook, Twitter, Australia’s Atlassian, have already gone fully remote. Apple and Google employees will also be working remotely until 2021. According to Morning Consult’s report, a third of the employees would want to work remotely every day and 76% would want to work at least one day remotely. Brian Oliver, Director of Alexa Communication said, “It’s more important than ever to offer features like these to help people stay connected with their friends, family, and co-workers.” 

The surprise element here is that Google, maker of Meet and Duo opened its platform to a rival player.  For Google Nest users, it means more choice and ease of use. Zoom’s support for smart displayOpens a new window like Nest Hub Max allows its users to communicate via video through Zoom accounts within Meet. 

Other Google service integrations include Google Calendar, and Google Assistant, which means users will be able to navigate the device with voice-enabled commands. “Nest Hub Max and Google Assistant already offer a host of ways to stay connected with Duo and Google Meet. And soon you’ll have one more option to use the video calling service of your choice: Zoom is coming to Assistant-enabled Smart Displays, including Nest Hub Max,” wrote Lilian Rincon, Senior Director of Product Management Google Assistant in a blog post.  

Zoom for Assistant-enabled Nest Hub Max will be available before the end of 2020.

Besides Google’s Nest suite, Zoom announced support for Amazon Echo Show, which will be available later this year, and for Portal from Facebook from September onwards. And it’s not just Zoom that’s pushing the envelope in product innovation. Facebook, a top video conferencing challenger is bulking up Portal Opens a new window with more video options from BlueJeans, Cisco Webex and GoToMeeting.  

Zoom will be available for limited Echo Show devices starting with Echo Show 8, and Zoom for Portal will roll out to Portal Mini, Portal and Portal+ with support for Portal TV planned in the future.

When working remotely in unusual times, having proper remote work gear is critical.  By layering new technologies into old product lines and adding support for third-party apps and devices, Zoom is well-positioned to blunt the competition.  

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