In its mission to be more than a video calling app, Zoom has created a Google Docs competitor: Zoom Docs
Zoom was one of those apps that saw tremendous growth during the pandemic. Many had not even heard of her and, overnight, found themselves using her services to continue attending classes or work meetings in the midst of confinement. But our reality is no longer like that.
Although video calls continue to be important after the health emergency, Zoom soon realized that they should be something more. The company began to envision a broader service scheme about two years ago, and now is when we are starting to see results. Part of that ambition is called Zoom Docs.
Zoom and its alternative to Google Docs
When it comes to working with documents, we usually think of two applications: Microsoft Word and Google Docs. And, if we add the need to collaborate in real time with other users, our choice will probably lean more towards the second. Zoom also wants us to think about it, although in a different way.
The video calling company announced this Tuesday Zoom Docs, a workspace that is integrated with the Zoom that almost all of us know to work with documents, manage projects, create tables, wikis and other elements. As we can see, it is not an independent application, but it does not aim to be one either.
As the company explains, the intention of Zoom Docs is to offer an ideal solution for a world where hybrid work prevails. The idea is that several users can work on different projects simultaneously while, for example, participating in a Zoom video call, all with improvements powered by artificial intelligence.
The presence of generative AI in Zoom is not completely new. We had Zoom IQ that allowed us to make summaries of video calls and chat. Now, under the name Zoom AI Companion, this solution integrates with Zoom Docs to complete content in different types of documents.
Unlike what we have seen with Word, Excel and PowerPoint, for example, Zoom promises a system with content blocks . That is, it will not be necessary to open a specific application to work with a table or a text document. In addition, they promise, it will be possible to create a visual tree with all the collaborative pages.
The proposal seems interesting, but there are still some questions about how it works. For example, how it will integrate with third-party applications and what would happen if we wanted to export the documents to edit them from another platform. Zoom Docs will hit the market in 2024.