Zoom will change the way we work and play. But not for everyone

How quickly things can change. At the beginning of this year, many of us may not have known what the Zoom app was let alone be familiar in using it.

 But three months later, Zoom had become a common verb in our daily suite of vocabulary as the video-calling app reported more than 200 million meeting participants every single day in March alone.

Zooming had even become a new term as COVID-19 forced people around the world to be domesticated and turn to online options for their social and professional engagement. 

I have personally also gotten on the act as a week ago I moderated my first webinar. In front of 70+ attendees, we discussed remote work and how to be productive.

Besides enjoying the session, I loved the fact that no one could tell that I was wearing shorts throughout the hour.  

Since then, I have been a part of Zoom sessions for the Annual General Meeting and board meetings of the Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI), a book sharing discussion and even virtual tea sessions with my best friend.

VIDEO CONFERENCING IS NOT NEW

The ease of video conferencing has allowed previously unimaginable things to happen.

But video conferencing is not new. The technology behind the video telephone was developed in the late 1920s by AT&T’s Bell Labs and John Logie Baird.

Although there were several experiments in video telephony thereafter, the modern-day version which requires advances in video compression happened only around 1970 when the discrete cosine transform (DCT) algorithm was conceived by Nasir Ahmed, T. Natarajan and K. R. Rao at the University of Texas. The DCT became the basis for the first practical video coding standard that was useful for online videoconferencing.

Over the last two decades, video conferencing devices such as Polycom, Avaya and Cisco made became a prominent feature in the boardrooms of organisations. These five-digit setups would allow video calls to happen with someone in a different location and time zone.

Continued advancement in bandwidth and technology allowed video conferencing to move from boardrooms to be portable on our personal computers or fit snugly in our pockets.

First, Skype came into the picture in 2003, allowing users to communicate over the internet by voice, using a microphone, and by video using a webcam.

Apple’s Facetime simplified the user experience when it was first introduced in 2010 as it used the mobile device’s built-in camera. With the 4G network, anyone can video conference on the go on one of the many social media platforms at the touch of the screen.

But even so, these video conferencing facilities then were used mainly for social purposes as they were riddled with latency and drop calls, while the low-quality webcam often made me look like a pixelated Minecraft character.

And that is if you were even tech-savvy enough to get through the hoops of installing the app in the first place and then set it up to work that way you want.

ZOOM HAS NAILED IT

Which brings us to why Zoom is killing it today.

When Eric Yuen left Webex to start Zoom, he set out to make it the best product in the market.

In the enterprise market, it is cheaper than Webex on pricing and provides more features to allow for a better video calling experience such as Zoom Webinar.

Against the likes of Skype and Hangouts, the simplicity of the user interface puts it ahead of the competition. You will not need to search for another Skype ID to connect before a call. Just an email address with a call hyperlink would start the video call.

And quality is top-notch with high-definition (HD) voice and video capabilities, which reduces the major drop in latency or lag.

To add fun to the functionality and ease, the built-in Touch Up feature allows you to give yourself an airbrushed look while one can easily in a virtual background. These features may sound frivolous to some but in a period such as now where it is frequent and high-usage of video-conferencing, allowing variety adds to Zoom’s appeal.

The ease and simplicity of Zoom make it as easy to adopt as one would when you pick up an Apple phone for the first time.

Since the restriction of movement, businesses and organisations have come up with very creative ways to leverage on Zoom.

Besides organisations using it to replace their work meetings, tuition centres and schools have also used them to conduct real-time lessons. 

Many events that couldn’t physically take place have been transformed into virtual ones. Even yoga and fitness teachers are hosting classes on Zoom while food sellers are using it to showcase their stuff and take orders in real-time.

With every experience possibly delivered to you through your screen, is there ever going to be a need for physical engagement again?

WILL ZOOM DICTATE OUR FUTURE?

While Zoom has definitely made our social and professional engagement easier – something that we are likely to find appealing even after the Circuit Breaker is over – it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.

Take the security of using Zoom for education for instance. About two weeks into Home-based Learning (HBL) for young students in Singapore, we saw a case of Zoombombing – referring to a scenario where a Zoom meeting is hijacked and disrupted by malicious actors.

On Apr 8, hackers got into the online lesson of a school in Singapore and showed obscene messages and images to the students, prompting the Ministry of Education to suspend the use of Zoom for HBL while it investigated the incident.

On Apr 15, Starhub customers experienced service outages that lasted for hours. Impacted households could neither conduct their HBL nor access their emails, let alone joining any video meeting calls.

To be fair, these are outlier situations.

Zoom has since taken steps and measures to beef up its security shortcomings and, after issuing a partial refund of monthly subscription fees, Starhub has assured us that it has learnt from its mistake too.

Of course, some may overlook the occasional lag or security glitch to still opt for Zoom-based events instead of putting up with large crowds at the next conference or seminar.

But for others, attending a conference or seminar in person may be favourable. I would prefer to do so because learning - the main objective of attending a conference or seminar - isn’t just a linear download from the keynote speaker. The interactions with speakers and other attendees are important learning and networking opportunities as well.

As far as social engagements go, the introverts among us may find that Zoom gives them some reprieve from the otherwise busy schedules and therefore virtual meet-ups with friends could remain a prominent feature in their lives even after the COVID-19 situation is over.

A clear shift to Zoom for professional meetings and activities is also unlikely to happen. While the Circuit Breaker period would have highlighted the possibilities and benefits of remote working, facilitated by apps like Zoom, to some companies who may adopt it as a more permanent feature of their operations, there will still be those employers who value their staff being present in the flesh.

It appears that even after the dust on COVID-19 is settled, Zoom will be here to stay. There will be those among us who will replace their face-to-face social, professional and learning pursuits with a Zoom meeting.

But for many others, the excitement in putting on their A-game to make new connections at an event, dressing up to meet friends or having valuable face-time with their bosses and colleagues may outweigh the ability to do any of these things sitting at home in a pair of shorts.

Adrian Tan is Practice Leader - Future of Work Tech at PeopleStrong after spending a decade in recruitment and outplacement. He writes regularly on HR tech.