New Zoom Features – Make Sure Your Zoom App is Up-to-Date

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Over the past month, Zoom has added a number of new features.

You must be on the latest Zoom version to take advantage of these features.

To update Zoom, navigate to the Zoom desktop application, select your Profile in the top right corner and select Check for Updates. (For more detailed instructions, see Zoom’s update video and article.)

Denison classrooms and labs will receive a Zoom update the evening of Thursday, October 15, 2020. New features will be available in spaces on Friday, October 16, 2020.

Highlighted Features

  • Self-Select Breakout Rooms – Want to allow your participants to pick a breakout room based on a topic of interest to them? Now you can with the self-select breakout rooms feature. If desired, you can pre-assign or manually assign some individuals to breakout rooms so you have discussion leaders in each room and then allow other participants to self-select.
  • Multi-Spotlight – Want to focus everyone’s view on meeting participants that are serving as presenters, panelists, etc.? Use the multi-spotlight feature! This will make the thumbnails for the selected individuals large in the main window. You can spotlight up to 9 participants. All other participant videos appear as small thumbnails in the band above. This will be the view for ALL participants that are on a current version of the Zoom desktop app.
  • The Multi-Pin feature works the same as Multi-Spotlight but affects only your view.
  • The Custom Gallery Organization feature allows you to drag and drop participant thumbnails so they appear in your desired order within the Gallery view. If you want all participants to see the same order, all you need to do is click the View icon and select Follow Host’s Video Order. When you want to return control of the video view to participants, click Follow Host’s Video Order again to remove the check. To return to the default gallery order, select Release Video Order.

For a full feature list, visit the Zoom Release Notes page to learn more. For a curated selection of Zoom resources, please see the Resources section of the MyDenison Zoom page.

If you have Zoom questions, please contact the ITS Service Desk at servicedesk@denison.edu or 740-587-6395.