#PretendProduct : Zoom Suggestions

Can I get a yes/no poll and some microphone adjustments please and thank you?

Pretend Product is a series of product improvements or inventions based on my everyday problems.

I had the pleasure of attending Zoom University during this global pandemic. Here are some thoughts:

Poll

Yes/No emoji react beyond the clap and thumbs up. My best product suggestions come from observing how a product is actually used. People ask a lot of yes/no questions with mixed response rates with current methods (chat box, emoji reactions). Although the thumbs up can say ‘yes’, what says ‘no’? Silence, unmuting yourself to verbally say no, the clap react?

Audio Calibration

There’s a feature that shuts incoming sound off if it’s too loud. Can I get a feature to calibrate audio across speakers? We have some quiet talkers and some with headsets right down their throats all speaking back to back. Rather than the unpleasant user experience of adjusting my computer volume every time, calibrate the audio across speakers to maintain a level volume. Hard to do? Possibly. Impossible? Nah.

Microphone

To continue with observations, I’ve observed that people (myself included) don’t know when they’re muted until someone else unmutes to say so. A visualizer so that you know that your audio is going through when you’re unmuted would be nice. Lack of visual feedback means that you’re on mute.

With that, having a faster access microphone would help those who may be screen sharing or in another window who then have to rush back to try and unmute. Perhaps a floating mic options across screens/windows?

Can we also unmute people automatically after, let’s say, 5 seconds of not talking? Prevent unnecessary background noise in meetings as well as people being caught in embarrassing moments because they didn’t know that their mic was still on.

Miscellaneous

Is everyone on the chatbox when in a breakout room everyone in the breakout room or everyone in the meeting?

Thank you for your consideration Zoom gods!