Zoom's latest update helps reduce meeting disruptions

Zoom has added new tools to help users reduce disruptions during video conferences. In a blog post , Zoom said that they released two new security features to allow meeting hosts to remove and report disruptive meeting participants.

1. Suspend participant activities

Hosts and co-hosts can now click “Suspend Participant Activities” under the security icon and pause all video, audio, in-meeting chat, annotation, screen sharing, and recording during that time will stop, and end any Breakout Rooms sessions.

They will receive the option to report a user from their meeting, share any details, and optionally include a screenshot. Once they click “Submit,” the reported user will be removed from their meeting, and Zoom’s Trust & Safety team will be notified.

The Suspend Participant Activities feature is enabled by default for all free and paid Zoom users.

2. Report by participants

Meeting participants themselves also have an avenue to report disruptive individuals during a video conference by clicking on the security badge icon on the top left corner. However, this function needs to be enabled by account owners and admins before it can be used.

Both of these new features are available on the Zoom desktop clients for Mac, PC, and Linux, and our mobile apps, with support for the web client and VDI to come later this year.

3. Discovering “the at risk meeting notifier”

Zoom also included one new feature in the latest update.

The “At Risk Meeting Notifier” scans public posts on social media sites and other public online resources for Zoom meeting links. When it finds publicly posted meeting information that indicates a given meeting may be at high risk of being disrupted, Zoom notifies account owners and admins by email.

Zoom says that it uses the information it already has, such as the meeting ID, and uses it to scan and compare against information posted publicly on the Internet and on different social media sites. If a match is found, Zoom will send an email to the meeting host and admin.

4. Adding on to security

Zoom has been working hard updating their app with new features and security as they've seen usage take-off during this Work From Home period.