Zoom adds collaborative notes you can edit while on a video call

Zoom is trying to expand its video chat platform into a full-service office suite, and its latest addition hits on the need to create and share documents. The company is adding a feature called Notes that allows users to create, share, and simultaneously edit a text document.

Notes will appear alongside a video call where Zoom’s chat box usually is. People in the call can hop in to make edits as the meeting is happening, making it easier to keep paying attention to the conversation than if they had to switch over to another screen.

The feature is being pitched as a handy meeting prep and follow-up companion. Zoom wants users to make a doc with a meeting agenda, edit it during the call, then share it afterward for anyone who missed or needs reminders.

Zoom has been rapidly expanding what its service can do over the past year or so. The company added an email and calendar service (say hello to @zmail), and it’s been beefing up its Slack-competitor, called Team Chat. It’s also added a bunch of AI features to help people keep up with meetings.

The company faces an uphill battle, though. It surged as work went remote, but now that Google and Microsoft have improved their own video chatting services, it’s easy for customers to go ahead and leave Zoom behind. Any subscriber to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 already has options for email, calendars, notes, video calls, and team chatting. The question for Zoom is whether it can build out quality competitors before its customers just switch away, even if the video calling services from Google and Microsoft aren’t quite as good.