In 2020, Zoom has become one of the leading video conferencing software apps. It enables you to virtually interact with co-workers when in-person meetings aren't possible, and it thas been hugely successful for social events, too.

Make no mistake: Zoom is an essential tool for small-, medium-, and large-sized teams who want to keep in touch and continue their daily workflows with minimal disruption - as well as becoming a firm favourite with individuals, especially around holidays like Thanksgiving in the US and Christmas around the world.

Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service you can use to virtually meet with others - either by video or audio-only or both, all while conducting live chats - and it lets you record those sessions to view later. Over half of Fortune 500 companies reportedly used Zoom in 2019 and during 2020 it hit even greater heights, racking up 227 per cent growth over the year.

When people are talking about Zoom, you'll usually hear the following phrases: Zoom Meeting and Zoom Room. A Zoom Meeting refers to a video conferencing meeting that's hosted using Zoom. You can join these meetings via a webcam or phone. Meanwhile, a Zoom Room is the physical hardware setup that lets companies schedule and launch Zoom Meetings from their conference rooms.

Zoom Rooms require an additional subscription on top of a Zoom subscription and are an ideal solution for larger companies.

Here are Zoom's core features:

1. One-on-one meetings: Host unlimited one-on-one meetings even with the free plan.

2. Group video conferences: Host up to 500 participants (if you purchase the "large meeting" add-on). The free plan, however, allows you to host video conferences of up to 40 minutes and up to 100 participants.

3. Screen sharing: Meet one-on-one or with large groups and share your screen with them so they can see what you see.

4. Recording: You can record your meetings or events too.

Zoom allows one-to-one chat sessions that can grow into group calls, training sessions and webinars for internal and external audiences, and global video meetings with up to 1,000 participants and as many as 49 on-screen videos. The free tier allows unlimited one-on-one meetings but limits group sessions to 40 minutes and 100 participants. Paid plans start at $15 per month per host.

Zoom offers four pricing tiers (not including a Zoom Room subscription):

1. Zoom Free: This tier is free. You can hold an unlimited number of meetings. Group meetings with multiple participants are capped at 40 minutes in length, and meetings can't be recorded.

2. Zoom Pro: This tier costs $14.99/£11.99 per month and meeting host. It allows hosts to create personal meeting IDs for repetitive Zoom Meetings, and it allows meeting recording in the cloud or your device, but it caps group meeting durations at 24 hours.

3. Zoom Business: This tier costs $19.99/£15.99 per month and meeting host (10 minimum). It lets you brand Zoom meetings with vanity URLs and company branding, and it offers transcripts of Zoom meetings recorded in the cloud, as well as dedicated customer support.

4. Zoom Enterprise: This tier costs $19.99/£15.99 per mo

5. nth and per meeting host (100 minimum) and is meant for businesses with 1,000+ employees. It offers unlimited cloud storage for recordings, a customer success manager, and discounts on webinars and Zoom Rooms.

6. Optional - Zoom Rooms: If you want to set up Zoom Rooms, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial, after which Zoom Rooms require an additional $49/£39 per month and room subscription, while webinars using Zoom cost $40/£32 per month and host.

If you don't have access to any apps - or haven't installed one - you can run Zoom in a browser. Even if you do have Zoom apps, you can run Zoom in a browser instead. When you click on a Zoom link on a desktop, it will open a quick browser tab that will then launch the app on your device.

You can bypass the app and run it directly in the browser instead if you prefer. You might try this if your app isn't working, or if it's out of date or if you're having login problems. You just have to close the app and return to your browser showing this dialog - and you'll see the link to join in the browser.

It is actually possible to get Zoom working on your TV so you can have a video call on the big screen. We've written a detailed guide on the various ways you can get Zoom on your TV that is worth checking out.

Early in 2020, concerns were raised about Zoom both in terms of security and problems with unwanted guests known as Zoombombers.

The company made moves to counter these issues and reassure users about the importance of security and privacy. This includes simple things like removing the meeting ID from the title bar of the call so if users share screenshots online the meeting isn't exposed to future abuse.

The company has released a number of updates to the app to boost the security credentials.

The rise in prominence of Zoom lead the service to being abused by internet trolls and people with too much time on their hands. Some individuals were hunting down public and insecure Zoom meetings login and letting themselves in, then "bombing" other people on the call with graphic videos, pornography and other inappropriate content.

We wrote a guide on how to stop Zoombombing a while back and there are various ways you can prevent this from happening, including securing your calls, preventing screen sharing and even disabling video. The team behind Zoom made improvements to secure your calls and keep them safe, and as far as we know, Zoombombing is no longer an issue.

Zoom has been updated with security changes to reassure users. One of these has been the requirement for a password as default for Zoom meeting login. This, combined with virtual waiting rooms, ensures that only those people who have been invited to the call are actually allowed in.

Zoom has made it easy to manage and secure your meetings when they're happening. There are a range of security tools you can now access with a couple of clicks including the ability to lock the meeting when it has started so no new people can join, remove current participants on the call, muting participants and disabling private chat too.

To access the Zoom security tools, you can simply click on the security button that appears in the window when the call is happening or hover over a participant to interact with them specifically - to remove them from the call for example.

In October 2020, Zoom unveiled the public beta for OnZoom. It is described as an online events platform and marketplace that allows paid Zoom users to create, host, and monetise events such as fitness classes, concerts, stand-up or improv shows, or music lessons.

"We were humbled and inspired by all of the amazing ways the world adapted to a literal shutdown of in-person events amid COVID-19. When business owners, entrepreneurs, and organizations of all sizes had to find some way - any way - to stay the course and continue providing services to their customers, many turned to Zoom," Zoom explained. "OnZoom simplifies that experience."

Visit onzoom.com to learn more about how OnZoom works.

In October 2020, Zoom announced Zapps, or apps that both free and paid Zoom users will have access to within the Zoom platform.

"Think of Zapps as an app store right where you need it most - in a Zoom meeting login, room, chat, webinar, phone call, and even your contacts directory," Zoom announced while explaining that Zapps can "improve productivity and help create more engaging experiences."

Launch partners include Atlassian, Asana, Box, Dropbox, Slack, Wrike, Coursera, Kahoot!, Kaltura, HubSpot, Chorus, Gong, Cameo, Exer, Slido, Lucidspark, Miro, Mural, ServiceNow, and PagerDuty. For example, you can use the Dropbox Zapp to share the document you've been working on, or you can put up a poll using the Slido Zapp, or you can pull up the Asana Zapp and do updates on team projects.

The first of these Zapps will land by the end of 2020. Zoom plans to open the ability to offer a Zapp to more developers in the future. Users will be able to search and add approved Zapps and integrate them directly into their Zoom accounts.

Visit zoom.us/zapps to see watch demo videos.

Zoom lets you record calls as videos. You do need permission to do so though. The meeting host will have to enable recordings in settings. It's worth checking your account settings to make sure recording is enabled before you get started.

1. Log into your Zoom account

2. Click to view Account Settings/Meeting settings

3. Navigate to the Recording tab and click to enable video recording

It's worth noting that Zoom admins can activate recording for everyone, for users or groups. There's more guidance on recording settings here.

In order to record a Zoom meeting login, you must choose whether to use the local or cloud option. Local means you store the video file yourself on your computer or in another storage area. With Cloud, which is for paid subscribers only, Zoom stores the video for you in its cloud storage. But, to record videos, you need Zoom on mac OS, Windows, or Linux. When you record a meeting and choose Record to the Cloud, the video, audio, and chat text is recorded in the Zoom cloud.

When the Zoom call begins you should see an option to record on the bottom of the screen. Clicking that then lets you record locally or in the cloud.

If you don't see the option to record, check your settings in the web app (under My Meeting Settings) or have your account admin enable it. The recording files can be downloaded to a computer or streamed from a browser.

During the meeting, you can also see which participants are recording the meeting and those on the meeting will also be told when the meeting is being recorded. When the call is over Zoom will automatically convert the recording into a usable MP4 video file.

It is possible to record Zoom meeting login and calls on mobile too. However, this is done via cloud recordings so you need a paid Zoom membership in order to use this feature. It's also worth noting that cloud storage is limited, so be careful how many meetings you record while using the mobile app.

To record a Zoom call on mobile follow these steps:

1. Open the Zoom app on your mobile

2. Click to join or start a meeting

3. Click the three dot menu on the bottom right of the screen

4. Click "Record to the cloud" or "record"

5. You'll then see a recording icon and the ability to pause or stop recording

6. Once the call is over you'll find the recording in the "My Recordings" section of the Zoom site

Zoom has introduced settings that allow you to adjust the audio on your call and remove unnecessary and unwanted background noise.

In order to activate this, click into the settings, then find the audio options. In there you'll see a drop-down menu with "suppress background noise".

There are varying levels of suppression you can add here. The highest will remove as much as possible, reducing issues with fan noises and dogs barking while the lower levels will still let you play background music on a chilled-out casual call with friends.

If the built-in noise removal isn't enough there are other options available.

That's right, Zoom login will let you share a wide range of content on your presentation, including YouTube videos. This is a bit of a sneaky option, because all you have to do is have the video that you want to share open in your browser. Then, when you want to share that, you just use the share screen option and pick the browser from the options. Note: you'll also need to tick the "share computer sound" option in that box to ensure that everyone on the call can hear the YouTube video as well as see it.