Software Update: Zoom 5.9.0

Version 5.9.0 of the video conferencing software Zoom has been released. This program makes it possible to attend online meetings, conferences and lectures, among other things. It is available for the most common operating systems and is available in a free and paid version with more features. The following changes and improvements have been made in this release:

General features

• Upgrade to 64-bit within Check for Updates
• When users are checking for updates on a 64-bit device and have the 32-bit version of the desktop client installed, they will have the option to update to the latest version of the 64-bit client instead.
• Observe privacy settings or calendar events
• When assigning scheduling privileges to other users in Zoom, users can choose if they can manage any meetings that were marked as private in Outlook or Google calendar. If they cannot manage private events, these users cannot see the invite link, meeting topic, or attendee list.
• Improved and expanded emoji support
• Our emoji suite has been upgraded to provide almost 900 more emojis for use in in-meeting chat and Zoom chat. These new emojis include various skin tones and are Unicode 13.1 compatible.
• Additional MSI/PLIST/GPO/MDM options
  • DisableUpdateTo64Bit – Prevent automatic upgrade to 64-bit client
  • Disabled by default, this prevents the desktop client from automatically choosing and installing the 64-bit version of the client when downloading and installing a new version.
  • DisableManualClosedCaptioning – Prevent use of manual closed captioning
  • Disabled by default, this prevents the use of manual, user-entered captioning in meetings and webinars.

Meeting/webinar features

• Save custom gallery view order
• Meeting hosts can save the customized gallery view order for subsequent meetings. The customized gallery order is saved to each unique meeting ID, which allows the host to load the saved customized gallery order to avoid continually customizing the gallery order for each meeting.

Meeting features

• Schedule meetings with Focus mode
• Hosts can schedule a meeting with Focus mode to be started automatically when the meeting starts, in order to provide less distractions to all meeting participants.
• Disable Broadcast Message from host to breakout rooms
• Admins on the account can now disable the ability for meeting hosts to broadcast messages to all breakout room participants.

Webinar Features

• Enhanced panelist authentication option
• Webinar hosts can require panelists to be signed-in with the account associated with the email they are set as a panelist with. If trying to join without being signed-in or signed-in with the wrong account, they will be notified and given the option to sign-in or switch account.

chat features

• Preview public channels
• Public channels can be previewed before joining and will show the channel name, description, number of members, and some recent messages. Previewing is not available when Advanced Chat Encryption is turned on, and recent messages will not show if the channel admin has restricted new members from seeing previous messages.
• Enhanced search when tagging a channel
• Enhancements when tagging a channel in a chat message allow users to type any string of characters to find and tag the channel
• Enhancements to group chats
• Various enhancements to group chats in order to improve discoverability. The display of users in a group chat is enhanced to make it easier to distinguish between group chats. Additionally, users can give a group chat a topic, without having to convert it into a channel.
• GIF send enhancement
• When selecting a GIF from the GIPHY search panel, the GIF will be displayed in the message compose box. Additional text can be added before sending the GIF.
• Recent search history
• Search will show you a history of your recent searches, and selecting one will perform that search again.
• Missed meeting call button
• When contacts attempt to call you to join a video meeting and you are unavailable, these missed meeting calls will be centrally located so that you can quickly check what you missed, with the ability to jump to the chat or channel or start a video call based on the missed meeting call.

Zoom App features

• Pre-approved app notification
• Apps that have been pre-approved by account admins will now notify users of their new status and availability for installation. This notification will only appear for users or user groups the app has been pre-approved for.
• Support for Zoom Apps in Breakout Rooms
• Zoom Apps can now be accessed and used while in Breakout Rooms. This feature requires version 5.8.3 or higher.

Phone features

• Video greetings and videomail
• If enabled by the admin, users can record a video greeting that is played for missed inbound calls from other Zoom Phone users in the same account. These users can then leave a video voicemail message (videomail) that can be played back.
• Transfer calls in Desktop Power User experience (Power Pack)
• Users with the Power Pack add-on can search for contacts and transfer calls directly from the Desktop Power User experience, without having to open the main Zoom client window.

Resolved Issues

• Minor bug fixes
• Security enhancements
• Resolved an issue for a subset of users regarding video quality being limited when a Teams room joins a Zoom meeting via guest join
• Resolved an issue regarding short-form Youtube links not providing a link preview in Zoom chat
• Resolved an issue regarding meeting titles with Japanese characters are erased
• Resolved an issue regarding the inability to make certain international calls to numbers located in Uruguay
• Resolved an issue regarding 8:9 aspect ratio videos playing incorrectly in a meeting
• Resolved an issue regarding 1080p video in Gallery view
• Resolved an issue regarding not being able to join different meetings simultaneously on desktop when enabled
• Resolved an issue for a subset of users regarding importing contacts from O365
• Resolved an issue for a subset of users regarding proxy settings and split tunneling
• Resolved an issue regarding the selected portion of shared screen moving up slightly after stopping/starting sharing
• Resolved an issue regarding EnforceAppSignInToJoin and AutoSSOLogin MSI options

Note: The Create, remove, rename breakout rooms after launch feature was pulled from release due to issues with deployment, and will be available in another upcoming release.