With the vaccine roll-out now well underway, and a possible end to the COVID-19 pandemic coming into view, many businesses are planning for a return to the office, and bringing their employees back into their central space.
But many people are now looking to remain at home, at least part-time, in order to improve work-life balance. The opportunities afforded around such throughout the WFH shift have changed people’s perspectives – and with that, Facebook is looking to provide more tools to help people be as productive as possible from their home office space.
Which is where this new addition for Facebook’s Portal video calling device comes in.
As explained by Facebook:
“In addition to Workplace on Portal, last year, we introduced support for BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, Webex, and Zoom on Portal Mini, Portal, and Portal+. And now, we’re adding Zoom and GoToMeeting to Portal TV, so you can connect with family, friends, and colleagues using the largest screen in your home.”
Yes, now you can connect your Zoom meet-ups to your home TV set, via the Portal TV device, which will provide another way to stay connected as you continue to work from home.
Facebook’s Portal Home provides various advantages in this respect, with its ‘Smart Camera’ tools keeping you in frame, and ‘Smart Sound’ to enhance your audio when speaking, while minimizing background noise. Facebook also notes that having your meeting on a separate screen frees up your computer, so you can continue to work, and look up relevant details, during your discussions.
“Now, your favorite Zoom functionality extends to the largest screen in your home, so you can work from your couch as well as your desk. That includes joining breakout rooms for brainstorming in smaller groups, calendar integration to help you stay on top of your schedule, screen sharing to improve remote collaboration, and virtual backgrounds to improve your overall experience. And while Zoom on Portal TV is great for your work calls, it’s also a great way to connect with friends and family when the work day is over.”
It’s been interesting to see how Zoom has become synonymous with the new work from home culture, with the term become a verb, much like ‘googling’, underlining its rapid branding in the space. Facebook would love to have all of that focus on Portal’s native meeting tools, but it’ll take an increase in sales as well, and Portal sales have indeed been solid over the past year.
Indeed, Portal sales have reported increased 10x since March 2020, and again, with more people looking to keep working from home, at least in some capacity, you can expect to see broader adoption of Portal, among other video-calling devices, moving forward.
Adding more functionality is key to this push, and the addition of Zoom integration into Portal TV is a good update in this respect.
