Zoom says it is adding support for Amazon Echo Show, Facebook Portal, and Google Nest Hub Max later this year
Zoom from even more places — Zoom is expanding to a variety of new devices later this year, with the company announcing that the Amazon Echo Show, Facebook Portal …
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook launched Portal in 2018 as a closed, Messenger-first video chat device, and has been prying it open since — first with streaming apps and AR lip syncing on Portal TV, then with a commitment to native support for Zoom, Webex, BlueJeans, and GoToMeeting. Zoom's announcement that it is building for Echo Show, Portal, and Nest Hub Max is the conferencing side of that same opening: the biggest workplace meeting platform is moving onto hardware designed for the kitchen counter, not the desk.
First-order effects
- Portal owners gain Zoom as a native app on dedicated hardware, and Facebook's bet on third-party conferencing — announced alongside its own plan to add Zoom, Webex, BlueJeans, and GoToMeeting to Portal — starts paying off in shipped devices rather than promises.
Second-order effects
- Amazon and Google accepting Zoom onto Echo Show and Nest Hub Max turns their smart displays into de facto business endpoints, pressuring both to decide how much workplace software their consumer devices should carry; Facebook gets a stronger sales pitch for Portal as a work-from-home screen.
Third-order effects
- If Zoom's device list keeps expanding, smart displays consolidate into a general-purpose conferencing tier sitting between phones and dedicated room systems, and the line between consumer video-chat hardware and enterprise meeting endpoints blurs.
The trend: Smart displays are being repositioned from single-company video-chat appliances into general-purpose conferencing endpoints as remote work pulls workplace software into the home.