With everyone trapped at home in lockdown during the pandemic, Zoom was the go-to application for meetings. As a result, the company grew at an unsustainable triple-digit rate throughout FY 2021, peaking at 369% by the third quarter.

In the most recent quarters later, in Q2 2023, it reached single-digit (8%) growth (but was still sitting on $5.5 billion in cash). As a result, the company cannot solely depend on web-based meeting services.

That's why they've been working on new and improved ways to extend into markets like call centers, sales intelligence, and telephone calls, as well as evolving their current system into a whiteboarding service.

In addition, Zoomtopia today announced the beta release of its email and calendar software. Founder and CEO Eric Yuan recognizes some people spend a lot of time using Zoom. So he wants to provide all the necessary tools to make that possible.

"We will announce the beta of a Zoom email and calendar clients. Any user can download a new client to use our email and calendar," Yuan said in an interview with TechCrunch.

But on the back end, they can connect to a Gmail or Microsoft Outlook account or server if they wish. "On the server side, it could still be a Google or Microsoft integration for existing Google and Microsoft customers," he added.

It is expected that many Zoom customers will choose to use their built-in apps since many are longtime customers of Google and Microsoft; SMBs with no formal IT teams may also choose to let Zoom manage the apps and their back-ends.

The company is also announcing a hosted email and calendar service. It includes the ability to create a unique custom domain and end-to-end encryption.

He pointed out that the Zoom-hosted service differs from consumer email like Gmail because it's not designed to share. Rather, it will be more like a private platform where a small group shares email.

The number of emails you get might be limited due to the number of people who will be given access to the platform. The degree to which you are pestered by junk email may vary.

The company's goal is to have a tightly integrated email and calendar app with limited access points to the outside world.

The service will be free for Zoom customers and users connecting with Microsoft Outlook or Gmail. For customers who want to use zoom for everything, the service will be available as part of a higher subscription plan or the Zoom One Pro plan at no additional cost.

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