Zoom, the video chat platform that became a household name during 2020’s COVID-driven lockdowns, is adding a number of apps and games to its feature list.
This is notable for game developers for a couple of reasons. First off, any developers using Zoom on the regular might get use out of some of the more productivity-driven additions to Zoom like Trello, Slack, or Github integrations.
On the other side of things, interested game developers now have an interesting and inherently social platform on which to launch their games.
For Zoom, the addition is about complementing and enriching the video call experience we’ve all grown more accustomed to in the last year or so.
“With Zoom Apps, you can streamline workflows, collaborate with colleagues, and also bring elements of fun and wellness into your interactions with colleagues, friends, and family members,” reads a portion of Zoom’s announcement.
“Zoom Apps gives you plenty of screen space to collaborate with the ability to expand and collapse the Apps side panel, open your app in a new window, and switch between multiple Zoom Apps at once.”
Right now, over 50 apps are available in the already-up-and-running Zoom App Marketplace, including 9 games. Those titles are Team Games from BoomTV, Just Say The Word from Doppio Games, LGN Poker from FlowPlay Inc, Gaggle Party from Gaggle Studios, Ask Away from Playco, Werewolf with Friends from Quicksave Interactive, Meetings.fun from the studio of the same name, Dive from Let’s Dive, and Head’s Up from Playco.
It doesn’t appear that Zoom has fully opened the floodgates quite yet, as the announcement advises interested developers to sign up to receive a notification when Zoom Apps open general availability for developers. Details on that and other elements of the Zoom Apps push can be found on Zoom’s developer portal.