Zoom and Chromebooks both experienced rapid growth in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. The video calling software is currently retiring its outdated Chromebook app in order to create room for an improved version.
ZOOM FOR CHROMEBOOKS APP IS CLOSING The Zoom app for Chromebooks is presently displaying a message informing users that the software will be discontinued in August 2022.
After August 2022, this app will no longer receive official support. To join meetings on ChromeOS, kindly utilize the new Zoom for Chrome PWA.
The software, which has been around for a while, offers straightforward access to Zoom meetings but has no other features. Most of its functions are significantly limited, and there hasn’t been a significant upgrade in a while.
Why does the Zoom app keep closing? In part because it is constructed using outdated technology.
The older app is a typical Chrome app that has lost a lot of its utility over the past few years. Most significantly, Google said that it would gradually phase out Chrome apps across all platforms. Support for Windows, Mac, and Linux will stop in June 2021.
Google will stop accepting new apps for Chrome apps on Chrome OS as of June 2022, and all current apps will become private and unlisted in the Chrome Web Store.
It makes reasonable, then, that Zoom would stop providing formal support for its app.
However, Zoom’s Progressive Web App for Chromebooks, which first emerged in 2021 and has received numerous significant enhancements over the past year, serves as further reason.
PERPETUATE THE ZOOM PWA The Zoom for Chrome PWA is an improved iteration of the original software that functions more similarly to what Zoom provides on Windows and macOS. The more feature-rich app offers a recognizable user interface in addition to more sophisticated capabilities like background blur. We were pleased with the changes the app offered even when we only gave it a quick glance when it first launched.
The Zoom for Chrome PWA, however, wasn’t without its share of issues, some of which were detrimental to Chromebook app users.
When the PWA first debuted, some functionalities on older Chromebooks weren’t supported. Anything without at least a quad-core processor was unfortunate to lose gallery view. At the time, bugs involving corrupt video streams were also frequent. Fortunately, Zoom has improved over time to the point that the PWA is currently a top-notch experience.
It doesn’t sound like the traditional Zoom software for Chromebooks will just stop functioning right now, but its shelf life is undoubtedly short. We anticipate that the app will eventually just stop functioning.
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