Zoom this week announced some updates to its popular video conferencing platform. Today, the app is launching a new “Focus” mode, which is designed primarily to ensure that students are not distracted during online classes.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has made online lessons more than needed around the world, audio and video apps are constantly adding new features and improving their services to improve the quality of their experience. Zoom now offers a Focus mode that anyone can use, but perfect for teachers.
The company describes the new functionality as follows: when the presenter turns on the Focus mode, other participants can no longer see each other during a conversation. The presenter will still have access to everyone’s webcams, but other people won’t be distracted by live video of their colleagues.
“Focus mode allows teachers to see videos of their students, and students to see their teachers without noticing other participants in the lesson. Thanks to this function, teachers can observe the class, and students will not be distracted by video recordings of their peers or hesitate to turn on their own camera,” Zoom.
According to Zoom, the feature can be enabled for accounts, groups, or even individual users. Focus mode is available through the More button, which is displayed during a call.
