Zoom is now available for Apple Silicon Macs

by Jonny Evans · December 21, 2020

zoom working on a Mac

I know plenty of people melted their credit card a little more to get their hands on an M1-powered MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, but they’ve needed to use another device to attend any of those Zoom meetings they’ve been invited to. Now they can use their Mac.

Zoom is now available for Apple Silicon Macs

In a small step forward for almost everyone involved in trying to do anything at all from home, Zoom now supports Apple Silicon Macs. Yes, it ran to a certain extent before now on these Macs, but the company has optimised the code for a better, smoother and more reliable native experience on Apple Silicon. You can download this only for Apple Silicon app right here.

You can also download and install a version for Intel Macs.

It is of course rather interesting that Zoom is not available as a Mac App Store app – which means no privacy nutrition label for you. Think about that.

Also read: 15 essential Zoom keyboard shortcuts for iPads and Macs

What else has changed?

Here’s the complete changlog for this new version ofZoom:

New and enhanced features

General features
- Support for Apple Silicon processors
  Zoom desktop client will better support computers with ARM CPUs. A separate installer is available for download in the Zoom Download Center.
- Enhanced cloud contact integration for chat/call features
  Contacts imported through the contact integration can now be easily added as a Zoom contact. Once approved as a Zoom contact, you will have the ability to call or meet with them and see their Zoom status.
Meeting/webinar features
- Enhanced nonverbal feedback and reactions
  Nonverbal feedback options are moved to the Reactions button, and all reactions will be shown in the corner of the participants’ video. The host will see each participant’s reactions in the participant list, as well as the aggregate numbers of each reaction at the bottom of the list.
- Raise hand for host and co-host Hosts and co-hosts can utilize the raise hand feature along with meeting participants and webinar attendees.
- Poll reports available during live sessionThe meeting or webinar host will now have the option to download the full poll results when the poll has ended during the live session, rather than waiting until the meeting or webinar has ended. This will launch their browser and begin the download of the CSV poll report.
Meeting features
- Improved grouping of security options when scheduling
  The “Only authenticated users can join” option is now located in the Security section of the scheduling window, grouping it with Passcode and Waiting Room options to allow for easier selection and use of security features.
Phone features
- Support for text messaging (SMS and MMS)
  Users with Zoom Phone Pro licenses can use their assigned direct phone numbers to send or receive text messages (SMS and MMS). See our text messaging FAQfor more information.
- Enhancements for call queues with call monitoring If call monitoring is enabled for a call queue, members and supervisors can easily monitor their queues and use call monitoring features.
- Call end chimeUsers will hear a chime and see a notification when a call ends abruptly, typically from poor network connection or the other caller ending the call.
- Launch an external app or a URL for incoming callsUsers can configure Zoom Phone to launch a specific app or URL when receiving a call. They can pass additional parameters to the app or website with % arguments; for example, name and caller ID.