As many of the platforms users will know Zoom has a limit of 40 minutes on its free license.  Most business users will have realised this for the first time during an important call with a customer or an investor when suddenly the call ends.  Panicking you try to get a new call setup and spend the first few minutes of the call explaining to the other party how IT are going to get a right royal telling off for that happening.

The reality is that 40 minutes is enough for many calls and in fact anything over 40 minutes is often getting into the boring zone.  However for those die hard Zoom users a paid license eliminates this issue and you can zoom away until fatigue has totally set in.

This does not help those who are relying on Zoom to keep in touch over the festive season.  With travel bans in place, quarantines in many countries and restrictions on gatherings there will be many families unfortunately kept apart this Xmas and New Year.  Zoom for these is often the only way for them to see each other and have a meaningful celebration.

Well here comes Zoom to the rescue with an initiative that I have to applaud them for.  For certain days these upcoming holidays Zoom is removing the 40 minute time limit so that families can spend hours upon hours on zoom talking and chatting to each other.

The limits will be removed in recognition of Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and Kwanzaa. The company also lifted its 40-minute limit last month for Thanksgiving Day. Specifically here are the exact times where the limit has been removed:-

  • 3pm GMT Thursday, December 17th, to 11AM GMT Saturday, December 19th, for the end of Hanukkah
  • 3PM GMT Wednesday, December 23rd, to 11AM GMT Saturday, December 26th, for Christmas Eve and Christmas
  • 3PM GMT on Wednesday, December 30th, to 11AM GMT on Saturday, January 2nd, for New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and the end of Kwanzaa

GMT is Greenwich Mean Time which is currently 8 hours behind Hong Kong and Singapore.  A simply google search will help you if you are in a different time zone.

So kudos to Zoom and their team for helping people stay in touch during these difficult times.

Written By Phil Aldridge