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Zoom Integration on Upwork!

daryl_sando
Community Member

The Upwork Team is committed to making sure all our customers have the best experience possible on the Upwork platform. In order to make that happen, we’re constantly listening to your feedback and thinking of ways we can implement those suggestions and changes. 

 

We know that our customers have experienced challenges with Upwork’s video and call features, and we realized they wanted and needed a different resource that would allow them to conduct pre-contract conversations while still abiding by Upwork’s Terms of Service. 

 

In order to make having those pre-contract conversations easier, we’ve implemented a brand new integration with Zoom, a video calling platform, which we know many of our customers are already very familiar with.  

 

Why are we adding an option to make Zoom calls directly through Upwork?

 

In short, we want to help both clients and talent to succeed, and we want everyone to have a great experience when using Upwork. 

 

We recognize how important it is for talent and clients to have a way to communicate with each other for everything from contract negotiations to project feedback.

 

With the new Zoom integration, our goals are to:

 

  1. Decrease the number of calls with issues
  2. Increase the level of customer satisfaction with the calling feature 
  3. Give users an easy way to make calls on Upwork

 

How does the Zoom integration work? 

 

Both talent and clients can start Zoom calls directly through Upwork Messages. The calls will take place via a Zoom account hosted by Upwork, so there’s no need to start a new Zoom account or use a pre-existing one. 

 

All you have to do to start a Zoom call on Upwork is:

 

  1. Click on the call icon in the top right of a messaging room with at least two participants.
  2. Select the option to start a Zoom meeting.
  3. Click on the link to join the meeting.
  4. Open within your browser or download the Zoom app.

 

Again, you don’t need a personal Zoom account in order to start or join a meeting.

 

The option to start a Zoom call is available on both the Upwork website and the mobile app. All Upwork users who have access to Upwork messages can access the new Zoom feature.

 

Why do Upwork’s Terms of Service require pre-contract communications to stay on Upwork? 

 

Upwork considers the safety and protection of Upwork customers and the marketplace to be of utmost importance. Once you take your conversations somewhere other than Upwork, there is an increased risk of fraud, circumvention, and other behaviors that could harm the Upwork community. Essentially, you lose a great deal of security once you take a conversation off Upwork. 

 

When all communications and work stay on the Upwork platform, we’re able to track and address issues and harmful behaviors that may arise. 

 

You can read more about the TOS requirements regarding pre-contract communications here

 

What else are we doing to improve communication on Upwork? 

 

When using either the new Zoom integration or Upwork’s video and calling features, we always encourage you to provide feedback. We’re constantly reviewing this feedback and using it to make improvements.

 

We’ve already heard lots of great feedback from the Upwork community, and we’re currently researching and looking for ways to help users:

 

  • Easily schedule meetings on a calendar, particularly between timezones
  • Bring non-Upwork team members into the interview process
  • Ensure clear communication on the Upwork platform

 

As always, we’d love to hear your suggestions on how we can make Upwork even better! Keep an eye out for new capabilities and features we’ll be rolling out in the future. 



Daryl Sando

Sr. Manager

Upwork Trust & Safety 

28 Comments
AleksandarD
Community Manager

Hi Salima,

 

Thanks for following up. One of our team members already reached out to you directly via this support ticket to assist you further.

 

Thank you.

7463d77d
Community Member

Manually scheduling meetings with multiple upworkers across time-zones for pre-contract discussions is an impossibly time-consuming task, in an otherwise excellent process, which slows us down, and no doubt reduces hours contracted, harming all parties. Please enable build a calendly integration. 

JoanneP
Moderator

Hi Bryan,

 

Thanks for sharing your feedback. I'll be sure to share this with the team for consideration. 

9dee240f
Community Member

I have to agree with many of the comments here. If it is possible, please add calendly integration, or enhance the current calendar integration with the ability to schedule Zoom meetings in advance that allows sharing the zoom link with clients for pre-contract interviews. Are any of these features in the road map? Thank you.

136c0d6a
Community Member

Please add  me zoom meeting app 

Thanks so much 

data_viz
Community Member

Hi, As some of them had pointed out here, I am wondering if there is a way to schedule meetings for a meeting to be held in the future via Zoom on Upwork. Is that feature available?

NikolaS
Moderator

Hi Subha,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us. I would like to clarify that users with synced calendars, as well as those who manually added the event to their calendars, will be able to join the meeting via the link in the calendar event. You can also join via the link in the message room, or by using the Zoom meeting feature. You can find more information in this help article

data_viz
Community Member

Thank you Nikola! That's very helpful.