As the demand for video meetings continues on, LinkedIn has been taking note, gradually adding support for various third-party video providers over the last year in order to facilitate video meetings in the app. However this past week, LinkedIn quietly rolled out a new, native video option within its messaging platform, enabling users to connect without downloading a separate video app.
Users can now easily hold video meetings without leaving the business networking platform; they’ll simply need to click the camera icon in the top right corner of a messaging window. This 'Create Video Meeting' option within the chat window also provides the capacity to switch to other video providers if you wish.
The added feature is designed to boost the productivity that can happen within the LinkedIn app or website.
LinkedIn is also planning to phase in other well-known features that are present in many video conferencing platforms such as virtual backgrounds, screensharing and calendar integration via ICS. They’ll also be looking to add group meetings, with the current system only able to support one-on-one video discussions.
“Our investment in video meetings has opened innovation for video conferencing across the LinkedIn ecosystem, with potential use cases ranging from messaging peers to interviewing candidates,” LinkedIn said.
“As the professional landscape transitions to a mix of in-person and virtual communication, we are committed to building the best possible video meeting experience for our members.”
This native video chat UI will make it easier to connect in the moment to enhance your discussion without disruption. Additionally, it dispplays LinkedIn-specific profile information for each user at the bottom of their screen, providing additional context about who's speaking, based on their LinkedIn profile bio.LinkedIn's also looking to help facilitate video connection where possible, with new prompts that will be triggered within your chat when you include relevant terms in your text - such as, 'ready for our video meeting?'It's also another step towards video for LinkedIn, which has been gradually adding in more visual tools to align with broader trends. LinkedIn's native video meeting option is being rolled out to all members from this week.
