Two things have exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic: Chromebooks and Zoom. Now, the video calling app is shutting down its Chromebook app to make way for something better.
The Zoom app for Chromebook is closing
A notification is currently appearing in Chromebook’s Zoom app notifying users that the app will be shutting down in August 2022.
This application will no longer be officially supported after August 2022. Please use the new Zoom for Chrome PWA to join meetings on ChromeOS.
The app has been around for several years and offers easy access to Zoom meetings without any additional features. It’s severely limited in most features and hasn’t seen a significant update in quite some time.
Why is the Zoom app closing? Part of that is because it’s built on aging technology.
The older apps are “traditional” Chrome apps that haven’t been particularly relevant for several years. Most notably, Google announced in August 2020 that it would be phasing out Chrome apps on all platforms. For Windows, Mac, and Linux, support ends in June 2021.
As of June 2022, Google will also de-plug Chrome apps on Chrome OS, no longer accept new apps, and all existing apps will become private and not listed in the Chrome Web Store .
With that in mind, it makes sense that Zoom would end official support for its app.
But as a further impetus, Zoom is rolling out its Progressive Web App for Chromebooks as early as 2021, which has seen several major updates over the past year.
Long live Zoom PWAs
Zoom for Chrome PWA is a better-equipped version of the original app, and more like what Zoom offers on Windows and macOS. The more full-featured app has a familiar user interface as well as more advanced features, including background blur. Even though we had an early look at the app at launch, we were very pleased with the improvements it brought.
But Zoom for Chrome PWAs isn’t without some issues, some of which hurt existing users of the Chromebook app.
When PWA launched, it didn’t support some features on lower-end Chromebooks. Especially the gallery view, which is an unfortunate loss without at least a quad-core processor. The bug that the video source was interrupted was also common at the time. Thankfully, Zoom has improved over time, and PWAs are now a fantastic experience.
If you’re still using your Chromebook’s traditional Zoom app, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to stop working right away, but it’s certainly time-limited. Eventually, we expect the app to stop working.
More on Chromebooks:
FTC: We use car affiliate links to earn revenue. more.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: