What you need to know
- The Zoom app found in the Chrome Web Store will no longer be supported after August 2022.
- Users of the app will instead need to install the Progressive Web App version of Zoom.
- The Play Store version of Zoom will also still be available for Chromebook owners.
We all knew this day was coming, and it's almost here. Chromebook users will soon no longer be able to install or use dedicated Chrome Apps, and that includes the popular video-conferencing service, Zoom.
As noted by 9to5Google, users of the Zoom Chrome Web App have started to see a notice letting them know that they all will soon be deprecated. Instead, Zoom users are being directed to use the new Chrome PWA (Progressive Web App) if they still need to use the service.
Zoom gained incredible popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, seeing exponential growth in a small amount of time. Since then, we've seen different versions of Zoom's app for the best Chromebooks made available, including the aforementioned Chrome Web App, PWA, and an Android app.
Back in 2020, Google announced the deprecation of Chrome Apps, with developers no longer being able to develop or list new Chrome Apps. Shortly after the initial announcement, Google back-tracked a bit, pushing the deprecation to June of 2022. As we rapidly approach the end of June, Google has not decided to push things back even further, prompting users of the Zoom Chrome App and other Chrome Apps to see similar deprecation-related messages.
To absolve any confusion, it appears that while Chrome Apps will no longer be available to download by the end of June, Zoom is providing a bit of courtesy. Its current Chrome App will continue to work until the end of August, giving users some time to switch over to the PWA version of the client.
On the bright side, while it may seem like you might end up losing out on functionality by switching to a PWA, that's simply not the case. Zoom and Google have been working together in an effort to make the experience as great as possible. There's little-to-no difference when it comes to comparing features, but the Zoom PWA offers the same experience that you've grown accustomed to.
Part of this can be attributed to the fact that the Zoom Chrome App was never going to be a sustainable project for the company. But it also goes to show that PWA's are more than capable of replacing traditional Chrome Apps or those from the Play Store.
