Here’s how you used Zoom in 2022

We love seeing how y’all used Zoom during the past year, and we wanted to share some of the details. We pulled some metrics, sent out a survey, and combined it all to see how you used Zoom in 2022!

We were curious:

• Which are the busiest days on the Zoom platform?
• How often do people try to talk while on mute?
• How do people feel about emojis? 🤔
• Which generation loves using GIFs the most (and the least)?
• How many people are Zooming from bed?
• Who else is waving at the end of a Zoom video call? 👋

These are meant to be fun, but we might all learn a thing or two about how to connect with our colleagues, what days NOT to schedule meetings, when to fire up a whiteboard, and more. Enjoy! 

We aggregated anonymized Zoom usage data from Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022 to glean insights into how you used Zoom over the past year. We looked at the number of meetings held as well as meeting minutes, the number of phone calls made and call minutes, webinar and event sessions, as well as overall chat, whiteboard, and room activity. Here’s what we found:

The “Monday scaries” might be more apropos in the hybrid work world since Tuesdays see a lot of action on Zoom. Fridays are a little quieter. Seems like we all have our heads down toward the end of the week - or maybe we’re just taking time off.

• Tuesday is the busiest day for the number of meetings, conference room usage, and hosting hybrid events.
• Wednesday is the busiest day for making phone calls, sending team chats, using virtual whiteboards, and hosting webinars.
• Thursday is the most popular day for people to use @all in Zoom Team Chat.
• Friday is the slowest workday for meetings, phone calls, chats, webinars, and the use of rooms. 

We're meeting on video in smaller groups and getting more efficient. You also use screen-sharing to collaborate!

• Average meeting size was 7 participants
• Average meeting length was 52 minutes
• On average, 46.5% of meetings use screen sharing. 
• Tuesday is the busiest day for meetings, followed by Wednesday. 

Team chats

We don't know about you, but chat is where we connect the most with our teammates! The data shows you're doing all the things on Team Chat — typing, reacting, sharing, and posting GIFs — the most on Wednesdays.

Fun facts about collaborating in Team Chat:

• The top day for sharing GIFs was Nov. 10, 2021.
• Wednesday was the most popular day for using emojis in chat.
• Happy Halloween! The top day for @all in chat was Oct. 31, 2022. (Note: we only have @all data since July 2022.)

Phone calls

You’re using Zoom Phone at record rates! We passed 3 million and then 4 million Zoom Phone licenses sold in 2022 alone, helping further enable you to connect from everywhere. In terms of the number of calls and minutes, Wednesday was the busiest day of the week for Zoom Phone calls; Friday was the slowest.

Whiteboards

We launched Zoom Whiteboard in April 2022. And while we only have about half a year’s worth of data, we love how much you’re using whiteboards! With Zoom Whiteboard, you can create a whiteboard during a meeting or outside of one in the Zoom app. On average, 81% of whiteboards are created during video meetings, which tells us you love to ideate, annotate, and more live with colleagues!  

Rooms

Zoom Rooms are cool because they bring video into any space, which helps bring the remote crew right into the office! The busiest day of the workweek for Zoom Rooms usage was Tuesday. As companies return to the office, we’ve seen a steady increase in Zoom Rooms meeting activity the past year –– an average of 6.5% increase month-over-month since November 2021.

Events

If you want to host a multi-day event that your busy target audience will be available to attend, you may want to skip late October, because their calendars are full. The busiest day of 2022 for Zoom Events was Oct. 26 - followed by Oct. 24, Oct. 25, and Oct. 27. Otherwise, Tuesday was the busiest day of the week for Zoom Events. 

We surveyed* more than 2,800 people who used Zoom in the past year to get more insights into how you prefer to work and communicate. It turns out those opinions differ by generation and gender, too. Raise your virtual hand if you relate to some of these!

Across all generations, respecting other people and their time was really important. The top pet peeves in our survey:

1. When someone talks over other people (34%)
2. When the meeting is already over time and someone says they have another question (28%)
3. When someone eats in a Zoom meeting while not on mute (24%)

Some other notables annoyances:

• Friday afternoon meetings – especially for Millennials. (We. Get. That.)
• All caps typing

• When someone puts a meeting on your calendar without an explanation 🤔

When asked what was the most annoying jargon, people had some strong opinions. The biggest offenders:

1. “Think outside the box.” (This was the top one for men) 
2. “Circle back” (The top one for women) 
3. “Low-hanging fruit”

Of note:

• Gen Z survey-takers don’t love “I’ll ping you” and “take this offline.”
• “Synergize” gets under the skin of Millennials and Gen X-ers.
• Baby Boomers say“think outside the box” is the most egregious. 

You can’t escape emojis these days. So how do people really feel about emojis in business communications? 

• 22% Love
• 17% Hate
• 61% Indifferent

Of note:

• Baby Boomers were the outlier - they reported hating emojis more than any other generation (25%). 
• Women love them (25%) nearly as much as men hate them (21%).

We also asked how people preferred to emoji “okay” in a message. Across all generations, the thumbs up was the favorite! 

• 69% 👍
• 17% 👌
• 1% 🤘
• 1% 🙌

This, by the way, contradicts a recent report that Gen Z believes that the thumbs up is passive-aggressive, even downright hostile. But 72% of Gen Z-ers in our survey were OK with using the thumbs up to say “okay.” 

We didn’t dare ask about “jif” vs. “gif,” but we were curious how people felt about GIFs in business communication. Much like emojis, most people don’t get up in arms on GIF use, but there was definitely a lot more shade on the animated format:

• 20% Love them
• 28% Hate them
• 53% Indifferent

Of note:

• Baby Boomers are strongly against GIFs, with 36% hating and just 6% loving them.
• Millennials are your GIF advocate, with 48% pro-GIF and 14% anti-GIF.
• Men and women equally hate them (28% for both).

Nearly everyone in our survey said they use a combo of tools to stay connected at work –– a combo of email, phone, video conferencing, team chat/messaging, and virtual whiteboards were the most common (hello, Zoom Workplace!). When you drill into how different generations prefer to communicate, things get interesting.

Gen Z:

• Prefers messaging tools like team chat (36%) 
• Is the most likely to meet via video
• Is the most likely to use whiteboards to connect 

Millennials:

• Overwhelming prefer team chat (51%)
• Are more likely to connect using whiteboards
• Don’t love talking on the phone

Gen X:

• Prefers communicating via email (35%)
• Still uses a lot of team chat
• Doesn’t mind video meetings 

Baby Boomers:

• Prefer to use email (42%)
• Are the most fond of phone 
• Are not heavy users of team chat

There are some real benefits to turning your camera on when joining a video meeting in terms of productivity, engagement, connectedness, and trust. We were curious to know what people prefer and the majority said they turn on video:

• 58% Camera on
• 38% Camera off
• 4% Avatar on

Of note:

• Baby Boomers are more likely to join meetings with the camera on (65%).
• Gen Z is strongly in the “camera off” camp (63%), even though they were the top generation to prefer video meetings above!
• Both men and women prefer meetings with video on, but men were 7% more likely to turn their video on.

Y’all - we’re making progress on the muting! In our 2021 results, 71% of survey respondents said “You’re on mute.” This year it’s 52%, and nearly as many admitted to forgetting you were on mute yourself (45%). 

The “Zoom mullet” is still a thing: 40% admitted to wearing a nice top but sweatpants or PJ bottoms. This was the case 11% more often with women than men.

Some other interesting video meetings norms:

• Pets showed up on camera 28% of the time.
• Millennials (53%) and Gen Z-ers (43%) love side-chatting with a peer to make them laugh! 
• Millennials were most likely to have had a child show up during a meeting (22%).
• Gen Z-ers (14%) and Millennials (11%) were most likely to have pretended they were somewhere they were not. (Are you all taking secret vacations?!)

• Nearly a third of people clean only the part of the room visible on camera. This hack is most common among Gen Z (45%).

File this in the “we definitely didn’t expect this” category, but across the board, you prefer your real-life meeting backgrounds. Here’s the breakdown:

• 55% real-life background
• 26% virtual background
• 19% blurred background
• 8% don’t turn their camera on

Want to up your background game? Check out some easy ways to elevate your workspace background, from our friends at Room Rater!

Last year, we asked where you’re meeting from, and we asked again this year. It seems fewer of you are meeting from your bed (that’s good!), but fewer are meeting while getting some exercise (less good!).

These are the most popular non-desk places you’re taking meetings:

• 43% are meeting from the car
• 25% are meeting from bed
  • This is most common for Gen Z (61%)
  • This is higher for women (29%) than men (18%).
  • 42% met from bed last year
• 19% use Zoom at coffee shops
• 18% connect at the airport
• 14% join while walking or jogging
  • 31% of Millennials are doing this
  • 21% met while walking/jogging last year

A lot of you are still waving! While 75% of people in our 2021 data said they wave at the end of their Zoom meetings, 57% this year say they are wavers. Baby Boomers (51%) said they are way less likely to give a wave.

Thank you again for all your support over the past year! Zoom wouldn’t be what it is today without all of you — the end-of-meeting wavers, the Zoom joggers, and even the all-caps chatters — connecting with colleagues, family, and friends everywhere. 

* The “2022 on Zoom” survey was conducted online by Zoom using SurveyMonkey in November 2022 among 2,800 total respondents.

Editor's note: This post was updated from the December 15, 2022, version to revise certain milestones.