Modern workplaces are already filled with digital tools. Employees use messaging platforms, video conferencing software, email, document storage systems, CRMs, project management applications, and countless other services throughout the day. The challenge for many businesses is no longer finding another application to add to the stack. Instead, the real goal is making existing tools work together more naturally.
That is the direction behind Zoho Cliq 7.0.
The latest version of Zoho’s businessBusiness-to-business (B2B), also known as B-to-B, is a form of transaction between businesses, such ... More communication platform focuses on reducing everyday friction rather than overwhelming users with unnecessary complexity. The update introduces improvements designed to help employees communicate more clearly, stay focused during meetings, manage recurring responsibilities, and collaborate without constantly switching between different applications.
For organisations already using the wider Zoho ecosystem, these improvements can make Cliq an increasingly important part of the daily workspace.
Making Meetings Less Disruptive
Online meetings have become a normal part of modern work, but they can also interrupt productivity. Employees often need to continue working while participating in a discussion.
Someone attending a project meeting may need to open a customer record in Zoho CRM, check an email, review a document stored in Zoho WorkDrive, or confirm information in another application. Traditional video conferencing interfaces can make this difficult because the meeting window competes with the applications employees need to use.
Picture-in-Picture Meetings
Zoho Cliq 7.0 addresses this problem with an improved picture-in-picture meeting experience.
Video meetings can remain visible through the Cliq Mini chat bar while users move between other Zoho applications. This means employees can continue following the conversation while completing related tasks.
Participants can also pin video during calls, making it easier to keep important speakers visible without dedicating the entire screen to the meeting.
For example, a salesperson could remain in a team call while checking an opportunity record in Zoho CRM. A project manager could review a document during a discussion without losing sight of the people participating in the meeting.
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Because the functionality is available across web, desktop, iOS, and Android, it can also support teams that frequently move between devices.
Making Screen Sharing More Interactive
Screen sharing is one of the most common tools used during remote collaboration. It helps teams demonstrate software, explain reports, review designs, troubleshoot technical problems, and conduct training sessions.
However, simply displaying a screen does not always make communication clear.
A presenter may find themselves saying things such as “look at the button in the upper-right corner” or “check the third column in the table.” These instructions can become confusing, particularly when the information being presented is complex.
Screen-Sharing Annotations
Cliq 7.0 introduces screen-sharing annotations, allowing presenters and participants to highlight areas and add notes directly during a presentation.
This can make meetings considerably easier to follow.
During a software demonstration, for instance, a trainer could highlight exactly where a user needs to click. During a project review, a manager could point directly to a section of a dashboard that requires attention. During technical troubleshooting, participants could identify the specific interface element causing a problem.
These small visual cues can reduce misunderstandings and shorten discussions by making the subject of the conversation immediately clear.
Improving Everyday Team Communication
Business messaging platforms are no longer used only for quick conversations. Teams increasingly rely on them for project instructions, status updates, technical information, announcements, task assignments, and customer-related discussions.
As messaging becomes more important to business operations, the ability to structure information clearly becomes equally important.
A More Flexible Message Composer
Zoho Cliq 7.0 improves its message composer with better formatting options.
Users can more easily apply:
- Bold text
- Italics
- Underlining
- Numbered lists
- Bulleted lists
Users can also escape markdown when they want text to appear exactly as written rather than being automatically formatted.
These features can make longer or more detailed messages much easier to understand.
For example, instead of sending a dense paragraph describing the next steps for a project, a manager can organise the information into a clear list of actions. Important deadlines or instructions can also be highlighted so that they are less likely to be overlooked.
Zoho has also improved emoji performance, allowing suggestions to appear faster while users type. While this may appear to be a minor enhancement, faster and smoother interactions contribute to a more responsive communication experience.
Smarter Out-of-Office Communication
One of the most common sources of workplace frustration occurs when employees attempt to contact someone who is unavailable.
A person may send a message or mention a colleague in a group channel without realising that the colleague is on holiday, attending an event, or otherwise unavailable. Valuable time can be lost before the team discovers that someone else should have been contacted.
Automatic Responses in More Conversations
Cliq 7.0 expands its out-of-office automatic responses beyond direct messages.
The system can now respond when an unavailable employee is mentioned in channels or group conversations.
Users can also configure different messages depending on the communication context, including:
- Direct messages
- Internal channels
- External users
- External channels
This allows employees to provide more useful information than a simple “I am away” notification.
For example, an out-of-office message could explain that the employee will return on a specific date and direct urgent requests to another member of the team.
For companies operating internationally, this can be particularly useful. Teams working across different countries and time zones frequently experience differences in working hours, holidays, and availability. Automated responses can help ensure that colleagues know what to do next without waiting unnecessarily.
Managing Recurring Responsibilities Inside Cliq
Many workplace tasks happen repeatedly.
Employees may need to prepare weekly reports, review projects every Friday, follow up with customers each month, complete routine administrative checks, or perform recurring approvals.
The difficulty is that these responsibilities are often scattered across multiple systems. Some tasks may exist in calendars, others in notebooks, emails, task management platforms, or chat messages.
Recurring Reminders
Zoho Cliq 7.0 introduces recurring reminders that can be configured directly within the platform.
Users can establish custom recurrence patterns based on how frequently a task needs to happen. They can also complete individual occurrences without deleting the entire recurring reminder.
This makes the feature suitable for responsibilities that need to continue over time.
A sales manager, for example, could create a reminder to review the sales pipeline every Monday. A consultant could schedule a recurring client follow-up. An operations employee could receive a monthly reminder to check specific administrative records.
By bringing these reminders into the same environment where employees already communicate, Cliq can help reduce the likelihood that recurring activities are forgotten.
Creating a Safer and More Structured Workplace
Digital communication also creates challenges related to workplace conduct.
Organisations need clear processes for dealing with messages that may violate internal policies or contain inappropriate content.
Cliq 7.0 introduces additional moderation functionality designed to support this requirement.
Reporting Potentially Inappropriate Messages
Administrators can enable a feature allowing employees to report messages that may violate workplace policies.
Reported messages are routed through Zoho’s Approvals bot to the appropriate administrator for review.
This creates a more structured process for handling communication concerns.
Instead of employees having to decide independently how to escalate a problematic message, the organisation can establish a defined reporting mechanism.
For larger businesses or distributed teams, having a consistent process can make workplace communication policies easier to enforce.
Small Improvements Can Create Significant Productivity Gains
The most interesting aspect of Zoho Cliq 7.0 is that many of its improvements are relatively simple.
Picture-in-picture meetings, screen annotations, better formatting, recurring reminders, expanded out-of-office messages, and message reporting may not individually transform an organisation.
However, employees interact with communication tools dozens or even hundreds of times during a typical workday.
Small interruptions repeated throughout the day can gradually become significant productivity problems.
Reducing the need to switch applications, making messages easier to understand, improving meeting interactions, and automatically communicating employee availability can save time across an entire organisation.
Zoho Cliq Is Becoming More Than a Messaging Platform
The broader direction of Cliq 7.0 reflects an important change in business communication software.
Messaging platforms are increasingly becoming central workspaces where conversations, meetings, tasks, notifications, and business applications come together.
For organisations already using tools such as Zoho CRM, Zoho WorkDrive, and other applications within the Zoho ecosystem, Cliq can serve as a communication layer connecting many of those activities.
Instead of employees constantly moving between disconnected applications, communication can remain closer to the work itself.
Conclusion
Zoho Cliq 7.0 demonstrates that improving workplace productivity does not always require adding more software.
Sometimes, the most valuable improvements come from removing small obstacles from the tools employees already use.
By making meetings easier to manage, improving screen sharing, providing clearer message formatting, expanding out-of-office automation, supporting recurring reminders, and introducing structured moderation tools, Cliq 7.0 aims to make everyday collaboration smoother.
For businesses using Zoho, the update strengthens Cliq’s role as more than an internal chat application. It is increasingly becoming a connected workspace designed to keep communication, collaboration, and daily business activities moving together.
Ultimately, the value of Cliq 7.0 lies in its focus on practical improvements. Rather than asking employees to completely change how they work, it attempts to make the work they already perform simpler, clearer, and less interrupted.
© Image credits to Landiva Weber
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