Zoom Rooms vs Microsoft Teams Rooms: Which Is Best?

The main differentiator between Zoom Rooms and Microsoft Teams Rooms is that Zoom has a unique kiosk mode, while Teams works to create secure internal meetings, with its emphasis on security and integration with Microsoft Teams.

Both, of course, have plenty of meeting and meeting room features.

While this guide is designed to showcase the differences between Zoom Rooms and Microsoft Rooms, we won’t be awarding a winner.

We recognize the importance of choice within a business and that every business will have niche requirements that make one option better than the other.

In some cases, you might be using both Zoom and Microsoft Teams already. That’s where interoperability comes into play.

If you’re an admin of both Zoom and Teams and want to connect your platforms, learn how to in this post.

Read on for our comparison of Zoom Rooms and Microsoft Teams Rooms.

What is the difference between Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams Rooms?

The difference between Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams Rooms is that Microsoft Teams is for video chatting, calling, and sharing. Microsoft Teams Rooms orients itself around connecting remote participants to the meeting room.

Microsoft Teams Rooms offers more than the basics of Microsoft Teams.

Two of the many benefits of Microsoft Teams Rooms are wireless content sharing and Teams panels. Teams panels are wall-mounted devices that can provide meeting details and reserve meeting spaces.

Another feature includes improved video meeting options, with AI-powered voice and face recognition. With intelligent speakers, AI can identify who is speaking and add the person’s name to the meeting transcript.

Microsoft Teams Rooms also offers a collaborative workspace that anyone in the meeting can access. In Microsoft Teams, you can share your screen to a OneNote page, but only you can add to it.

Microsoft Teams standalone doesn’t have these features in its video meetings. It only has spotlighting, sharing screen options, and basic chat features.

Microsoft Teams is an app included in Microsoft 365. Microsoft Teams Rooms is a separate platform that integrates into Microsoft Teams to work alongside it.

So, Microsoft Teams Rooms has all the features of Microsoft Teams, with added benefits. The goal of the program is to create seamless video conferencing between combined remote and in-person meetings.

Internal communication is much more efficient with both platforms integrated. If you want to make hybrid meetings easier, Microsoft Teams Rooms is a better option than Microsoft Teams by itself.

What is the difference between Zoom and Zoom Rooms?

The difference between Zoom (Zoom Meetings) and Zoom Rooms is the tons of features Zoom Rooms adds to enhance a hybrid meeting scenario.

Zoom Rooms is a separate platform from Zoom, with added benefits and options. It is a dedicated software platform to keep transitions smooth.

During conferences, Zoom Rooms creates seamless connections within hybrid work set-ups, in office settings or even academic. If a professor or student is absent from class, a Zoom Room can retain the interactive element of the meeting while still working remotely.

Zoom is an application to join meetings and Zoom Rooms is a collaborative meeting environment with a singular interface. They can work together as one platform to optimize a communicative shared environment.

Zoom Rooms, designed to be a shared platform, provides shared work meeting spaces. Zoom is for individuals to use to join meetings.

Zoom doesn’t need extra hardware, and can be accessed on any mobile device or desktop. Zoom Rooms offers purpose-built hardware options if your business needs them.

Zoom Rooms also allows you to connect with third-party meetings with an interoperability bridge if you have one.

It’s most important to note that Zoom Rooms is a dedicated platform for all physical video conferencing needs. It remains more separate from its counterpart, Zoom Meetings, but can integrate into other platforms.

What can Zoom do that Teams can’t?

Zoom Rooms can be outfitted for customer and visitor viewing and use, while Microsoft Teams Rooms can’t (as of August 2022).

Zoom Rooms features “Kiosk Mode” which offers a virtual receptionist. Kiosk Mode is its own Zoom Room, and you can add welcome signage, your logo, and an action button for visitors.

The button alerts the virtual receptionist to join the meeting. You can have up to four receptionists available, and the system chooses the first available person on the list.

Microsoft Teams Rooms’ closest feature to this is Teams panels, which reserve meeting spaces. Zoom Rooms offers the same feature, but is more in-depth.

Like Teams panels, Zoom offers scheduling displays that count people in the meeting and check if meetings are already happening. Microsoft Teams panels offer basic meeting information, such as meeting time and location.

You can use any tablet device as a scheduling display with Zoom Rooms. You can also use scheduling displays in non-Zoom Rooms, as long as you own at least one Zoom Room license.

If a room isn’t a dedicated Zoom Room but it does have a scheduling display, that room doesn’t have full Zoom Room functionality. Even though it has a Zoom Room scheduling display, the room can’t join or host Zoom meetings.

Zoom Rooms includes unlimited digital signage when you buy a license. You can display announcements or information, branded to your business and connected to Zoom Rooms.

Again, the closest feature Microsoft Teams Rooms offers is Teams panels.

With the addition of digital signage and kiosk mode, Zoom Rooms focuses on the customer or visitor experience, while Microsoft Teams Rooms focus on the coworker interactive experience.

What can Teams do that Zoom can’t?

Teams Rooms focuses on amplifying a meeting or conference experience within a workspace, while Zoom Rooms focuses on improving customer interaction.

Teams Rooms are more office-oriented than Zoom Rooms. One of the features Teams Rooms offers that Zoom doesn’t have is proximity join.

Proximity join lets you connect to a meeting through Bluetooth. It detects other running meetings around you to join.

It detects audio and video for the Teams Room meeting and connects you to the management device for seamless joining. This is especially useful for spontaneous meeting attendees who can’t attend the meeting in person but are still in the office.

The main touchscreen control panel pad offered by Microsoft Teams Rooms has a lot more security options than Zoom Rooms, from startup to shutdown. When the device turns on, firmware looks at boot software signatures to check for validity, and then it starts running.

Teams Rooms also includes Kernel Direct Memory Access (DMA) to protect against DMA attacks. An attacker can’t access a high-speed device if there aren’t any ports to enter.

Assigned Access is a program found in Windows 10 and later. In Teams Rooms, it limits entry points for Teams Rooms, making the app more secure while it runs.

Teams Rooms can integrate into other Microsoft 365 applications. Paired with Outlook, a Teams panel can reserve meeting rooms, schedule meeting times, and send out invitations to attendees.

When should you choose Zoom Rooms over Microsoft Teams Rooms?

You should choose either Zoom Rooms or Microsoft Teams Rooms depending on which service your business uses more.

Another point of influence for your decision is based on what type of business you run.

Because Zoom Rooms has added features like a virtual receptionist kiosk and digital signage, it may be a better fit for a business that has more interaction between customers and employees, while Microsoft Teams Rooms offer solutions for employee interactions.

Microsoft Teams Rooms provides integration with mail and calendar software to further organize the meeting setup experience, and even covers meetings that aren’t set up through the calendar with proximity joining.

Ultimately, the decision is up to you. Choose the best room solution that matches your independent requirements.

Read Next: How to Connect Zoom and Microsoft Teams in 2023

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