Zoho unveils enterprise messaging and collaboration tool, Cliq

CHENNAI, INDIA: Zoho today unveiled Cliq, a chat software that blends instant messaging with video, audio, and group conferencing to create a unified communications system for organizations of every size.

"More companies around the world are turning to chat for real-time, internal collaboration," said Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho Corp. "But sometimes text isn’t enough, and chat software must also be able handle voice and video communications as well as the documents, images, and other data related to the work at hand. Cliq supports this kind of dynamic, company-wide collaboration. And it provides a degree of future-proofing thanks to its unprecedented extensibility and strong developer community.”

Available in native, web and mobile versions, Cliq integrates with Zoho and third-party applications to bring relevant data from those applications into the Cliq window, providing chat participants contextual information about the topic being discussed. Cliq works with most Zoho apps, fetching information from the other Zoho apps and letting users view it in their chat window. Additionally, Cliq is available as a chat tool inside other Zoho apps. Cliq also works with popular third-party apps including YouTube, Google Drive, Eventbrite, Crashlytics, and 20 other apps.

With Cliq, files of any format can be shared via the chat window in seconds. Separate channels can be created for individual teams, specific projects, company-wide discussions, and other collaboration.

Group video calls – Cliq’s group video calling feature, PrimeTime, removes the chaos of a normal group video call and lets people take turns speaking to the other video callers. Before they can speak to the group, participants must click on the “Request to speak” button, and the host must approve the request. PrimeTime also allows all participants to chat via text box during the video conference. 

Audio and video calls – In addition to PrimeTime, Cliq also supports standard, one-on-one and group calls — both audio and video — which users can start right from their chat window. During the call, users can send texts or share files whether they are using the Cliq native or web application or one of the mobile apps.

AI-driven communications administration – Cliq delegates administrative tasks to Zoho Intelligent Assistant, Zia. So users can create event and meeting reminders in Cliq, and participants will get reminders before their meeting. However, Zia will create the group chat before the meeting, add all the participants, remind them before the meeting, ask them to share files, take notes, share minutes of the meeting, and archive the group chat for future reference.

Cliq for the Developer 

To support the unique collaboration demands of any organization, Cliq offers a platform built with Zoho's own scripting language, Deluge, which allows users to create Chat bots in Cliq and use them for automating internal processes.

Similarly, developers can create integrations for Cliq and publish them in the Zoho Marketplace. The company is also open sourcing its library of Zomojis under the GPL v3 license, so the animated emojis can be freely integrated with third-party apps. Zomoji keyboards for iOS and Android will also be open sourced and published on Github.

"Developers can use the Cliq platform and integrate Cliq with any software that has an open API,” said Vembu. “It doesn't take more than 15 minutes to integrate. Once done, Cliq bots and commands fetch information for users when needed. For example, users can check traffic in their area with a traffic bot and Cliq gets you all the info you need.” 

In addition to the Free plan, Cliq is available in an Unlimited plan starting at ₹100 per user per month and decreases when the number of seats increases. Cliq is also included as part of Zoho One. Additionally, it will also be a part of Zoho's Workplace, an integrated suite of productivity and collaboration apps.