The answer may depend on how you define “personal use.” If you’re a busy person who uses your phone for personal tasks — to watch videos, snap photos, chat with friends — Zoom has been showing you a photo of a gorilla on a phone screen. That’s its way of saying, “Hey, your meeting is being broadcast to a bunch of people.” It’s been a bummer, and I’m still trying to figure out what this means for my personal use.
I’ve been using Zoom for personal use. I joined a Zoom meeting for a work event. I’ve used Zoom in the past for personal reasons — to video chat with friends and family who aren’t in the same city as me, for example.
But Zoom’s very nature as a video-conferencing tool means that it’s a little weird to use it for personal chats. I’ve been using Zoom for personal chats, too, but there’s a small risk that I’ll accidentally broadcast a video to a room of people.
It’s worth noting that Zoom doesn’t include a private chat feature, so you can’t just start a conversation with someone, add them to your contact list, and start chatting away.