Zoho Community Digest - August 2026| Part 3

Zoho Community Digest - August 2026| Part 3



Hi everyone, and welcome back!

Zoho Desk had a big week with six updates spanning Guided Conversations, instant messaging, and the Radar app. Zoho CRM redesigns the Functions experience, Bigin gets three new capabilities including a Related Products topping, and Cliq 7.0 lands with a focus on accessibility. Here's everything from August 16–23, 2026.


Community Spotlight

Noteworthy contributions from the community this week.
Qscript Software Pvt Ltd
Zoho CRM Community
Added a custom File Upload field and found it missing from the During tab in Blueprints? Qscript shared a neat way around it: under Associated Items, check Attachments and mark it mandatory, so the transition can't complete without a document.
Sean Clark
Zoho Creator Community
Deluge function hitting the statement limit? Sean Clark pinned it on nested loops and offered two ways out: cut the statements inside the loop, or split the work into chunks that each run in their own container. His example replaces row-by-row iteration with a fetch and a single update block, doing the same job in a fraction of the statements.

At a glance

Sales & Marketing

Zoho CRM: Redesigned Functions experience | Four dashboard improvements
Zoho Bigin: Related Products topping | Bulk import for associated products | WhatsApp templates on Android
Zoho Webinar: MCP server for AI-powered webinar management

Service

Zoho Desk: Five Guided Conversations updates | Password-protected backups | Three IM updates | Shared WhatsApp number and 1,000 templates | Two new IM APIs | Radar app updates

Email, Storage, and Collaboration

Zoho Cliq: Cliq 7.0
Zoho Workplace: July 2026 updates across Mail, Writer, Show, Connect, and Calendar

Sales & Marketing

Zoho CRM

A redesigned Functions experience
Each function now has its own workspace to monitor performance, track associations, debug issues, and review revision history in one place. The Functions tab lets you sort, filter, tag, and save custom views, so finding the right function takes seconds. Python joins Deluge, Java, and Node.js as a supported runtime, and built-in Analytics shows invocations, success rates, and credit consumption across a 30-day window. It's rolling out in phases over the next couple of weeks.
Four dashboard improvements
Funnel components now support drill-down, so clicking a stage opens the records behind it. Duration is no longer mandatory for KPIs, Target Meters, Funnels, and Comparators, so you can build those components across your entire dataset instead of a fixed date range. Date filters pick up Before and After operators for cleaner milestone-based filtering, and week groupings now show start and end dates instead of week numbers, so charts are easier to read. Rolling out in phases.

Zoho Bigin

Stop jumping between deals to find product history
Before a customer call, knowing what a contact or company has been quoted or sold usually meant opening deal after deal. Install the new Related Products topping and it pulls every product from all associated deals into a single view on the contact or company record, with consolidated totals by default and a deal-level breakdown when you need to dig deeper.
Import associated products in one go
If you're migrating sales data into Bigin, importing pipeline records without their associated products leaves every deal incomplete. You can now import associated products in bulk and link them to existing pipeline records in a single operation, adding new ones, updating existing ones, or both. You'll need import permissions.
WhatsApp templates and quick replies on Android
Bigin's Android app can now send WhatsApp template messages and quick replies, so you can respond to customer conversations on the go. Templates carry rich media, call-to-action buttons, and instant reply options, and quick replies can be edited before sending to personalize them. You can also swipe right to reply to a specific message in a chat.

Zoho Webinar

Run your entire webinar workflow through an AI agent
Zoho Webinar now connects to MCP (Model Context Protocol) compatible AI clients like Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor, letting an AI agent act on your account rather than just advise. Create, update, and delete sessions with timezone-aware scheduling, add and approve registrants, and pull attendance reports covering who showed up, for how long, and at what engagement level, all through plain-language prompts. Ask for last week's average watch duration and you get it, without opening a dashboard.

Service

Zoho Desk

Five updates for Guided Conversations
Manage multiple language versions of a flow from one configuration, with 17 new languages now supported. Capture a customer's first message so a flow can route them without asking them to explain again, which works nicely with WhatsApp QR codes pointing at different purposes. Give your widget a gradient background for a closer brand fit. Admins can track every flow change in the Audit Log, and the Webhook Block now handles file-type responses from external services.
Password-protect your backups and exports
Backup and export files carry the same sensitive data as your live system. Zoho Desk now lets you encrypt those files with a password before they leave the platform, so only authorized users can open them. Note that only the person who set the password can view it afterwards, so it's worth recording somewhere your team can reach.
Three new ways to manage instant messaging
You can now transfer IM tickets across departments, so a conversation that starts with Support can move to Logistics or Products, individually or in bulk. Worth knowing that the ticket becomes a new ticket in the receiving department, resetting to Open and picking up that department's SLAs rather than the original's. Fall-back to Default moves a resolved or inactive ticket back to your default status when a customer replies, so new messages don't sit unnoticed. And IM activity is now in the Audit Log, giving admins visibility into agent availability changes across channels.
One WhatsApp number across multiple Zoho services, plus 1,000 templates
You can now share a single WhatsApp Business number across multiple Zoho services, so sales and support stay connected to the same customer conversation instead of asking customers to use different numbers. Each connected service sees the conversation timeline even when it started elsewhere. Note that whichever service configures the number first becomes the parent and controls the automation for it, including chatbots, auto-replies, and outbound notifications. Separately, the template limit has risen to 1,000 per account, giving teams more room across languages, journeys, and workflows.
Two new IM APIs for developers
The Update an IM Session API assigns sessions to agents or bots and updates their status programmatically, which makes bot-to-agent handoffs and keeping status in sync with another system straightforward. The Get Applied Canned Message API retrieves a template with contact information already filled in, and in the language you need, so personalized responses can be automated without handling placeholders separately.
Contacts, custom modules, and Audit Log come to Radar
Radar now brings more of your help desk onto mobile. Contacts, Accounts, and Activities are available as main cards, so the customer context behind a ticket is there when you need it, with views, filters, and activity details like calls and tasks. Your custom modules can be added from the Radar Store, putting business-specific data a tap away. And admins get the Audit Log in Radar, covering workflows, agents, departments, and records, filtered by date or action type.

Email, Storage, and Collaboration

Zoho Cliq

Live captions, Sign Language Mode, and more in Cliq 7.0
Meetings now have live captions and a Sign Language Mode that keeps the interpreter pinned no matter who's speaking, with accessibility aligned to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Client users let you bring an external collaborator into specific channels without exposing the rest of your workspace, and AI is now off by default, with admins choosing which model to enable. There's a great deal more in the full release, from hashtags and advanced search to a no-code Flow Builder for bots.

Zoho Workplace

July updates across the Workplace suite
Zoho Mail picks up Web Tabs, so you can open external tools without leaving your inbox, and BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) support on iOS displays verified brand logos alongside authenticated emails. Zoho Writer gets conditional sections for personalized merge documents and a Zoho Checkout integration that adds a Pay Now link to generated documents. Zoho Show adds MP4 export on Android and offline editing on iOS and macOS, and Zoho Calendar has a new Tool Finder for discovering its MCP capabilities, plus approvals for resource bookings. There's more across Cliq and Connect in the full post.

That's your August Part 3 wrap-up. Which update stood out for you this week? Drop a comment and let us know, and we'll see you next week!
Missed an edition? Catch up on Part 1 (August 1–7) and Part 2 (August 8–15).