Waiting Room in zoom App

The host can control how quickly a participant can join a meeting with the Waiting Room feature. As the meeting host, attendees can be admitted one at a time or all at once, depending on their status. As participants join your meeting, you can send everyone to the Waiting Room, or you can bypass the Waiting Room for Zoom account users and participants with certain domains. If you lose connection from a meeting while the meeting is in progress, you can also automatically move participants into the Waiting Room.

In a meeting with a Waiting Room enabled, participants will see the following screen:

Your Waiting Room screen can also be customized with your own logo, title, and description, or even a video to be viewed before you join.

Prerequisites

Using the Waiting Room

Zoom desktop client
- Windows: 5.4.0 or higher
- macOS: 5.4.0 or higher
- Linux: 5.4.0 or higher
Zoom mobile app
- Android: 5.1.28652.0706 or higher
- iOS: 5.1.228642.0705 or higher
Zoom web client

Customizing the Waiting Room

Licensed user

Two-way chat with Waiting Room participants

Zoom desktop client
- Windows: 5.8.0 or higher
- macOS: 5.8.0 or higher
- Linux: 5.8.0 or higher
Zoom mobile app
- Android: 5.8.0 or higher
- iOS: 5.8.0 or higher
Zoom web client

Adding a video to the Waiting Room

Member of a paid account
Zoom desktop client
- Windows: version 5.7.3 or higher
- macOS: version 5.7.3 or higher
Zoom mobile app
- Android: version 5.7.3 or higher
- iOS: version 5.7.3 or higher

Limitations of the waiting room

Join before host will not work for a meeting in which the Waiting Room has been enabled to capture all participants as they enter the meeting room. Members of internal accounts, as well as members of a specific domain can bypass the waiting room if they belong to that domain.
Waiting rooms are not available for webinars. You can practice by using webinar practice sessions instead.
When instant meetings and Zoom Phone calls are elevated to a meeting, the Waiting Room is disabled by default. When using the security option in your in-meeting controls, you can enable the Waiting Room feature only for these meetings.
As long as two-way chat is enabled, the host will also need to upgrade to the minimum version or higher in order to join meetings with other participants in the Waiting Room. If for some reason you are not able to update due to IT restrictions, you may be able to join using the web client instead.

How to enable Waiting Room

You can enable Waiting Room for scheduled meetings.

Account

All users in the account can use Waiting Room by following these steps:

You must be logged in as an administrator to edit account settings in the Zoom web portal.
Click Account Management and then Account Settings to edit the account settings.
In the Security section, make sure the Waiting Room feature is activated.
Click the toggle button to enable the setting if it is not currently active. Then, if a verification dialog appears, select the On button to confirm the change.
Select the Waiting Room options by selecting Edit Options.
The lock icon in the lower right corner of the screen is for locking, and clicking the lock icon confirms it. This setting will be mandatory for all users in your account if you click it.

Group

All members of a specific group will be able to wait in the waiting room:

As a Zoom administrator with edit group privileges, sign in to the Zoom web portal.
Select User Management, then select Group Management from the navigation panel.
From the list of groups, select Meetings.
Ensure that waiting rooms are enabled under Security.
Click the toggle to enable waiting rooms if it is disabled. Verify your changes by clicking Turn On (if a verification dialog displays).
Note:
Greyed out options can only be changed at the account level, as they are locked at the account level.
You can edit the Waiting Room options by selecting Edit Options.
If you wish to make this setting mandatory for all users who are members of this group, click the lock icon first. Next, select Lock to confirm your selection.

User

Here are the steps you need to take to enable your own Waiting Room:

Log into Zoom’s web portal by entering your user name and password.
Select Settings from the navigation pane.
Select Meetings.
Make sure Waiting Room is enabled under Security.
If it’s disabled, toggle it on by clicking the toggle. A confirmation dialog will appear; click Verify.
Note:
There is a chance that the option has been locked either at the group or account level if it is grayed out. Your Zoom administrator should be able to assist you.
If you wish to specify Waiting Room options, click Edit Options.

Waiting Room options

Note:

When the meeting’s settings are enabled, the meeting will use the user-level setting until the account setting is reset or until the waiting room has been locked. If the waiting room has previously been customized at the user level then disabled afterward, the meeting will use the previous user-level setting until the account setting has been locked.

Who should go into the waiting room?

Everyone:
The waiting room is open to everyone who joins your meeting.
Users not in your account:
The Waiting Room will only be open to participants who are not logged into your Zoom account. They may sign in if not signed in.
Users who are not in your account or on the allowed list:
The Waiting Room will not be accessed by users on your account or those with a Zoom account on the domains that you specify. Please enter the domains by separating them with a comma after selecting this option.
Users invited during the meeting by the host or co-hosts will bypass the waiting room:
If the host or co-host invites users during the meeting, they will bypass the waiting area. In this case, users need to be invited directly through Zoom or by telephone during the meeting.
Note:
Invitations to Zoom Rooms and room systems are not affected by this setting.
It is also important to note that Zoom Rooms will always be held in the waiting room; therefore, these settings cannot be applied to live assistants who join meetings from the dashboard, or administrators who use a web-based control panel to join meetings.
Allow participants in the waiting room to reply to the host and co-hosts:
The waiting room should be made available for participants to converse with one another. You can send Waiting Room messages to all participants or just to certain individuals in the Waiting Room. Those in the Waiting Room cannot see responses from the host/co-host. This feature is available only in client versions 5.8.0 and later. In this case, all meeting participants and the host will be required to upgrade in order to join.

Who can admit participants from the waiting room?

Note:

Specify who can admit participants in the Waiting Room if they are not in your account or they are not on your allowed list.

Host and co-hosts only:
Those in the Waiting Room can only be admitted by the host or co-host.
Host, co-hosts, and anyone who bypassed the waiting room (only if host and co-hosts are not present):
Participants who are waiting in the waiting room can only be admitted by the following people.
- The host or co-host
- There is no waiting room (participants can only admit other participants if the host and co-hosts are not in attendance) Our participants bypass the waiting room.

If the host and co-hosts are not present or if they lose connection during a meeting

If the host drops the meeting unexpectedly, participants will be moved to the Waiting Room if the check box is selected. This option will disable join before host.

How to customize the Waiting Room

At the account, group, or user level, you can customize the Waiting Room title, logo, and description.

Note:

Before you can customize the Waiting Room, you’ll need to enable it. When Waiting Room is enabled in a meeting’s settings after a user has previously customized it at the user level and then disabled it, the meeting will use the user-level settings until they have been reset, or the settings have been locked for the account.

Click Customize Waiting Room after enabling Waiting Room.
Customization options for Waiting Room will appear.
- Title:
- To update the meeting title, click inside the text box.
  Note:
- Only 64 characters are allowed in the meeting title.
Here’s what the participants will see during the meeting:
- The default screen:
- This screen displays only the meeting title and the topic of the meeting.
- A logo and description:
- A message that you write will be displayed on this page along with a logo that you upload.
  - Logo:
  - Select a file to upload by clicking the Upload Logo button. GIF, JPG, and PNG formats are all acceptable as logos. Its height and width cannot exceed 1MB, and its minimum size is 60 pixels, while its maximum size is 400 pixels.
  - Description:
  - You can update the description by clicking inside the text box. There is a limit of 400 characters for the description.
- A video:
- You can upload a video along with your title message.
  - Video:
  - You can upload a video by clicking Upload Video. There are three different formats of videos you can use: MP4, MOV, and M4V. The video file size must not exceed 30 MB. Although sound can be included in videos, it is muted by default.
    Note:
  - You will need version 5.7.3 or a higher version to watch videos in the waiting room.
Make sure you save your work.
When your participants join the meeting, they will see your custom branding on the Waiting Room.