Zoom App Desktop client, mobile, web, and PWA comparison

Zoom desktop clients, mobile apps, web clients, and PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) are compared in the table below.

There are differences between Zoom’s desktop client, mobile app, and web client. You can use the Zoom web portal to update your profile, to set up meetings, and to control Zoom Phone settings. Meetings can also be scheduled, viewed, and edited via the web portal.

The article discusses:

• Start or join meeting
• In-meeting controls (participants and hosts)
• In-meeting controls (hosts and co-hosts)
• In-meeting security controls (hosts and co-hosts)
• Webinar controls (hosts)
• Manage participants (hosts)
• Share screen controls
• Profile
• Chat
• Channels
• Contacts
• Settings

Prerequisites for desktop client, mobile app, web client and PWA comparison

• Download the latest version of Zoom for desktop or mobile.
• Requirements for Zoom’s web client are listed below.

Comparison

Note:

• Our recommendation is to use the desktop client or mobile app. If you don’t have access to either of those, use the web client.
• The account owner, admin, or host can disable some features.
• See our Zoom Phone comparison for more information.
• Web clients include Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari. The web client on Internet Explorer does not support the following features: share video or screen, join computer audio, view shared video, and simultaneously share screen.

Feature	Windows macOS	Linux	Android iOS	Chrome OS	Web client	PWA
Start or join meeting
Join a meeting without signing in	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Join a meeting in progress	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Sign in using Zoom account, Google, Facebook, or SSO	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Start an instant meeting.	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Schedule one-time or recurring meeting	✓	✓	✓
Share your screen in a Zoom Room by entering in the sharing key or meeting ID.	✓	✓	✓
Display upcoming meetings	✓	✓	✓
Display synced calendar events (if you added a third-party calendar service)	✓	✓	✓
View, edit, start, or delete your scheduled meetings	✓	✓	✓
Participants are pre-assigned to breakout rooms (if set up by the host)	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
Transfer meetings between devices	✓	✓	✓
In-meeting controls (participants and hosts)
Join computer audio	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓ (A)	✓
Mute/unmute mic	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Start/stop video	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Invite others to join meeting	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Change your screen name for the meeting	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Non-verbal feedback	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Share screen	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓ (B)	✓
In-meeting chat	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Save in-meeting chat	✓	✓
Start cloud recording	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Start local recording	✓	✓
Request remote control	✓	✓	✓ (C)		✓ (D)	✓
Give remote control	✓	✓
Gallery View and Active Speaker View	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Stop all incoming video	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Participant in breakout rooms	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Self-select breakout room	✓	✓	✓ (E)	✓ (E)	✓	✓
Answer polls	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Language interpretation	✓		✓		✓ (F)
Live transcription	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓
Reclaim host	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Zoom Apps	✓
Active Apps Notifier	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
In-meeting controls (hosts and co-hosts)
Create, edit, and launch standard polls	✓	✓			✓	✓
Create, edit, and launch advanced polls and quizzes	✓	✓	✓		✓
Start and manage breakout rooms (host only)	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓
View pre-assigned participants in breakout rooms (if set up in web portal)	✓	✓			✓	✓
Live stream meeting	✓	✓	✓ (Youtube only)
Focus mode	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
Immersive view	✓		✓
Report a participant for inappropriate behavior	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
In-meeting security controls (hosts and co-hosts)
Lock meeting (don’t allow other participants to join the meeting in progress)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Place the attendee in a virtual waiting room	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Control if participants can share screen	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Control if participants can use in-meeting chat	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Control if participants can unmute or rename themselves	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Webinar controls (hosts)
Launch question and answer session	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Launch polls	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Live stream webinar	✓	✓	✓ (Youtube only)
Manage participants (hosts)
Stop a participant’s video	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Assign a participant to be the host	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Assign a participant to be a co-host	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Allow a participant to start or stop a recording	✓	✓	✓	✓
Assign a participant to type closed caption	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Change a participant’s name that is displayed to other participants	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Remove participant from meeting	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mute all participants/ask all to unmute	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Automatically mute participants as they join the meeting	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Play chime when participants join and leave	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
Don’t allow other participants to join the meeting in progress	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Control who participants can chat with	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Put a participant on hold	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Check invited participants attendance status	✓
Share screen controls
Share whiteboard	✓	✓	✓
Share device audio	✓	✓	✓
Annotate on shared screen or whiteboard	✓	✓	✓
Pause your current shared screen	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓
Show or hide names of annotators	✓	✓	✓
Stop a participant’s screen share (host and co-host only)	✓	✓	✓
co-host only)"}” data-sheets-userformat=”{"2":8961,"3":{"1":0},"11":4,"12":0,"16":11}”>Share screen to breakout rooms (host and co-host only)	✓	✓
Control if multiple participants can share screen simultaneously	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓
Side-by-side mode	✓	✓			✓	✓
Profile
Add a personal note	✓	✓	✓
Change profile photo or screen name Note: On the desktop client, you will be redirected to the web portal to change your screen name	✓	✓	✓			✓
Manually change your status	✓	✓
Chat
Mark messages as unread	✓		✓
Edit your sent messages	✓	✓
Delete your sent messages, images, or files	✓	✓	✓
Save images or files sent in the chat	✓	✓	✓
Add messages to your starred list and view all messages you have starred	✓	✓	✓
View starred messages in a specific chat	✓	✓	✓
Use your personal chat space	✓	✓	✓
Send images or files	✓	✓	✓
View all files sent or all files received in chat	✓	✓	✓
Share sent or received chat files with contacts	✓		✓
Send a capture of the current screen	✓	✓
Send animated GIFs	✓	✓	✓
Send code snippets	✓	✓
Send emoticons	✓	✓	✓
Encrypted chat	✓	✓	✓
Store chat message history	✓	✓	✓
Invite contacts to an existing chat	✓	✓	✓
Channels
Change notifications for new channel messages	✓	✓	✓
Add channels to your starred list and view channels you have starred	✓	✓	✓
Create a channel	✓	✓	✓
Edit a channel (must be a channel admin)	✓	✓	✓
Invite members to a channel	✓	✓	✓
Contacts
Add contacts	✓	✓	✓
Add contacts to your starred list and view contacts you have starred	✓	✓	✓
Directory for contacts, channels, and Zoom Rooms	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓
Add contact to auto-answer group	✓	✓
Settings
Automatically join meeting by computer or device audio	✓	✓	✓	✓
Automatically mute when joining meeting	✓	✓	✓	✓
Automatically call phone number to join meeting			✓
Insert a link preview whenever a chat message contains a link	✓		✓
Change notification settings for chat	✓	✓	✓
Manage blocked contacts	✓	✓
Display meeting reminders	✓	✓	✓
Display connected meeting time	✓		✓
Display closed captions (if available)	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
Automatically disable your video when joining a meeting	✓	✓	✓	✓
Touch up appearance	✓	✓	✓ (iOS only)
Virtual Background	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
Video filters	✓		✓

(A) Joining computer audio on Safari is only available for webinar participants.

Note (B):

• Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise is required for Microsoft Edge screen sharing. Windows 10 Home does not support it. You should use Chrome or Firefox if you are running Windows 10 Home and need to share your screen.
• Safari does not support screen sharing.

If you join a meeting on an iOS or Android device, you cannot request or give remote control. You need to gain remote control of the participant who is screen sharing.

The desktop client or mobile app can be used to request remote control of content shared, but not the content shared from another web client.

Note (E): Self-selection is only available for meeting participants on the Zoom mobile app and Chrome OS, but not for the host launching breakout rooms. Self-selection of breakout rooms needs to be enabled and launched from the desktop client.

Note (F): If you join a meeting via the web client, you can only listen to language interpretation, you cannot be an interpreter.