Using waiting room

The waiting room feature allows the host to control when a participant joins the meeting or webinar. As the host, you can admit participants individually, or hold all participants in the waiting room and admit them all at once. You can send all participants to the waiting room when joining your meeting or webinar, or you can allow participants from your Zoom account and participants with specified domains to bypass the waiting room. As the host, you can also choose to automatically move participants to the waiting room while a meeting or webinar is in progress if you lose connection from the meeting.

You can also customize the waiting room screen with your own logo, title, and description, or add a video to be watched before joining. Learn how to customize the waiting room in Zoom Webinars.

Note: The time a participant spends in the waiting room does not count towards their meeting minutes.

This article covers:

Prerequisites for using waiting room

Limitations of waiting room

How to use waiting room

Admit participants from the waiting room

  1. As the host, click Participants  .

  2. In the Waiting Room section, click Admit next to a participant's name to allow them to join the meeting or click Admit all to allow all participants to join the meeting.

Enable or disable waiting room

  1. As the host, click Participants  .

  2. Click More and choose Enable Waiting Room to enable or disable the feature.

Rename participants in the waiting room

Note: This feature requires the Rename participants in the Waiting Room subsetting to be enabled.

  1. As the host or co-host, click Participants  .
  2. In the Waiting Room section, click More next to a participant's name.
  3. In the drop-down menu, click Rename.
  4. Enter a new name, then click Change.
    The participant will receive a notification that the host renamed them, as well as what they have been renamed to. Participants can click OK or Leave Meeting. Clicking OK does not admit them.

Send participants to the waiting room

  1. As the host, click Participants  .
  2. Click More next to the participant's name and choose Put in Waiting Room.

Send messages to participants in the waiting room

Note: This feature is not available on Linux.

  1. As the host, click Chat .
  2. Click the dropdown next to To:
  3. Click Waiting room participants.
  4. Enter and send your chat message to the waiting room.
    Once the message has been sent, the participants in the waiting room will see the message on the waiting room screen.

Android | iOS

Admit participants from the waiting room

  1. As the host, tap Participants  .
  2. Next to the name of the participant you want to admit, tap Admit.
  3. (Optional) Tap Admit all to admit all participants.

Enable or disable waiting room

  1. As the host, tap More  in the meeting controls.
  2. Tap Host tools.
  3. Under Settings, enable or disable Waiting Room.

Send participants to the waiting room

  1. As the host, tap Participants  .
  2. Tap the name of the participant you want to send to the Waiting Room.
  3. Tap Put in Waiting Room.

Send messages to participants in the waiting room

  1. As the host, tap Chat .
  2. Next to Send to:, tap the drop-down.
  3. Choose Waiting room participants.
  4. Type and send your message.

Web client

Admit participants from waiting room

  1. As the host, click Participants  .
  2. Click Admit to allow the participant to join the meeting.

Send participants to the waiting room

  1. As the host, click Participants  .
  2. Click More next to the participant's name and choose Put in Waiting Room.

Send messages to participants in the waiting room

  1. As the host, click Chat .
  2. Click the dropdown next to To:
  3. Click Waiting room participants.
  4. Enter and send your chat message to the Waiting Room.
    Once the message has been sent, the participants in the Waiting Room will see the message on the Waiting Room screen.