Environment
U-M Zoom, waiting rooms
Issue
- What is a waiting room, and how do I enable it for my Zoom meeting?
- How do I adjust the settings for my waiting room?
Resolution
- The waiting room feature for Zoom meetings places participants in a virtual "waiting room" until they are manually admitted to the meeting by a host, co-host, or other approved participant.
- Who goes to the waiting room and who can admit participants from it are controlled by the waiting room configuration settings.
- This feature is only available for meetings, not webinars.
- When creating new meetings, the "Waiting Room" setting will be checked by default based on your account settings. You can change this option at any time by editing the meeting details. You can also change this default within your account settings.
Refer to Zoom Support for detailed information on enabling and customizing the waiting room. Key information in the article and additional context can be found below:
- Enable/disable the waiting room for all future meetings you create
- Including how to enable the ability for the host and/or co-hosts to rename participants in the waiting room before they enter the meeting
- When viewing the participant list during a meeting, click the three-dot icon next to a participant's name (who is still in the waiting room) to rename them before they are admitted. The participant will be notified of this change.
- Configure waiting room settings at the account level, including:
- Who should go into the waiting room
- Everyone: All participants who join the meeting
- This option will disable the setting that allows participants to join before the host.
- Users not in your account: Only participants who are not signed into their U-M Zoom accounts and/or are external to U-M
- Users who are not in your account and not part of your whitelisted domains: Only participants who are not signed into their U-M Zoom accounts or not signed into an approved domain you've indicated (e.g., emich.edu).
- Users not on the meeting invite: Participants who weren't invited directly via the calendar event. (E.g., the Zoom add-on in Google Calendar)
- Who can admit participants from the waiting room
- Hosts and co-hosts only
- Host, co-hosts, and anyone who bypassed the waiting room (only if host and co-hosts are not present)
- Sort order of people in the waiting room in the participants' panel
- Customize the look and feel of the waiting room, including title, image/video, or description
Refer to Zoom: Require That All Meetings Are Secured With One Security Option to learn more about securing your meetings, including using waiting rooms.
If you have a different security option set as your default for new meetings, you can change that on a per-meeting basis as desired. E.g., If your default is a passcode, you can change it to a waiting room within your meeting settings. Refer to Zoom: Change the Security Options/Settings for a Specific Meeting for more information.
Additional Information
Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.