Information about Alternative Hosts and Co-Host in Zoom

Environment

Zoom

Issue

What is the difference between an Alternative Host and a Co-Host in Zoom?

Resolution

Co-Host (Role that only exists once a meeting has started)

  • A Co-Host can be created by the host of the meeting once the meeting has started
  • Anyone in the meeting after it starts, regardless of their Zoom instance or relation to the University, can be made a co-host by the host of the meeting

Alternative Host (Role that only exists before a meeting)

  • Alternative Host is an option to be set when someone creates a Zoom meeting
    • The main role of the Alternative Host is to be someone that can start the meeting for the host if it is needed
    • If the Alternative Host starts the meeting instead of the host, then the Alternative Host becomes the Host of the meeting
      • If the Host (meeting creator) ends up joining the meeting later, they will regain host control and the Alternative Host will be bumped to a co-host role if it is enabled
    • If there are multiple alternative hosts, only the first one to join will become host, the others will become co-hosts if the role is enabled
  • You can only add people in your own instance of Zoom as an Alternative Host
    • There are no exceptions to this
    • For U-M, this means they must have U-M Zoom access

Additional Information

There has been a lot of confusion around this. At this point, we are confident that Alternative Hosts will become Co-Hosts in a meeting.

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/208220166-Alternative-host

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.

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