How to Enable and Customize Waiting Rooms in Zoom

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The waiting room is an important tool to prevent people who were uninvited and who didn't show up on your roster to join. It allows you to verify your attendees before they enter the meeting. This guide will walk you through the different ways you can enable the waiting room feature as well as how to customize it.

Viewing the Waiting Room

When waiting rooms are enabled in Zoom, this is the screen participants will see while they wait for you to admit them into the meeting.

Default white with black text waiting room screen

Enabling the Waiting Room Feature for All Meetings

1. Log in to the Zoom web portal.

2. Click Settings and ensure that you are on the Meeting tab.

Click on Settings

3. Scroll down until you see the Waiting room option. Click the toggle to enable it.

Click the waiting room status toggle to enable it.

4.  Select who you want to admit to the waiting room.

  • All participants: All participants joining your meeting will be admitted to the waiting room. 
  • Guest participants only: Only participants who are not on your Zoom account or are not logged in will be admitted to the waiting room. If not logged in, they will have an option to login. 
Select who you want to admit to the waiting room, all participants or guest participants only

5. Customize the waiting room. (Optional) You can add your own custom message, description, and logo.

customize waiting room

Enabling the Waiting Room for an Individual Meeting

Before you can enable Waiting Room for an individual meeting, you must enable it in your meeting settings.

1. Log in to the Zoom web portal.

2. Click Meetings.

Click Meetings

3. If you are attempting to enable waiting rooms for a new meeting, then select Schedule a New Meeting. If you are enabling it for an already scheduled meeting, then select the meeting you want to edit.

Either schedule a new meeting or click on the meeting name of an existing meeting

4. Under Meeting Options, check Enable Waiting Room.

Click on Enable Waiting room

5. Don't forget to press Save!

Click Save button

Additional Support and Resources

Need help with something else? Want to learn more about Zoom options? Visit the Alamo Colleges Zoom Guides, Official Zoom Guides, contact Zoom Support, or your local, or district IT help desk.

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