Zoom Waiting Rooms

Overview

To control who can join your Zoom meeting and when they join, Zoom Waiting Rooms provide you the control to admit people to your meeting individually or in a big group all at once. 

Starting December 21, 2020 UC San Diego Information Technology Services (ITS) incorporated a default Waiting Room configuration for all Campus (non-Health) Zoom users. In doing so, Zoombombing opportunities are significantly reduced. Users are able to choose to leave the settings as we have enabled them, make their Waiting Room settings more restrictive, or they can switch to Passcodes.  

Critical Concepts

• The Zoom waiting room can prevent unauthorized users from accessing your Zoom Meeting.
• Zoom waiting rooms can be enabled in Zoom settings or in meetings by the meeting host. 
• Hosts and Co-hosts can admit attendees from the waiting room using the Participants sidebar in meetings. 
• Internal users or users in a specific domain can bypass the waiting room. The host will need to set up the option in their settings. 

Steps to Take

To enable waiting rooms in Zoom settings

1. Sign into the  using your UCSD account. 
2. In the navigation panel, click Settings.
3. Click the Meeting tab.
4. Under Security, verify that Waiting Room is enabled.
5. If the setting is disabled, click the toggle to enable it. If a verification dialog displays, click Turn On to verify the change.
   
6. Click Edit Options to specify Waiting Room options. This will allow you to pick who can bypass your waiting room. 
   
   

To enable waiting rooms in a Zoom meeting

The following instructions only apply to the Zoom meeting host.

1. Click the Security button. 
2. Click "Enable Waiting Room" if there is no checkmark next to it. 
   

To admit people from the waiting room into the meeting

The meeting host, co-host, or those who have bypassed the Waiting Room need to:

1. Click Participants in the Zoom application.
2. In the Participants pane, either click Admit for individual attendees, or Admit All to let everyone in from the Waiting Room.

Resources

• Zoom Waiting Room Requirements FAQ
• Secure Your Meetings with Zoom Waiting Rooms