Host Controls in Meeting

Host controls allow you as the host to control various aspects of a Zoom meeting, such as managing the participants.

Once you have started your meeting, the meeting window will open. Many of the icons that you see, and the behavior of your meeting are determined by both your account meeting settings and the settings that you enabled when scheduling the individual meeting.

Host Meeting Controls

Located at the top of the screen:

Green Shield: Provides meeting details such as the meeting ID, host name, passcode, and invite link. There is also a small settings gear that when clicked, provides real-time network connection information. If your meeting freezes or drops, you'll want to click on this gear to check the stability of your connection.

View icon: Located on the top right of the screen to select the video view, show/hide self-view, or also stop all participants’ incoming video.

Meeting Duration timer appears when the option Show meeting timers is enabled in General settings on the desktop app.  The timer can be selected for meeting duration or time remaining; swich timers by clicking the down-caret next to the timer.

 

Host Tools

The meeting control bar is located at the bottom of the screen; the images are in two parts for easier reading:

Mute: Mute/unmute yourself. Click on the caret to change certain audio settings such as selecting a microphone, selecting a speaker, as well as testing your speaker and microphone.

Stop Video: Start or stop video camera display. Click on the caret to change certain video camera settings including choosing a virtual background.

Security: Provides options to lock the meeting, enable a waiting room, hide profile pictures, and disable/enable participants' ability to share screen, chat, rename themselves, mute/unmute themselves, start video, share whiteboards, and suspend participant activities. By selecting to 'Suspend Participant Activities,' everyone will be muted, video, screen sharing, and whiteboard will be stopped, Zoom Apps will be disabled, and the meeting will be locked. You'll also have the option to report the meeting to Zoom's Trust & Safety team.

Participants: View list of participants and edit participant functions such as muting all participants and enabling/disabling sound notification when someone joins/leaves meeting. You can also promote participants to co-host role, place participants in the waiting room, and remove participants if being disruptive. 

Poll:  Launch a poll/quiz created when scheduling the meeting or create a poll/quiz while in the meeting.

Chat: Chat with participants as well as edit participant chat functions such as limiting who participants can chat with.

Share Screen: Select the screen to share from your device. Click on the caret to enable/disable participant screen share.

Record: Option to record to the cloud or local to your device based on your account recording settings. 

Show Captions: Enable manual or auto captions.

Breakout Rooms: Create breakout rooms or manage pre-assigned breakout rooms established when scheduling the meeting.

Interpretation: Select Language Interpretation (Audio) or Sign Language Interpretation (Video).  (Requires settings enabled in your Zoom account.)

Reactions: Use emojis to react to what is said/occurring during the meeting.  Customize emojis and enable the use of animated emojis through your desktop app settings.

Apps: Approved apps on your account, they will be listed and accessible when clicking on this icon.

Whiteboards: Crate a new whiteboard or open and collaborate on existing whiteboards.

More: Offers Start Focus Mode which gives only the host a view of participant’s shared screen and video (or profile name if participant doesn’t have their video turned on). More also gives you the option to stream to Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, or a custom live streaming service.

End: Displays the options to End Meeting for All which includes yourself and all participants or Leave Meeting which prompts you to assign a host so that the meeting can continue.