Waiting Room

The waiting room feature allows hosts to control which participants can join the session. Participants land in an area outside the meeting room, just like waiting in the hallway outside of a closed meeting or classroom. Participants in the waiting room can be renamed by the hosts and co-hosts before they enter the meeting. The host gets notified at the top of the meeting window that participants are waiting, and admits individuals to the room at an appropriate time.

For counseling and tutoring sessions, student privacy is supported by allowing you, as the host, to control when students can join the session. 

Enable the Waiting Room Feature for All Meetings 

By enabling the waiting room feature in your meeting's settings, this will become the default in all meetings that you schedule. 

Log into your TechConnect Zoom account on the web portal https://www.conferzoom.org/ 

1. Click on Settings in the left navigation menu.
2. Locate the Waiting Room setting towards the top of the settings page.
3. Enable Waiting Room.
4. Click Edit Options (if available) to make additional desired changes. 
   
   • Who should go in the waiting room?
   • Sort order of people in the waiting room in the participants panel v5.10.3 or higher.
     • Join order
     • Alphabetical
   • More options
     • Allow participants invited to meeting to bypass waiting room.
     • Allow waiting room participants to reply to host.
     • Automatically move participants to the waiting room if host drops/disconnects unexpectedly.
5. Click Continue if you made changes or Cancel if you did not make changes.
6. Click Customize Waiting Room to make additional desired changes. NOTE: Customized waiting room is only scheduled if it has been enabled prior to scheduling your meeting.
   • Title
   • Logo
   • Video (automatically plays in waiting room before participants enter a meeting)
   • Message (add a description to your waiting room) 

If you see the New waiting room and join before host experience setting, this is a temporary web setting allowing users to test the 'New Meeting Join Flow' before this new join flow is enabled for all. 

With the 'new meeting join flow' setting enabled and the waiting room setting enabled, users joining your meetings will see a pop up window that lets them know that either 'Waiting for host to start meeting', or 'Host has joined. We've let them know you're here'. The user can also test their video and mic before let into the meeting.

More information is found here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/11461720682509-New-Meeting-Join-Flow-FAQ- 

Enabling Host Ability to Rename Participants in Waiting Room

1. Click In Meeting (Basic) in left settings menu.
2. Scroll down to locate and enable Allow host or co-host to rename participants in waiting room before the enter your meeting.
   
   

In Live Meeting - Renaming Waiting Room Participants

1. Click Participants in meeting controls.
2. In the Waiting Room section, click the three dots (...) next to a participant's name.
3. In the drop-down menu, click Rename.
4. Enter a new name, then click Change.
   The participant will receive a notification that the host renamed them, as well as what they have been renamed to. Participants can click OK or Leave Meeting. Clicking OK does not admit them.

In Live Meeting - Admitting Waiting Room Participants

Host receives a notification message at the top of their meeting window when a participant has entered the waiting room.

1. Click on the Participants icon in the meeting controls.
2. Select the person to Admit or select Admit All to admit all participants at once.

In Live Meeting - Move Participant Back to Waiting Room

1. Click on the Participants icon in the meeting controls.
2. Hover over the name.
3. Click More.
4. Select Put in Waiting Room.
   
   Note: Remove takes the participant out of the meeting and does not allow returning to this session.