The Zoom Waiting Room feature allows the host to send attendees to a waiting room before joining a meeting. This setting gives hosts added security by not admitting everyone to the meeting automatically. By default, the Waiting Room setting is enabled and will send Only Guests (Non-EID accounts) to the waiting room.
Waiting Room Settings
You can configure your meetings to send All Participants to the waiting room, but you will be responsible for admitting users before they can participate in the meeting. One thing to note is the "Only authenticated users can join" setting. This setting cannot be disabled and requires users to have a Zoom account (either an EID account or Non-EID account) to join a meeting hosted on the utexas (main) Zoom tenant. This was set to ensure maximum security for all meetings.
Read the matrix below to determine which Waiting Room setting option works best for your needs. See below to configure your Waiting Room setting.
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Waiting Room (Users who are not in your account and not part of the allowed list) |
Waiting Room (Everyone) |
Waiting Room (Users not in your account) |
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Only authenticated users can join
UT Austin (Default)
Only users signed in to a UT Austin Zoom accounts allowed |
Recommended for:
Academic classes/Meetings We strongly recommend leaving this as your DEFAULT setting and only changing the setting for a particular meeting as needed.
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Recommended for:
Advising and Office Hours This setting will send everyone to the Waiting Room.
You can admit one participant (or more) at a time from the Waiting Room to meet with you.
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DISREGARD |
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Only authenticated users can join
Sign in to Zoom (Guest)
Any user signed in to a Zoom account allowed |
Recommended for:
Academic Classes with guest lecturers/Meeting with external users Should be used when non-EID accounts (guests) will be joining your meeting.
Guests will be placed in the waiting room and can be admitted by the host
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Recommended for:
Advising guests (non-EID accounts) Should be used when non-EID accounts (guests) will be joining your meeting.
All participants (EID accounts and non-EID accounts) will be placed in the waiting room and can be admitted by the host.
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DISREGARD |
To enable the Waiting Room for all of your meetings:
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal. https://utexas.zoom.us
- In the navigation menu, click Settings.
- On the Meeting tab, navigate to the Waiting Room option under In-Meeting (Advanced) and verify that the setting is enabled.
Notes:
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If the setting is disabled, click the Status toggle to enable it. If a verification dialog displays, choose Turn On to verify the change.
- Select who you want to admit to the waiting room.
Click Edit Options
Who Should go into the waiting room?
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Users who are not in your account and not part of the allowed list: This setting is the default. It will admit guests to the waiting room. Those with EID logins (faculty, staff, students. etc.) go straight to the meeting room
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Everyone: All participants joining your meeting will be admitted to the waiting room first..
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Users not in your account: Same behavior as Users who are not in your account and not part of the allowed list It's not necessary to change the waiting room setting here
Who can admit participants from the waiting room?
- Hosts and co-hosts only: Default setting
- Hosts, co-hosts, and anyone who bypassed the waiting room (only if host and co-hosts are not present): This setting should not be selected. It's for special use cases
Can I Change Waiting Room Settings for Existing Meetings?
Yes. A meeting host can update the waiting room settings for meetings after they have been scheduled.