Starting a meeting without the host present

It is possible to start or join a Zoom meeting without the host present, as long as the host scheduled the meeting with specific settings configured. When scheduling a meeting, the host must disable the waiting room feature and enable the setting to allow participants to join before the host. These two settings together will allow participants to enter the meeting without the host.

Another option is to designate an alternative host when scheduling a meeting. This allows you to specify a person who can start the meeting and manage participants in the meeting, which is helpful if you don’t want to disable waiting room or allow participants to join before host.

Requirements

Limitations of being in a meeting without the host

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If you still want someone in the meeting to have host controls, you can designate an alternative host when you schedule the meeting.

Table of Contents

How to schedule a meeting that allows participants to join without the host

As the host, you can schedule a meeting that allows participants to join the meeting without you. When scheduling, you must disable the waiting room and allow participants to join anytime. It’s also recommended to use an auto-generated meeting ID, as opposed to scheduling with your Personal Meeting ID.

In addition to scheduling such a meeting on the desktop app or web portal, you can also schedule these meetings on the mobile app, the Outlook add-in, the Outlook plugin, and the Chrome or Firefox extension for scheduling in Google Calendar. Regardless of which method you schedule with, just ensure that the waiting room feature is disabled and the setting to allow participants to join before the host is enabled.

Note: Some of these settings might not be available when scheduling a meeting if they were disabled and locked to the off position by an account admin at the account or group level.

Windows | macOS | Linux
  1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop app.
  2. Click the Schedule icon .
    This will open the Schedule meeting window.
  3. Select your meeting settings as desired, and configure the following settings to allow participants to start the meeting without you:
    • Meeting ID: Choose Generate Automatically to generate a random unique meeting ID.
    • Security: Clear the Waiting Room check box to disable the waiting room for the meeting.
    • Advanced Options: Click the arrow, then select the Allow participants to join anytime check box.
      Note: You can also specify an alternative host, which allows someone else to start the meeting on your behalf as well as manage participants. Learn more about alternative hosts.
     
  4. Click Save to finish, and open the selected calendar service to add the meeting.
    Notes:
    • If you are scheduling a recurring meeting, you will need to set the recurrence in your calendar service.
    • Choosing Other Calendars will allow you to copy and paste the scheduled meeting information such as date, time, and meeting URL.
     
Web
  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Meetings, then click + Schedule a Meeting.
  3. Select your meeting settings as desired, and configure the settings in the following sections to allow participants to start the meeting without you:
    • Meeting ID: Choose Generate Automatically to generate a random unique meeting ID.
    • Security: Clear the Waiting Room check box to disable the waiting room for the meeting.
    • Options: Click Show, then select the Allow participants to join anytime check box.
      Note: You can also specify an alternative host, which allows someone else to start the meeting on your behalf as well as manage participants. Learn more about alternative hosts.
     
  4. Once you’ve finished adjusting all of the meeting settings, click Save.
  5. (Optional) To invite participants, do one of the following:
    • In the Time section, click a calendar service to add it to your calendar.
    • In the Invite Link section, click Copy Invitation to copy the link to your clipboard, then share the link as needed.

How to start a Zoom meeting without the host

As long as the host disabled waiting room and allowed participants to join anytime, then you can start the meeting without the host by joining the meeting through your preferred method.