Managing participants in a meeting

As the host in a meeting, you can manage the participants. In general, any participant in a meeting can share their video, screen, and audio, but you can change these settings during a meeting.

Requirements for managing participants in a Zoom meeting

Some options have additional prerequisites and must be enabled on the web portal or require a specific version of Zoom for full functionality. These features include giving a participant the ability to record locally, assigning a co-host, viewing the invitee status, putting a participant on-hold and using the waiting room.

*Limited controls are available when joining by web.

Table of Contents

Order of participants listed in a Zoom meeting

Names in the Participants panel appear in the following order:

  1. You
  2. The host (If you’re not the host)
  3. Co-hosts, if any
  4. Participants with Raised Hands, in order of first raised to last raised
  5. Unmuted online participants
  6. Unmuted dial-in participants
  7. Muted online participants
  8. Muted dial-in phones

If there are multiple participants within in a category, the participants will be sorted by their display name as follows:

  1. Special characters (#, $, &, *, ^, ~, etc.) in ASCII order
  2. Numbers
  3. Alphabetically (regardless of capitalization)

This means that if 3 participants have the display names #Zoom, 1Zoom, and Zoom, they would be listed in that order within a given category. If they are not all in the same category (1 has their hand raised, another is co-host, and the last is just unmuted), their order would be based on the other participants in their same category.

Features available for managing participants as a host or co-host

With meetings, hosts and co-hosts can control the following features:

Only hosts have access to these features:

How to manage participants in a Zoom meeting

Windows | macOS
  1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop app.
  2. Start a meeting.
  3. Click Participants in the host controls to open the Participants panel.
  4. (Optional) Click the drop-down menu located at the top-left corner and click Pop Out to separate the Participants panel from the meeting window
  5. Hover over a participant and click More for these options:

You will also have access to enable or disable these options at the bottom of the Participants panel:

In the bottom-right corner of the Participants panel, click (More) for these options:

Prevent participants from screen sharing

  1. In the host controls, click the arrow next to Share Screen and click Advanced Sharing Options.
  2. Under Who can share? choose Only Host.
  3. Close the window.
Linux
  1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop app.
  2. Start a meeting.
  3. Click Participants in the host controls to display the Participants panel.
  4. Hover over a participant and click More for these options:

You will also have access to enable or disable these options at the bottom of the Participants panel:

In the bottom-right corner of the Participants panel, click (More) for these options:

Prevent participants from screen sharing

  1. In the host controls, click the arrow next to Share Screen and click Advanced Sharing Options.
  2. Under Who can share? choose Only Host.
  3. Close the window.
Chrome OS
  1. Sign in to the Zoom Chrome OS client.
  2. Start a meeting.
  3. Click Participants in the host controls to display the Participants panel.
  4. Click the drop-down menu located at the top-left corner to close the Participants panel or click Pop Out to separate the Participants panel from the meeting window:
  5. Hover over a participant and click More for these options:

You will also have access to enable or disable these options at the bottom of the Participants panel by clicking (More):

Prevent participants from screen sharing

  1. In the host controls, click the arrow next to Share Screen and click Advanced Sharing Options.
  2. Under Who can share? choose Only Host.
  3. Close the window.
Web client

When joining using the web client, you will have limited functionality in managing participants.

  1. In the host controls, click Participants in the host controls to display the Participants panel.
  2. Hover over a participant and click More for these options:

You will also have access to enable or disable these options at the bottom of the Participants panel:

iOS
  1. Sign in to the Zoom mobile app.
  2. Start a meeting.
  3. Tap Participants in the host controls to display the Participants panel.
  4. Tap a participant's name to manage a specific participant with the following options:
    • Ask to Unmute / Unmute / Mute
    • Stop Video: Stop the participant's video stream so they are unable to start their video. If the participant hasn't started their video, you will see the Ask to Start Video option.
    • Chat: Open the chat window to send messages directly to the participant.
    • Spotlight for Everyone: Spotlight up to 9 participants' videos, so that their videos are always visible for all participants in the meeting.
    • Make Host (only available to the host): Assign the participant to be the host. There can only be one host.
    • Make Co-Host (only available to the host): Assign the participant to be a co-host. You can have an unlimited number of co-hosts.
    • Rename: Change the participant name that is displayed to other participants. This change only applies to the current meeting.
      Note: To change your own name that is displayed, hover over your name in the Participants panel and click Rename. You can permanently change your name in your profile.
    • Assign to Type Closed Captions (only available to the host): Assign the participant to type closed caption during the meeting.
    • Allow to Record Local Files (only available to the host): Allow the participant to start or stop a local recording of the meeting. Participants do not have access to start a cloud recording.
    • Allow to Multi-pin: Allows another participant to use the multi-pin feature. By default, participants can only pin 1 participant at a time.
    • Put in Waiting Room: Place participants in a virtual waiting room while you prepare for the meeting. The host must enable waiting room for this option to appear.
    • Remove: Dismiss a participant from the meeting.

At the bottom of the participants window, you will have the following options:

To mute participants upon entry, play the join and leave sound, or show names of participants when they join, tap More and then Meeting Settings in the host controls.

To lock the meeting, prevent participants from sharing their screen, or put participants into the waiting room upon entry, tap More and then Security in the host controls. Learn more about meeting security.

Android
  1. Sign in to the Zoom mobile app.
  2. Start a meeting.
  3. Tap Participants in the host controls to display the Participants panel.
  4. Tap a participant's name to manage a specific participant.

At the bottom of the participants window, you will have the following options:

To mute participants upon entry, play the join and leave sound, or show names of participants when they join, tap More and then Meeting Settings in the host controls.

To lock the meeting, prevent participants from sharing their screen, or put participants into the waiting room upon entry, tap More and then Security in the host controls. Learn more about meeting security.

 
 
ai companion icon

Back to back meetings? Use Zoom AI Companion to generate a summary of what was discussed in your meetings and share through email and Team Chat.