Understanding roles in a Zoom meeting

There are multiple roles available for a meeting: host, co-host, alternative hosts, and participants. The role that you have in a meeting is designated by the host.

Note: If you need to schedule a meeting on behalf of another user, use scheduling privilege

Table of Contents

Comparison of role permissions in a Zoom meeting

The following table compares the meeting controls available to the host, co-hosts, alternative hosts, and participants.

 
FeatureHostCo-host or alternative hostParticipants
Participating in the meeting
Start the meeting

(See note 1)

 
Mute/unmute themselves
Start/stop their own video✔*
View participants list
Share screen✔*
Request or give remote control
Chat with other meeting participants
Save in-meeting chat 
Create or edit polls✔ (See note 2) 
Start polling 
Answer polls  
Assign someone to manually enter closed captions  
Manually enter closed captions✔*✔*
Use call-out to join audio by phone
End the meeting  
Use reactions and nonverbal feedback
Reorder video  
Managing participants
Mute or unmute participants 
Stop participant's video 
Ask participant to start video 
Spotlight a video 
Promote participant to host or co-host  
Change who participants can chat with 
Remove participants 
Put participants on hold 
Rename participants 
Invite others to join    
Mute controls for participants (ask to mute, mute all, mute on entry) 
Assign participants to breakout rooms 
Recording
Start a cloud recording✔ (See note 3)

 
Start a computer recording✔ (See note 3)

✔*

✔*
Allow or prevent a participant to start computer recording     
Live streaming

Live stream on:

(See note 4) 

Notes:

1 Alternative hosts can start the meeting by using the meeting ID or meeting link from the invitation email. The meeting will not display in their upcoming meetings list in the desktop or mobile app for alternative hosts. Co-hosts cannot start meetings scheduled by the host. Co-hosts cannot be assigned ahead of time. The host has to promote a participant to co-host during the meeting.

2 Alternative hosts can't add or edit polls unless you enable the setting for allowing alternative hosts to add or edit polls.

3 Hosts and co-hosts cannot start cloud recording and computer recording at the same time. Once the host or co-host begins cloud recording, computer recording cannot be started. Additionally, the host and co-host cannot control both cloud and computer recordings separately.

4 Alternative hosts can start live streams, if they are currently the host in the meeting. If the host joins and they are demoted to the co-host role, they will be unable to initiate live streams.

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