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. 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.

Waiting Room (Guests Only)

Waiting Room (All Participants)

Waiting Room OFF

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.

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.

FORBIDDEN

Disabling the Waiting Room substantially increases your risk of uninvited guests entering your meeting.
(ie. "Zoombombing")
Do not use for classes.

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.

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.

FORBIDDEN

Disabling the Waiting Room substantially increases your risk of uninvited guests entering your meeting.
(ie. "Zoombombing")
Do not use for classes.

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:
- If the setting is disabled, click the Status toggle to enable it. If a verification dialog displays, choose Turn On to verify the change.
- If the option is grayed out, it has been locked at either the Group or Account level, and you will need to contact your Zoom administrator.
Select who you want to admit to the waiting room.
- All participants: All participants joining your meeting will be admitted to the waiting room.
- Guest participants only: Only participants who are not on your Zoom account or are not logged in will be admitted to the waiting room. If not logged in, they will have an option to log in.
  Note: If Guest participants only is enabled, you can also enable the option to allow internal participants (users on the account), to admit guests from the waiting room if the host is not in the meeting.

Can I Change Waiting Room Settings for Existing Meetings?

We do not have the ability update the waiting room settings for meetings after they have been scheduled.

If you have an existing meeting and would like to change the waiting room settings, you will need to delete the meeting, change your waiting room setting from the Zoom portal, and reschedule.