How To Allow Participants To Join Before Host In Zoom

Zoom has become one of the most popular video conferencing platforms in the world, with more than 300 million daily users. But despite its popularity and ease of use, there are still some features that could be improved upon.

One such feature is allowing participants to join a meeting before the host arrives. This can be especially useful when you’re hosting large meetings or webinars, as it prevents people from having to wait for someone else to arrive before they can get started.

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how to allow participants to join before the host in Zoom so you can make your meetings even more efficient and productive. We’ll go over the necessary steps to enable this feature, and also discuss some tips and best practices for using it. So let’s get started!

Allowing Participants To Join Before Host In Zoom

‘Allow participants to join before host’ Zoom feature allow users to join the meeting even before the host arrives. It is an extremely useful feature, especially when hosting large meetings or webinars as it allows everyone to get started without waiting for anyone else to arrive.

Prerequisites

• You must have a Zoom account and the host must have sufficient privileges to enable this feature.
• To make sure it works for all participants, custom Join Before Host time limit requires Zoom client version 5.4.0 or higher on their device.

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How To Enable Join Before Host For All Meetings?

Account

Administrators can enable ‘Allow Participants To Join Before Host’ for all meetings on the Zoom account. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Zoom web portal as an administrator and navigate to Account Management > Account Settings.

2. Click on the Meeting tab and verify that ‘Allow participants to join before host’ is enabled.

3. If not, click the toggle to enable it and lock the setting so that it cannot be changed for any newly scheduled meetings.

4. At this point, all newly scheduled meetings will have join before host enabled by default and participants will be able to join without waiting for the host to arrive.

Group

If you want to enable this feature for a specific group of users, such as participants in a webinar or online class, then you can make use of the Group optionz.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Zoom web portal and sign in as an administrator.

2. Navigate to Group Management > Manage Groups.

3. Select the group you want to enable join before host for and click on the Meeting tab.

4. Check the ‘Allow participants to join before host’ option and lock it so that it cannot be changed by individual users or hosts.

5. Now, all meetings scheduled by members of that group will have join before host enabled by default and participants will be able to join without waiting for the host to arrive.

User

If you want to enable this feature for a specific user, such as yourself or someone who frequently hosts large meetings, then you can make use of the User option. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Zoom web portal and sign in as an administrator.

2. Click the “Settings” tab from the navigation menu, and then select the “Meeting” option from the left-hand side.

3. Scroll down to the “Allow participants to join before host” setting, and click the toggle to enable it.

4. A verification dialog will appear, select “Turn On” button to confirm your changes.

5. Scroll down further and click on the “User” option from the drop-down menu.

6. Under “Allow Custom Join Before Host Time Limits”, check the “Participants can join (0-180) minutes before the start time” box.

7. Click “Save” at the bottom of the page to apply your changes.

Now, all users associated with this account will be able to join their meeting up to 180 minutes before its scheduled start time.

How To Enable Join Before Host For An Individual Meeting

Windows | macOS | Linux

If you wish to enable this feature for a single meeting only, then you can make use of the Meetings tab:

• Open the Zoom desktop client and sign in your account.
• Select the “Schedule” option from the Home page, and then choose the meeting you wish to enable Join Before Host.
• Click the “Advanced Options” button, and then select the “Allow participants to join anytime” checkbox.
• Enter the time limit in minutes (5, 10, 15 or 180) in the box provided below it, and then click the “Schedule” button.

Now, everyone who has the meeting link can join up to the time limit you have set before its scheduled start time.

Note: If you have enabled the Join Before Host feature for a specific user, they must also enter their meeting ID to join before its start time.

Web Portal

• Go to the Zoom Web Portal and login your account.
• Click the “Meetings” tab and click on the “Edit This Meeting” option located beside the respective meeting.
• Scroll down to the “Meeting Options” section and check the “Allow participants to join before start time” box.
• Choose the time limit (5, 10, 15 or anytime) in the box provided below it and then click the “Save” button.

Android | iOS

• Open the Zoom app, and sign in to your account.
• Tap the “Meetings” tab, then select “Schedule” option.
• Click Advanced Options and select Allow Participants to Join Before Host.
• Click ‘Done’ button when you’re finished.

Bottom Line

Enabling the Join Before Host feature in Zoom is a great way to help ensure that meetings have started by the scheduled time and all participants are present when they need to be.

The steps to enable this feature vary depending on whether you want it enabled for a group or an individual user, or for individual meetings only. With these instructions, you should be well on your way to setting up the Join Before Host feature in no time.

Good luck!