Zoom Meetings How it works tips and tricks

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the word 'Zoom' simultaneously became synonymous with 'video call'. While people were out there trying to find their way in what we now call our new normal, Zoom freely united people that couldn't physically see one another. Like it, there are others, but the kinds of features that the Zoom platform offers are absolutely incredible. These features have been adapted for keeping up with your working life and social life from the comfort of your home. Let's get into a bit more detail about Zoom app itself.

What is Zoom Meeting App?

The Zoom app was founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan in San Jose, California. Its headquarters today also lies in the same city. Zoom is an online video conferencing platform to make video communication more secure and without complications. Zoom's video calling service not only works smoothly and efficiently, but it also provides customers with a lot of other ways to express themselves. It is the first choice of all enterprise sizes - big, medium, small, and even at the individual level.

How does Zoom work?

The first Zoom beta conference, while still in the company's developer phase, could hold up to 15 participants with video. This number increased to 25 with more research and development put into it, and today, even the most basic plan can support up to 100 video participants. Paid plans even more than that, up to a 1000 members, which is great for telecasting large events and the like. Other features enable you to record meetings for future reference, annotate these calls, remove participants, share your screen, and so much more. We shall get into a more exhaustive list of Zoom features a little later.

A guide to starting & participating in Zoom conferences

Zoom call meetings are fairly simple in their working, but let's get into a more detailed explanation of how it works.

Scheduling & Hosting Zoom app meetings

The two ways of taking part in a Zoom call meeting are:

• Joining someone else's meeting using a link or code
• Scheduling and hosting your own meeting

Hosting a meeting is a simple process and you can change all the settings you'd like. The first step is to click on 'Schedule' and this will open a pop-up box wherein you can specify your meeting details. You can decide whether or not

• participants can enter a meeting before you, the host, join.
• a passcode is required to enter the meeting.
• there will be a waiting room.
• participants can join at any time or only within a specified time limit.
• participants are muted upon entry, among other things.

You can change the meeting name under 'Topic', and you can set the starting time + duration, and if it's a recurring meeting or not.

Alternatively, you could just click on 'New Meeting' which will instantly start a video call. From here, you can send over a link to participants to join directly, at that moment.

Inviting participants to your Zoom video call

The Zoom call app allows you to invite participants to a meeting in multiple ways.

• Via Google Calendar

If you select Google Calendar to schedule your event, when you 'save' it, it will redirect to your Google account. Click on 'allow' and it will take you to the setup page for a new event. Here, you can add participants via email address, and the invites will go directly into their inboxes.

• Via Outlook Calendar

Similar to the Google Calendar method, Zoom will take you to your Outlook Calendar wherein you can send invites directly into email inboxes.

• Via other calendars

This option is fairly simple and it requires you to copy and paste the meeting information and send it to individual participants manually. You can send the details via email, via WhatsApp, or even text message, but you have to do it manually.

Managing participants during the Zoom meeting

As the host of the meeting, you are equipped with more permissions than the participants. The following are the host permissions on the Zoom cloud meetings app for PC.

• Muting one or more participants.
• Video access: can turn participant cameras on and off.
• Control over chat access.
• Control over screen sharing access.
• Control over whether or not participants can unmute themselves or start video.
• Approve/block participants from specific countries or specific regions.
• Complete suspension of participant activities.

These host permissions are useful because they can be adapted for any event conducted online via the Zoom cloud meeting app for laptops and mobile devices.

Zoom app features

Zoom online has various packages, and also additional add-ons that customers may avail, if need be. Let's take a look at the most basic Zoom features that customers can use with a free plan.

• Host up to 100 participants on the Zoom call app.
• Unlimited number of meetings.
• Up to 40 minutes per meeting only (if you'd like to continue the meeting, you can end it and restart it).
• Full chatbox setting.
• Three Zoom Whiteboards available with 25 MB cloud storage.
• Zoom meeting download after recording with device save.
• GIF or photo backgrounds.

The paid plans are Pro, Business and Enterprise, and they consist of several other useful features for business, online education, and more.

• Zoom Pro

Free + the following:

• Meetings can go up to 30 hours.
• Direct social media integration for streaming purposes.
• Cloud recording space of 1 GB.

• Zoom Business

Pro + the following features:

• Host up to 300 participants.
• Availability of AI transcription download.
• Company branding, domains, and up to 99 licenses.
• Unlimited Zoom Whiteboard access.

• Zoom Enterprise

Business + the following features:

• Host up to 500 participants.
• Unlimited cloud storage.

Aside from the plans, there are also several add-on services you can purchase from Zoom. This includes the large meetings add-on that permits up to a 1000 participants regardless of the plan. Other add-ons include those for developer support, Zoom Whiteboard, cloud storage, and more.

Useful tips & tricks for Zoom online meetings

While general video calling is the primary purpose of the Zoom mobile app and Zoom app for PC, there are so many other useful features that most people don't feel the need to or just haven't explored. How Zoom app works is that it aims to provide its customers with the most efficient video calling tools, alongside business or educational tools to smoothen online life. All the aspects of business have been inculcated into the video calling platform by Zoom meaning that the company aims to make the online experience as close to reality as possible.

Waiting Rooms

The host can set up the meeting such that participants have to wait in a 'waiting room' until the host lets them into the meeting. This is a great setting for running something like rolling meetings or interviews, where one participant leaves and the other is permitted, and so on.

Breakout Rooms

A Zoom meeting can be divided into multiple rooms, where the lobby is the main meeting room and the additional ones are breakout rooms. This works for something like conferences where there are multiple events at the same time within the same meeting. Different topics of conversation can be picked up in different breakout rooms simultaneously without disrupting the flow of any of them. Many online Model United Nations and other international conferences have been carried out using the breakout room feature.

App Integration

You can integrate many different apps on the Zoom video calling platform so that different activities can be conducted within the meeting itself. Some of the apps include:

• DocuSign eSignature : signing documents in a Zoom meeting
• Dropbox Spaces
• InVision Freehand Whiteboard for UX/UI design
• SurveyMonkey
• HubSpot App
• Donations by Pledge : adding a 'donate' button to all Zoom meetings, works for fundraisers
• Mentimeter : for live polls
• Lucidspark Whiteboard for graphic design
• Kahoot! for quizzes and questionnaires
• Wellness Coach for mental and physical practices, great for corporate mental health seminars and the like
• Hive Notes for live note tracking during meetings
• Several others

Zoom Rooms

Zoom can be integrated into the office space for meeting rooms, board rooms, and others. It enables businesses and educational settings to integrate in-person meetings with remote participants. They require an HD screen integrated with the laptop. This is an innovative way for people to interact in larger settings where a few of many participants cannot physically sit in, but can do so online with the Zoom platform.

Language Interpretation

You can avail the language interpretation tool provided by Zoom to have live translations during a meeting. The platform enables the customer to have to have up to 20 participants to interpret different languages within the meeting. Meeting attendees can select which language interpretation they'd like to listen to. Attendees are also given the choice of muting the original language audio for themselves and keeping on only the language they want. The original language may be kept on with the interpretation at a lower volume.

Whiteboards

Zoom Whiteboards are one of the most useful tools of the platform. These Whiteboards enable teachers to use them as boards in real time, imitating a classroom, and it is also useful for business meetings where pointers need to be written down as they're discussed. Zoom has its own Whiteboards, but there are also other apps that may suit your specific needs. They're available via Zoom Apps.

Cloud Storage

You can avail cloud storage via Google Drive for Zoom to store your Zoom meeting downloaded recordings. If you require Zoom cloud storage for other purposes, you may contact the sales team to receive a guide and quote for how to do it and how much it would cost you.

Toll-free call-ins with Audio Plans

Instead of or alongside video calls, Zoom also has the facility for call-ins via high quality Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). What VoIP does is that it enables you to make calls via your WiFi or mobile data connection rather than using your mobile network service. Each Zoom account is equipped with its own toll-free phone number. All you need to do is make a call to the phone number corresponding to the meeting (it is always mentioned under the meeting link in the invitation) and you can easily sign on with your phone. Zoom meeting toll-free call-ins are available for 100+ countries and VoIP services for 55+ countries.

Wrapping Up

The incidence of online life taking over pretty much all aspects of human activity is what is Zoom app's selling point. With its plethora of features in video conferencing to imitate and match physical, face-to-face interactions is what makes it the pioneer of the sector. With great plans, great add-ons, and even greater quality, support services and communications, Zoom is one of the best ways to take your business online.