We encourage you to create and use a free Zoom account for your meetings. While you don’t need an account to join a Zoom meeting, you will need one to set up meetings. Breakout rooms – if you want to break into small group discussions.Dial in – to allow people to call in via their phone (they will be charged at their normal call rate).Chatbox – good for managing who’s turn it is to speak, or as a backup for those who can’t.Host controls – mute participants, record the meeting, create 'breakout' rooms, remove attendees.Recording – a great way to make an online event accessible to people who couldn’t attend.Screensharing – useful for sharing a presentation or a meeting agenda.Zoom has useful features for both group meetings and bigger, online events: In this instance you won’t be able to use host controls such as muting participants or recording the meeting.

Caveat: you can also set up the meeting so that it runs without a host, for instance, if you create the meeting with your account but you’re not able to attend the meeting yourself. The only person that needs an account is the person setting up and running the meeting: the ”host”. The main benefit of Zoom is that anyone with a meeting link can join your call, without needing an account, making meetings or online events easy and accessible. Things may appear slightly differently on other operating systems or devices, such as Macs, tablets or smartphones. Throughout this guide, the images used are from a Windows machine. In-meeting controls (we've made a short video to demonstrate these).How to access our paid accounts for more features.Zoom is a video conferencing tool that allows you and your colleagues or friends to take your meetings and events online.

How to start a zoom meeting