Zoom conferencing service has become a household name in less than a year. Chances are good that someone said they were going to “enlarge” you. But not everyone has a device with a great microphone that can be displayed on the screen or can connect to the Internet Here’s how to simply call a Zoom meeting from your phone.
Telephony and Zoom Free Basic accounts
At the time of this writing, Zoom advised that “due to increased demand, the audio teleconferencing capabilities may be temporarily removed from your free base account.”
What Zoom is literally saying is that you can call a Zoom meeting using your phone number or you can not. The dial-up function may or may not return to the free account.
If you’re a meeting host, check out Zoom’s various paid plans to ensure you have phone access.
- After you have joined the meeting on your computer, the application will ask you to join the audio. If it doesn’t, select “Join Audio”.
Request a Zoom Meeting Using a Phone Number - Once you join the meeting on your PC, the app will ask you to join the audio. If not, select Join Audio
- Select Phone Call. If the meeting organizer has a call add-in, you will also have the option to select Call me.
- A checkbox icon appears. If your country is already displayed, skip to step 4, otherwise select the flag dropdown menu and select the country you are calling from. It will show you the numbers you can dial from your country.
- Call any of the numbers listed. If a toll-free number is displayed, call it to avoid paying for long distance calls.
- After the Zoom auto attendant responds, enter the meeting ID followed by #.
- Now enter your member ID followed by #.
- If you have a password to join the meeting, enter it followed by #.
- Click Finish to close this window.
How to leave Zoom Computer Audio and join over the phone
If you use Zoom regularly, you may have configured it to automatically connect to computer audio Or maybe you accidentally selected “Join Computer Audio”. Everything is good. You can still switch to your phone.
- Click the up arrow (^) on the Mute / Unmute button.
- Select Mute Computer Sound. Now you can use the steps in the previous section to dial.
How to Join a Zoom Meeting by Phone Only
You are not sitting at a computer, your phone does not have the Zoom app, or you cannot use the Zoom app because you do not want to use your mobile phone data. Maybe you just don’t like trying to look like you’re paying attention to a Zoom video meeting. No big deal, you can just call the Zoom meeting from your phone.
- The meeting invitation will contain the numbers you will be calling. If there is a toll free number, use it. to avoid being charged for long distance calls.
- The Zoom auto attendant will respond and ask you to enter the meeting ID followed by #.
- If you are the host for a Zoom meeting, enter the host key to start the meeting. If you’re joining someone else’s meeting and join in front of the host is not enabled, press # to wait.
- The Zoom Auto Attendant will ask you for your Member ID. Press # to skip. You only need to do this if you have already joined the meeting on a computer, in an application, or participating in a webinar.
- If the meeting request included a password, enter it followed by #.
There are a few things to keep in mind when joining a large meeting by phone only.
- You can join the meeting on your computer or via the app later. When you do, press #, then enter your Participant ID and press # again to associate your phone’s audio with your computer’s video or app’s video.
- Joining a meeting may require a password specifically for joining by telephone. It will be shown in the invitation under the meeting ID.
- Press an asterisk (*) 6 to toggle between mute and unmute.
- Press an asterisk (*) 9 to raise your hand in a meeting
Join a Zoom meeting using iPhone One-Click Phone Link
A meeting organizer can add mobile links to their invitation with one click. This only works for iPhone. If your host can do this, this is the easiest way to get through from your phone. Just click on the link in the invitation and your phone will call the number. If the host configures this, the link can also automatically enter the meeting ID and password.
If you plan on using iPhone One-Tap mobile links, there are a few things to keep in mind.
- If only plain text is displayed in a member’s email, this will not work. They must have HTML support enabled.
- If your dial-in number supports multiple languages, the one-touch link will not work because the auto attendant wants to ask the participant’s language preference. You can skip this by adding 0 # in front of the appointment number in the link, but then by default only the first language suggested to the attendee will be used.
Are you zooming in?
If you’re using Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams and have some cool tips that might help others, we’d love to hear from you. If you have questions about these conferencing services, please search our website or post them in the comments below.
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