Hosts & Roles

Hosts & Roles

Roles in Zoom meetings

The roles available for a meeting are Host, Co-host, Alternative host, and Participant. The host designates the role of other users in a meeting.

The Host is the person that scheduled the meeting. The host is the only user will full permissions to manage the meeting, and there can only be one host of a meeting.

Co-hosts and alternative hosts share most meeting controls. There can be unlimited co-hosts and alternative hosts. Co-hosts and alternative hosts are identical except that 1) only alternative hosts can start a meeting, 2) co-hosts can only be assigned during a meeting, and 3) alternative hosts can only be assigned while scheduling a meeting and must be a licensed user from your institution (i.e. Emory).

Participants are non-host users present in a meeting.

 

What is the difference between Host, Co-host, and Alternative Host?

The table below lists a few common Zoom features and whether Hosts, Co-hosts, and/or Alternative Hosts can use these features. For a full list, please visit Zoom Support page for roles in a meeting Links to an external site..

Feature

Host

Co-host / Alternative Host

Start a meeting

/

End a meeting

Set a co-host

Start/manage breakout rooms

Start waiting room

Use waiting room

(admit/remove participants, etc.)

Create/edit polls

Start polling

Share screen

Record

The controls available to hosts and co-hosts can be found on the Zoom Support page for host and co-host controls in a meeting Links to an external site.

 

Adding Co-hosts

The host is the only person that can set co-hosts, and this can only be done during a meeting. There are two ways the host can assign a cohost:

  1. You can hover over a user's video, click the More icon (ellipsis: ...), and click Make Co-Host.
    or
  2. Click on Manage Participants in the meeting controls at the bottom of the Zoom window. Hover over the name of the participant who is going to be a co-host, click More, and click Make Co-Host.

For more information, visit the Zoom Support page for enabling and adding a co-host Links to an external site..

 

Adding Alternative Hosts

The host can designate Licensed users on the same account (i.e. Emory) to be alternative hosts. Alternative hosts are added while scheduling a meeting or modifying a scheduled meeting. 

To add an Alternative Host from the Zoom desktop client or Zoom web portal:

  1. Open the Zoom program or login to the Zoom web portal and click Meetings.
  2. Click Schedule to set up a new meeting, or select an existing meeting and click Edit.
  3. In the Zoom web portal, enter the alternative host's Emory email address in the net ID format (i.e. John Smith = jsmith1 @ emory.edu, not john.smith @ emory.edu) in the Alternative Host field.
    or
    In the desktop client, click Advanced Options to see the Alternative Host field. Enter the person's name to search through users, or enter the alternative host's Emory email address in the net ID format.
  4. Click Schedule to finish.
  5. Depending on their account settings, the alternative host will receive an email notification that they have been added as an alternative host. 

For more information, visit the Zoom Support page for alternative hosts Links to an external site.. Reach out to Emory IT Links to an external site. if you have problems adding someone as an alternative host using their Emory net ID email address.

 

Changing the Host of a Meeting

You can only change the Host of a meeting during the meeting. The original host can assign another user as host, and the original host is free to leave the meeting.

To change the host of a meeting in the Zoom desktop client, you can either:

  • hover over a user's video or their name in the participant window, click the More button, and select Make Host, or
  • in the host controls, click End, click Leave Meeting, assign a user to be the new host, and click Assign and Leave.

For more information, visit the Zoom Support page for passing host controls and leaving the meeting Links to an external site..

 

Zoom Support