If any of the options discussed below are not available to you, please be sure that you're using the latest version of Zoom.

Signing in with SSO

In order for you and your students to have to the best ease of use and to take full advantage of Zoom, please be sure that each of you are signed into Zoom using SSO (your UT Zoom account) and not a personal Zoom account.

Signing In and Out of Zoom

You can find detailed instructions for signing in and out of Zoom here.

Verifying That You're Signed In With Your UT Zoom Account

1. From the Zoom desktop app, click your profile icon in the upper right corner
   
2. Underneath your name, verify that the email address shown is in the format <YOUR_EID>@eid.utexas.edu
   1. For example, if your EID is bevo, this should say bevo@eid.utexas.edu
      
3. If this does not show an email address of the above format, you'll need to switch to your UT Zoom account

Switching Zoom Accounts

1. From the Zoom desktop app, click your profile icon in the upper right corner
   
2. Select "Switch Account" from the dropdown menu
   
3. At the "Sign In" window, select "Sign In with SSO"
   
4. When prompted for a "Company Domain", enter in "utexas" and click "Continue"
   

5. Zoom will open a browser window and take you to a UT EID sign-in page, where you'll need to enter in your UT EID credentials and click "Sign In"
   

   Please note, you may also be asked to complete multi-factor authentication via Duo after entering in your UT EID credentials.

   
   

6. You'll be taken back to the Zoom desktop application and will now be signed in with SSO
   1. You may receive a prompt alerting you that your web browser is trying to open a link in an external application. If so, click the affirmative option, which may say something like, "Open in Zoom".

Enabling Private Chat

Private chat allows individual participants of your meetings to communicate with each other directly, via 1-to-1 messaging that is not visible to other participants.

Private chat between participants is disabled by default.

To enable:

1. Sign into utexas.zoom.us with your EID and password
2. Navigate to Settings on the left-hand side of the screen
3. Scroll down to Chat and enable Private Chat by clicking the toggle button
   
   

Allowing Outside Participants

To prevent unauthorized access, Zoom meetings created with your UT Zoom account are restricted by default to participants that also have a UT Zoom account. Participants attempting to join with a non-UT Zoom account, such as their personal Zoom account or a Zoom account provided by another institution, will not be able to join.

Enable Outside Participants for a Scheduled Meeting

1. Launch the Zoom desktop app or create a new meeting in Zoom for Canvas
2. If using the Zoom desktop app, click "Schedule", otherwise skip to step 3
   
3. Create your meeting as desired, with all the meeting options you would normally enable, including any recurrences

4. Under the "Security" heading, click the drop-down just below "Only authenticated users can join"
   

5. Set this dropdown to "Sign in to Zoom (Guest)" to allow outside participants with a personal or non-UT Zoom account to join this meeting
   

6. Click the "Save" button to confirm and schedule the meeting

   If this is a recurring meeting, this setting will affect each meeting in the series

   
   

Enabling Outside Participants for an Ad-Hoc Meeting

If you'd like to allow outside participants to access meetings created using the "New Meeting" button, you'll need to make changes to the settings for your Personal Meeting ID (PMI).

1. Launch the Zoom desktop app
2. Click the arrow next to "New Meeting"
3. Hover over your PMI, which will then display an additional menu
4. Click "PMI Settings"
   
5. Set your meetings options as desired, then, in the "Security" section, click drop-down just below "Only authenticated users can join"
   
6. Set this dropdown to "Sign in to Zoom" to allow outside participants with a free Zoom account to join meetings created with your PMI
    
   
7. Click "Save"
   

To make use of these settings when starting a new meeting, you'll need to check the "Use My Personal Meeting ID (PMI)" option in the "New Meeting" dropdown menu, as show below

Other Security Options

If you are unsure if your intended participants have a personal or UT Zoom account, or if you would like to allow participants to join the meeting without a Zoom account, you can make use of the Waiting Room or Passcode features instead of requiring authentication to join.

Waiting Room

The Waiting Room feature is enabled by default, and is most useful in combination with the "Only authenticated users can join" option described above, but can be enabled on its own.

When enabled, the Waiting Room will automatically hold meeting participants when they join the meeting. They will be shown a message indicating that they are in the waiting room. The meeting's hosts or co-hosts can then admit all participants that are in the waiting room or admit participants individually.

To enable the Waiting Room feature:

1. Begin creating your meeting as usual, with your desired settings
2. Check the box next to "Waiting Room"
   
3. Click "Save" to create your meeting

Passcode

If you enable the Passcode feature, your participants will need to join your Zoom meeting directly with the invite link you provide them, or, if they join using the meeting ID, they will be prompted to provide the passcode that was set for the meeting.

To enable the Passcode feature:

1. Begin creating your meeting as usual, with your desired settings
2. Check the box next to "Passcode"
   
3. A passcode will be automatically generated, but you can set it manually, if desired
   
4. Click "Save" to create your meeting

The passcode will be automatically included in the email invitation created by Zoom, and will be embedded in the meeting's invite link.