How to Join A Zoom Meeting for the First Time (Zoom: The Basics)

hey what's going on it's Mike here with another episode of smart simple digital now in today's video I'm gonna give you a simple breakdown of zoom including everything that you need to know to get started with it and also how to join your first meeting so zoom is something that has just exploded in popularity recently you know it's become one of the new standards for how many of us now communicate with our loved ones and co-workers and it's also been the subject of a lot of questions that have come my way over these past several weeks that's one of the main reasons one of the main things I just say they just finally pushed me to do this video take now if you're already familiar with zoom then some of today's content may be pretty basic to you but if you or someone that you know is absolutely puzzled by zoom I don't get it you know maybe you're hearing about it on the news and pop culture right now but you don't know what it is I still don't get it you know perhaps you you've been invited to join a zoom meeting but you don't know where to begin what to do what in this episode is for you or just one quick reminder before I get started if you haven't done it already consider subscribing to my channel you know especially if you are ever turning viewer or if you're just someone who digs the content that I put out go ahead click the subscribe button below and every time that I put out a new video you'll be notified so first off what is zoom it's a communications tool that's used to host video conferences and other virtual meetings over the web you can use it to host everything from one-on-one meetings to group presentations and even large conferences with hundreds or even thousands of people a few things that are great about zoom number one it gives you the ability to host or join a meeting from anywhere regardless of your physical location you know as long as you have a computer smartphone or tablet and it has an active internet connection and it also has a zoom app installed you can be a part of any discussion that you need to be in number two when you're participating in a zoom meeting you have the ability to virtually interact with other guests through video and audio so you can literally see other people who are in attendance who are attending that meeting or those who are presenting as long as they have an active webcam and you can also hear and talk to other meeting participants as well using your phone or the microphone on your computer things that are really key in helping to recreate the feel that you might get from an in-person or you know face-to-face discussion and number three zoom is free to use if you're just planning to join meetings or if you're planning to host small meetings of your own those with less than a hundred guests aside from that if you need to host large-scale meetings with hundreds or even thousands of guests or if you need access to special features for hosting virtual classrooms or if you're a medical professional you want to host your appointments virtually then you'll need to upgrade to one of their premium plans however for the rest of this discussion I'm just gonna focus on the basics how to join a meeting and what to expect if you're using zoom for the first time so now that you have a general idea about what zoom is let's talk about getting started with it so there are two things that you need in order to get started with zoom first you need to have the zoom app installed on your computer smartphone or tablet really whichever device you plan to use to join or host a meeting so if you plan to use your smartphone you should download the zoom meetings app to that device for iPhone and iPad users you can find the app in the App Store and for Android users you can find the app in the Google Play Store now you may notice several other apps available from zoom in those stores but you want to get the one labeled zoom cloud meanings now if you plan to use your computer to join or host meetings I highly recommend that you download the zoom meetings act to it it's available for Windows and Mac computers and can be found on the zoom website now one quick note about that it is possible in some instances to join a meeting from within your browser without having to download the zone map at all however that can be a little tricky and confusing quite frankly if you're a first-time user so to avoid any frustration I highly highly highly suggest that you just download the zoom app to your computer just follow the instructions that I just mentioned now the second thing that you'll need in order to get started with zoom is a user account however this is really only necessary if you plan to host meetings of your own or if you'll be joining restricted meetings which may be the case for some virtual classrooms or other private events where the host may require guests to sign in it's free to create an account and you can do it by visiting the zoom website once you're there click the signup button and then follow all the on-screen instructions but again if you just need to join a meeting that someone has invited you to then creating a user account really isn't necessary so how do you join a zoom meeting it's actually pretty simple and it's something that you can do from your computer or your mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet you just want to make sure that you have the zoom app installed on the device that you're planning to use which I mentioned earlier and you also need to have the meeting invitation link or the meeting ID and password that you should have received from the person hosting the meeting now once you have those things covered you're halfway there first let's talk about joining a meeting from your mobile device your smartphone or your tablet the first thing that you want to do is to go to the meeting invitation that you received through email or text and then click on the link that was included and this should trigger the zoom app to open and the next you may see a series of prompts or messages appear on your screen first you might be asked to select your audio setting there might be an option that says to hear others call using Internet audio or a second option that says cancel now this first option will turn on your microphone so that you can speak and be heard once you're inside the meeting and the second option cancel your microphone you select the option that you're most comfortable with and remember you can change the setting if you need to want you're inside the medium last thing there's some times when you may be prompted to enter a meeting ID or password if that happens just refer back to the meeting info that was provided to you by the host and those things should be including the invite you're just going to enter them now after you've done all that you should be set and instantly join to your meeting next let's talk about joining a zoom meeting from your computer this is also pretty simple again the first thing that you want to do is to locate the meeting invitation that you receive through email or text and just click on the link that was included now this should trigger your web browser to open up and then you'll be directed to the zoom website and once you're there you should see a pop-up message asking if you want to open the zoom app if you do just go ahead and click on open or allow and this will trigger the zoom app to open on your computer next you'll see a series of prompts or pop-up messages appear on your screen first you may be asked to select your preferred audio setting join with computer audio or test speaker and microphone now this first option will turn on your microphone so that you can speak and be heard once you're inside of a meeting the second option will just guide you through a series of questions to make sure that your microphone and your speakers are properly tuned after that you may be prompted to enter the meeting ID or password if so just refer back to the meeting info that was provided to you by the host and again once you enter all that information you are all set and you should instantly be joined into your meeting so once you're inside of a zoom meeting there are a couple settings that you'll want to locate and also adjust according to how you want to interact with other meeting guests now first is the audio setting this is represented by the microphone icon in the menu bar now this setting turns the microphone only device on and off which in turn controls whether or not your voice is heard by other guests in the meeting you can tap it to change the setting where the line appears to the microphone icon you mute it it can't be heard and when there isn't a line running through the icon your microphone is on and everything from your end can be heard by other guys so be careful just a quick note here it's a good practice to keep yourself on you whenever you're not talking in a meeting the microphones no devices are way more sensitive than we realize sometimes and you don't want to be that person the second option that you want to be aware of when you're inside a meeting is the video setting now this is represented by the camera icon in the menu bar this setting turns the webcam on your device on and off which in turn controls whether or not you are visible to other guests in the meeting again just tap it to change the setting when a line appears through the camera icon your webcam is turned off and you can't be seen and when there isn't a line running through the icon your webcam is on and you are visible to all other guests now once you're ready to leave a meeting you just want to click on the leave meeting button in the menu bar and then press leave the meeting to confirm your choice and then once you do that you'll be taken back to the zoom app home screen and you're done now in some situations you know the host may in the meeting in that case you won't have to click the leave button all guests will be automatically disconnected from the meeting of that point and you'll be taken back to the app home screen alright so with all that said I think you're ready and if you want to take zoom for a test drive and practice all the things that I shared in this episode just visit the zoom test site if the address right here right below you want to enter that address in a web browser on your computer or your your mobile device and once you do that missus want to open up the zoom app and it's gonna place you inside of a test meeting all by yourself where you can play around with all the things all the settings I definitely recommend that you give this a try so that's it that's everything that you need to know in order to get started with zoom and to join your first meeting I hope it was helpful if it was please like this video and also share it with someone else who can benefit from it like right now just copy the link and send it out send it out to somebody who can use this information right now also if you haven't done so already hey consider subscribing to my channel and what happens is every time that I new videos you'll be notified and of course if you have any questions leave them down below in the comments as always thank you for watching and I will see you next time take care

Channel: Smart Simple Digital

Views: 849,149

Keywords: Zoom, How to use Zoom, How to join a meeting on zoom, Zoom tutorial, Zoom basics

Id: mbbYqiurgeo

Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020