19/07/2023

Get Started with Zoom- The Video Conferencing Tool You Need

Zoom conference calls

Video conferencing programs have never been more in demand than recently. However, there is nothing to be happy about because the reason behind its increasing popularity is the recent outbreak of coronavirus. We are all supposed to study/work from home until the situation is brought under control. For the time being, video conferencing software will keep you productive and even solve the problem of holding business meetings or conferences online.

With so many options available, such as Skype, Google Voice, and Google Hangouts, it can be confusing for beginners to choose one. Recently, “Facebook has introduced its desktop messaging app for Windows and Mac users to support group chats and video calls.”

With all the options available, I recommend you use Zoom, one of the powerful video conferencing tools, which currently ranks number one.

According to the sources, This year, the company has added 2.22 million monthly active users, more than it did in 2019, or 1.99 million users..

So why not give it a try.

We will go into everything one by one, from registration to joining video calls, but let’s start with what is it all about?

Zoom – What is it?

Zoom is a video calling app that offers an easy and reliable platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, collaboration, and webinars on mobile devices and desktop computers. It was introduced in 2011 with the motive of helping companies and organizations bring the team together to increase productivity.

So these days when most of us are working from home; ‘Zoom Calls’ allows you to interact virtually with colleagues or seniors. You will not feel as if you were not in a face-to-face meeting.

Here are the other features this program offers:

Even with the free plan, enjoy unlimited one-on-one meetings.
The free plan allows you to organize 40-minute video conferences, adding up to 100 participants. If you get the ‘large meeting’ plugin, adding 500 participants won’t be a big deal.
Whether it’s one on one or in large groups, easily share your screen with others.

So, without further ado, let’s move on to the next section.

How to get started with Zoom video conferencing?

Signing up with Zoom is quite easy and takes approx. 10 minutes. If you’re wondering ‘Is Zoom free?’ or if you need to pay some money let me tell you it works both ways. Without a doubt, the paid version has something more to offer than the free Zoom account. Zoom offers the following five meeting plans to choose from:

expand free

As the name suggests, you can host an unlimited number of Zoom meetings for free. The downside is that you can only make a call for up to 40 minutes, and meetings cannot be recorded.

professional zoom

It costs $14.99 per month and allows hosts to create personal meeting IDs for recurring meetings. It allows you to record a meeting in the cloud or on your device, but the duration limit is 24 hours.

business zoom

This costs $19.99 per month per meeting, minimum hosts are 10. You can brand Zoom meetings with mnemonic URLs along with company branding. Other than that, it offers cloud-recorded Zoom meeting transcripts.

Zoom Company

It costs $19.99 per month per meeting, minimum hosts are 100. This tier is primarily intended for businesses with 1,000+ employees. Unlimited cloud storage for recordings, discounts on webinars and Zoom Rooms and a customer success manager is what this package will offer.

Zoom Rooms (Optional)

If you want to set up Zoom Chat Rooms, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial. After that, you will need to pay an additional $49 per month and room subscription. Zoom webinars will cost you around $40 per month.

How to join or sign up for Zoom?

After learning about the plans available with Zoom, the next step is to sign up for the service. Again, you have a few options, i.e. Windows, Mac, Android, or iOS.

First of all, go to the registration page and you will see a few options, to get started. You can sign up for free by entering your work email address and pressing ‘Sign Up’. Alternatively, you can create an account by signing in with ‘Google’ or ‘Facebook’, after which you get the link to download the Zoom Desktop app.

If you entered your work email, you will receive an activation email. Click ‘Activate Account’ or copy and paste the activation URL into your browser for activation.
Fill in your first and last name along with a password.
Then invite people to create a free Zoom account via email or skip this step.
You’ll then get a link to your personal meeting URL and have the option to click the orange “Start Meeting Now” button to start a test meeting. If you copy that URL into your browser or click that orange button, you’ll be prompted to download the Zoom desktop app. Follow the prompts to install the app.

Once you’ve installed the Zoom app, you’ll see buttons to “Join a meeting” or “Sign in.” To start your test meeting, click “Login”.
On the next screen, enter the email and password you just used to sign up for Zoom in your browser. If you signed up using the “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Facebook” buttons, click those buttons here and follow the instructions.
Once you’re signed in, make sure you’re on the “Home” tab, and then click the orange “New Meeting” button in the Zoom app. Your meeting will begin.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S72G7k5tPjQ[/embedyt]

Start by downloading the iOS or Android app and then launch it. You will then get the options to join a meeting, sign up for Zoom or sign in to a Zoom account, hit ‘Sign Up’.
You will then be asked to enter your email address, first and last name, and check a box next to the Zoom terms of service. After that, click ‘Sign up’ and you will receive an activation email.
Click ‘Activate Account’ in the email or copy and paste the activation link into your browser to activate.
You will be taken to a screen where your personal Zoom meeting URL is displayed along with the ‘Start meeting now’ option. Choosing one of the options will direct you to a waiting room for the test meeting.
Tap the ‘Login’ button at the bottom to start the meeting.
On the next screen, tap on the ‘Login’ button after entering your login details.
The test meeting will start in the app.

How to set up a Zoom meeting?

Once you know how Zoom works and have created your account, it’s pretty easy to invite people and set up a Zoom meeting.

To start a meeting using the Zoom Meeting desktop or mobile app, click the Meetings tab.

Click ‘Copy Invitation’ displayed on the screen. A message with your Zoom meeting URL, ID, and dial-in information will be copied to your clipboard. Leave the same in an email or a text message.

Click the ‘Send Invitation’ button and you will get three options:

‘Send Message’ to text your meeting URL to someone
‘Send Email’ to open an email with your meeting information
‘Copy to clipboard’ to copy your Zoom meeting URL and ID to the phone’s clipboard.

To invite people to a meeting that is already in progress:

In the meeting window, click the ‘Invite’ button. A window will open where you can invite your Zoom contacts by sending an email with your meeting URL and dial-in information to tell them how to access your Zoom video chat.

Click ‘Participants’ on the bottom row and then click the ‘Invite’ button on the next screen. Thereafter, you will be able to send an email invitation, text message invitation, or copy the meeting URL to the clipboard to invite your Zoom contacts.

Once you are done with the processes mentioned above, you are good to go with your Zoom account. Whenever you want to have a conference call with Zoom, open it and select ‘Host a meeting’ to get started and share the details with the participants.

Along with this, you can start using other Zoom features like recording calls, scheduling calls in advance, and much more. From now on, enjoy using Zoom for the purpose you need it for.

ALSO WATCH THIS: