How to Schedule a Zoom Meeting: on Desktop, Mobile, and Browser
By Matt RedererUpdated on June 30, 2020
Zoom’s meetings are extremely easy to schedule, either through the application itself, via your web browser, or using an extension. Easily schedule meetings, set up calendar events, and invite participants.
It’s generally the same on each platform, but there are minor differences depending on the interface you are using. To make sure you know exactly how to schedule a meeting, we have instructions for the most common ways to do it.
What is covered in this article
Let’s get right to it! If you know how you want to schedule your meeting, use the links above to jump to that section. If you want to compare the best ways to schedule a meeting, keep reading below.
How to schedule a Zoom meeting using the desktop client
Follow the instructions below to schedule a meeting using the desktop client.
1. Open the Zoom client on your desktop and sign in. Click the Schedule button on the Home screen of the Zoom app.
2. This will open the Schedule Meeting window, where you can name your meeting topic, set a date and time, and select other meeting settings.
3. Set the name of the meeting using the Topic form field. Use the drop down buttons or click a field and type to enter data. Set the start date and time of the meeting, the duration (in hours and minutes), and the time zone. To set this as a recurring meeting, tap the checkbox for Recurring meeting.
4. Choose between automatically generating a meeting ID or using your personal meeting ID by clicking the radio buttons. Click the checkbox to require a meeting password. It will automatically generate a password, but you can type a unique one as well.
5. Choose the video settings for the meeting. Click the radio button to turn Host video on or off and to turn Participants video on or off. This will determine whether video is displayed when the host and participants join the meeting.
6. Select a calendar for scheduling your meeting by clicking the radio buttons. Common integrations include Outlook and Google Calendar. (For this example, we have used Google Calendar.)
7. Click the Advanced Options button to bring up the drop-down options. Click the check boxes to enable or disable the available settings:
- “Enable Waiting Room”
- “Enable join before host”
- “Mute participants upon entry”
- “Automatically record meeting on the local computer”
8. After making all of your selections for your meeting, click Schedule.
If you didn’t select an external calendar to add your meeting to, congratulations! You’re all done! You can view your scheduled meeting in the Meetings tab.
If you did choose to add your meeting to an integrated calendar, there are a few extra steps. We’ll cover those in the next section, using Google Calendar as an example.
How to add a scheduled Zoom meeting to Google Calendar from the desktop client
1. Sign into Google Calendar by selecting your Google account.
Important
You may need to allow permissions with the Zoom app. These will likely prompt here. Click Allow to enable permissions.
2. Next, you will be taken to the Google Calendar event setup for the meeting you are scheduling. Data will be automatically filled in based on what you selected in Zoom. You can adjust the settings of the calendar event here.
3. If you want, you can adjust the date and time settings for the meeting. Typically, you can leave the automatically generated date and time as these will come from your Zoom scheduled meeting.
4. Next, you can view and adjust the event details for the meeting. Click the Notification drop down and click to choose between a Notification or Email reminder. Set how long before the meeting the timer will go off by typing a value into the field and click the drop down to choose between minutes, hours, days, or weeks as the duration.You can add another notification by clicking Add notification. Then customize the notification settings the same as you did the previous one.
Set your personal status to either Busy or Free using the drop down. Select the visibility of the meeting in the Google Calendar, choosing between Default visibility (which will use the standard settings of the account), Public, or Private.
You can also toggle Guest permissions on the right hand side of the Event Details screen. Click the checkbox to enable or disable permissions guests will have with the calendar meeting schedule, including the ability to modify the event, invite others, and see the guest list.
5. Before you finish scheduling the calendar event, you can make a few other miscellaneous changes. To access these, click More actions in the top right corner. Select from any of the available options in the drop down by clicking them:
- “Print”
- “Delete”
- “Duplicate”
- “Publish event”
- “Change owner”
6. Once you’ve set the calendar event details properly, click Save in the top right corner.
Schedule Zoom calls on Android
Scheduling Zoom calls on your Android device is very similar to the desktop client. Follow the steps below to schedule a meeting on your Android-powered smartphone or tablet.
1. Tap the Zoom app icon to open the Zoom application.
2. From the Zoom home screen, tap Schedule.
3. From here, you will see a set scheduling options to choose from. First, set the name of the Zoom meeting by tapping the field and typing in your meeting name. You can also leave it standard, and it will give your meeting a default name.
4. Tap the Date field to set the date for your meeting. Tap the “+” and “–” symbols to adjust the month, day, and year of the meeting. Tap Set when done to set the date.
5. Tap the From or To fields to set the start and end times for your meeting. Tap the “+” and “–” symbols to adjust the hour and minutes of the meeting. Tap Set when done to set the time of the meeting.
6. Tap the Time Zone field to set the time zone for your meeting. This is incredibly important to pay attention to when scheduling meetings with participants that are outside of your time zone, so you all arrive at the right start time. Scroll through the list and tap the time zone that you wish to set.
7. Tap the Repeat field to choose between meeting repeat options. The default setting is for the meeting not to repeat. Tap one of the options to make the meeting repeat.
8. By default, a new meeting ID will be randomly generated each time you schedule a new meeting. Tap the Use Personal Meeting ID (PMI) toggle button to use your personal meeting ID. You will notice that the password will change from the randomly generated password to your Personal Meeting ID password.
9. A meeting password will automatically be generated. Tap the Password field and type a password to set a unique password of your own choosing.
10. Next, you can choose from a number of meeting options. Tap the Host Video On toggle to have the host’s video turned on automatically when they join the meeting. Tap the Participant Video On toggle to have participants’ video turned on automatically when they join the meeting.
11. For more meeting options, tap Advanced Options. This will bring up more meeting options, with their own toggle buttons. Tap the toggle buttons to enable or disable the following options:
- “Enable Waiting Room”
- “Allow Join Before Host”
- “Automatically Record Meeting”
12. Tap the Add to Calendar toggle to either enable or disable scheduling this directly to your calendar.
13. Once you’ve made all of the selections for your scheduled meeting, tap Done in the top right corner.
If the “Add to Calendar” option wasn’t selected, you’re all finished! Your meeting is scheduled, and you can view it from your Zoom app and in your calendar. Other actions are also available from the meeting screen, including:
- “Start Meeting”
- “Add to Calendar”
- “Add Invitees”
- “Delete Meeting”
So, if you haven’t already, you can add the meeting to your calendar and invite participants from here. You can also start the meeting early and delete the meeting from your schedule.
If “Add to Calendar” was enabled when you scheduled your meeting, there are a couple of extra steps before your meeting is fully scheduled. We’ll have a brief section below on what those involve, using Google Calendar as an example.
How to add a scheduled Zoom meeting to Google Calendar from the Android app
1. After you are done setting your meeting details, choose the email account you will send out the calendar invitations from. Options will vary depending on available apps on your phone and integrations with your Zoom account.
2. An automated Zoom meeting invitation email will generate. You can add recipients to the email, edit the title and text of the meeting, and make any other changes you would like to the email. When done, tap the Send button (this will vary depending on the email service you use).
Scheduling Zoom meetings using the iOS app
Scheduling Zoom calls on your iOS device is very similar to the desktop client. Follow the steps below to schedule a meeting using iOS.
1. Tap the Zoom app icon to open the Zoom application.
2. From the Zoom home screen, tap Schedule.
3. From here, you will see available scheduling options to choose from. First, set the name of the Zoom meeting by tapping the field and typing in your meeting name. You can also leave the name of the meeting as default.
4. Tap the Starts field to set the date for your meeting. Use the scroll wheel to set the date and time of your meeting start. Tap Done to set the start of the meeting.
5. Tap the Duration field to set the length of the meeting. Use the scroll wheel to set the hours and minutes for the meeting. Tap Done to set the duration of the meeting.
6. Tap the Time Zone field to set the time zone for your meeting. This is especially important to pay attention to when scheduling meetings with participants that are outside of your time zone, so you all arrive at the correct start time. Scroll through the list and tap the time zone that you wish to set.
7. Tap the Repeat field to choose between recurring meeting options. The default setting is for the meeting to never repeat. Tap one of the options to make the meeting repeat.
8. By default, a new meeting ID will be randomly generated each time you schedule a new meeting. Tap the Use Personal Meeting ID toggle button to use your personal meeting ID. You will notice that the password will change from the randomly generated password to your Personal Meeting ID password.
9. A meeting password will automatically generate. Tap the Password field and type a password to set a unique password that you can choose.
10. Next, you can choose from a number of meeting options. Tap the Host Video On toggle to have the host’s video turned on automatically when they join the meeting. Tap the Participant Video On toggle to have participants’ video turned on automatically when they join the meeting. Tap the Audio Option to set the audio options available to participants for the meeting. You can also tap the toggle buttons to enable or disable the following options:
- “Enable Waiting Room”
- “Allow Join Before Host”
- “Automatically Record Meeting”
11. After you’ve made all the selections for your scheduled meeting, tap Done in the top right corner.
12. Next, you will be brought to a pre-built invitation email. Simply add recipients in the To field, and send the email to invite attendees. You can also edit the title and text of the meeting, and make other changes that you would typically make in an email. When done, tap the Send button (this will vary depending on the email service that is paired with your Zoom account).
13. You’re all set! The meeting is scheduled, and you can view it from your Zoom app and in your calendar. Other actions are also available from the meeting screen, including:
- “Start”
- “Add invitees”
- “Delete”
From here, you can invite participants, start the meeting early, and delete the meeting from your schedule.
How to schedule meetings from the Zoom.us website
Follow the instructions below to schedule a Zoom meeting using your web browser. You will need to be signed in to your Zoom account on the Zoom.us website
1. From the Zoom web dashboard, click Schedule A Meeting in the top-right corner, or click Schedule a New Meeting while the Upcoming Meetings tab is selected.
2. You will proceed to the meeting scheduling screen. Here, you will set up your meeting details. To start, type the name of the meeting into the “Topic” field. Type in a description into the “Description” field if you would like to give your meeting one as well.
3. Under “When,” set the start time for the meeting. Tap the date field to input a date. You can also tap the small calendar icon and select a date from a monthly calendar. Click the drop down menus for time and AM/PM to select the meeting start time.
4. Next, set the duration of the meeting in hours and minutes. Tab the drop down menu for hr and min and select the duration of the meeting.
5. Set the Time Zone for the meeting by clicking the drop down tab and selecting the time zone you wish to use for the meeting.
6. Click the Recurring meeting checkbox to make this a recurring meeting.
7. Choose between using an automatically generated meeting ID or your Personal Meeting ID. It will default to generate automatically. Click the Generate Automatically toggle or the Personal Meeting ID toggle to select between using your personal meeting ID or a randomly generated meeting ID.
8. Set a password for the meeting. As per new guidelines, a meeting password is required and the checkbox will automatically be checked and cannot be deselected. Zoom will automatically generate a randomized password. You can click this password field and enter your own password if you would like.
9. You can then set video options for the meeting. Choose whether the host and participant videos are on when an attendee joins the meeting. Click the Host toggle to turn this on or off for the host and click the Participant toggle to turn this on or off for participants.
10. Lastly, you can choose between a number of meeting options available. Click the checkbox to enable or disable the following:
- “Enable join before host”
- “Mute participants upon entry”
- “Enable waiting room”
- “Record the meeting automatically on the local computer”
11. After making all the scheduling selections for the meeting, click Save to save the options you’ve chosen and schedule the meeting.
12. You’re all set! The meeting is scheduled. You can now copy the invitation and send out meeting invitations to participants.
Pro Tip
You can go back and adjust the scheduled meeting settings at any time. Click Edit this Meeting along the bottom right of the meeting screen.
How to use Zoom scheduler Chrome: invite people right from Google Calendar
Zoom Scheduler is a Google Chrome extension that will allow you to schedule Zoom meetings from your browser with just one click. The Zoom Scheduler can be accessed from the URL bar in your browser, allowing you to schedule meetings without needing to open the Zoom desktop client. Integrated with Google, your scheduled meetings will also automatically be scheduled to your Google Calendar.
Important
You must download the Zoom Scheduler Chrome extension first for the steps in this section to work. You can download the extension here for free. Just click Add to Chrome from that webpage and wait for it to install, and you’ll be good to go!
Once you’ve downloaded Zoom Scheduler for Chrome, follow these steps to schedule Zoom meetings using that extension:
1. Click the Zoom Scheduler icon in the top-right corner, next to the URL bar.
2. Click Schedule a Meeting to schedule a meeting using the Google Scheduler.
3. This will open a Zoom meeting scheduling page. Here, you can set up your meeting details and settings. Make the selections according to how you want the meeting set up (see the steps for how to schedule using the Zoom desktop client above for more details about making selections), and click Save and Continue when done.
4. Once you’ve scheduled the meeting, you will be taken to the Google Calendar event screen, where you will set up the calendar event. Here, you can set unique calendar event details, including adding notifications, setting your status, writing a custom message, and choosing guest permissions. Once you’ve made all the selections for the Google Calendar event, click Save.
5. From the Google Calendar, you can tap any calendar event to view the details of that event, as well as access other options. With the calendar event details open, tap the email icon in the top right of the window to invite meeting attendees.
6. This will bring up the email creation window. Click the “Add email or name” field and type the email address for those you wish to invite. Enter all the email addresses of the people you wish to invite to the meeting.
7. Click the “Message” field and type in the body content of your email message. Once you’re done typing your email contents, click Send to send your email invitations.
8. You’re all done! An invitation email will be sent directly to the invitees.
How to schedule a Zoom meeting for someone else
It is possible to schedule a Zoom meeting for another person. This can be useful depending on how many hosts you have on your account. We’ll show you how to do this below.
First, schedule a Zoom meeting as you normally would, via the Zoom desktop client, the Zoom Android app, the Zoom iOS app, or the Zoom browser application. Once you’ve scheduled the meeting, you will need to edit the settings to ensure that the call can be run in your absence.
Important
You will not be able to run two meetings simultaneously, so while the other person is using your scheduled meeting, you will not be able to run your own meeting.
1. From the Meeting information screen, click/tap Edit/Edit this Meeting.
2. Make sure the Meeting ID is set to Generated ID. Click/tap the Generated ID toggle to select this.
3. Make sure to turn off Enable Waiting Room and turn on Enable join before host. The following advanced settings should be enabled / disabled as you see in the screenshot below.
4. To assign an alternative host, who will also be able to use host features, enter an email for the person you want to be the alternative host.
5. Once you’ve edited all the meeting settings, click Save.
6. After adjusting the meeting settings, you will need to share the meeting invitation with them. Click/tap Copy Invitation using the Zoom desktop client or Zoom browser client. This will copy the meeting invitation to your clipboard.
Important
On mobile, there is no “Copy Invitation” button. You will need to copy the Meeting ID and send the meeting host the meeting ID number.
7. Send the invitation via a text message, direct message, or email. They can then share the invitation link with participants and run the meeting without you being on the call.
Now that you’ve scheduled your meeting, there is nothing to do but wait. Make sure your meeting reminders are turned on, so you get a notification before the meeting starts. You can now view and edit the meeting details in your Zoom app or via the browser client. Now that you have a meeting scheduled, learn how to use Zoom to its full potential and a definitive list of the features available.