Waiting rooms in Proton Meet
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- Proton Meet
Proton Meet has an optional waiting room feature, which lets hosts decide who joins a meeting and when. With a waiting room enabled, all other users have to wait to be admitted into the call by the host. Hosts can review all requests and decide to admit or deny entry for each user individually, or allow all waiting participants to join the call at once.
All Proton Meet calls are protected by end-to-end encryption with Messaging Layer Security (MLS). While users wait, they aren’t part of the encrypted meeting and cannot access the contents of the call or chat. Display names are also encrypted, so Proton and its servers can’t see who’s waiting.
Waiting rooms are available on all plans with premium Proton Meet features, including Meet Professional, Workspace bundles, plans with the Meet add-on. Free users can choose to upgrade to unlock waiting rooms on their plan.
In this article, you’ll learn:
How to enable waiting room
Waiting rooms can only be enabled if you’re hosting a meeting.
1. Go to meet.proton.me(new window) or open the Proton Meet desktop app. Select Create meeting and choose one of the options.
2. Depending on the option you chose:
a. Start an instant meeting: Look for the Waiting room toggle on the right and ensure it’s set to enabled.
b. Schedule a meeting: Look for the Waiting room setting and toggle it on.
c. Create a room: Look for the Waiting room setting and toggle it on.
All done. When your call begins, a waiting room is automatically created. You’ll receive entry requests from users when they attempt to join the call.
How to admit or deny users
With a waiting room enabled, you’ll see a banner on your Meet call showing how many people are waiting to enter. You can review the names of all users before deciding if they should be let in.
1. In the banner on your Meet call, select View to open the waiting room tab.
You’ll see a list of each participant’s details, including their name and how long they’ve been waiting. To search for a particular user, enter their name in the search bar.
2. For each participant, choose the ✓ icon to let them into the meeting, or the X icon to refuse entry. If you want to let all requested users in at once, select Admit all.
Requests disappear automatically if the participant isn’t let in within five minutes, or if they leave. If your meeting has reached the maximum number of participants, Admit is disabled. If there isn’t enough room for everyone waiting, Admit all is disabled.
How to join a waiting room as a participant
1. Upon opening a call with the waiting room enabled, you’ll see a pre-join screen. Enter your name, then select Join meeting.
2. Wait for the host to approve your request. You’ll see a five-minute countdown screen showing how long your request has left until it expires.
3. If the host admits you, you’ll join the meeting automatically with the camera and microphone settings you chose beforehand. If your request is denied or expires, you’ll see what happened and can select Try again.
Note that participants cannot message the host from the waiting room. If you leave the waiting room, your join request will be canceled automatically.