Waiting room
What is a waiting room in a video meeting?
A waiting room is an entry setting that holds people who open a meeting link outside the call until the host lets each of them in. It turns a link from an open door into a doorbell: anyone with the link can ask to come in, but only the host decides who enters.
How does a waiting room work?
A guest opens the meeting link and gets as far as the lobby: they can enter a name and check their camera, but they cannot see or hear the call. Instead of joining, they send a request. The host gets a notification with the guest's name and two choices, admit or decline. An admitted guest joins straight away; a declined guest stays outside.
Services differ in the details: some put everyone in the waiting room and others only people without an account, some let the host admit everyone at once, and some let the host message people who are waiting.
When should you use a waiting room?
Use one when the link might travel further than you intended: a public event, a link pasted in a group chat, an invitation forwarded inside a company. It is also useful for back-to-back sessions in the same room, such as interviews or consultations, where the next person should not walk in on the current one.
The cost is attention. Someone has to be present and watching for requests, guests wait if the host is late, and approving people one by one slows down the start of a large meeting. For a small call with people you invited directly, an open room or a password is often enough.
How does the waiting room work in Meeto?
In Meeto the waiting room is the Knock entry mode. Each meeting has one of three modes:
| Mode | Who gets in |
|---|---|
| Open | Anyone with the link joins at once. The default for instant meetings. |
| Knock | Each guest waits until the host selects "Let in"; the waiting room. |
| Password | Guests enter a password once, with no approval. Scheduled and booked meetings use one already inside the invitation link. |
The host picks the mode in the lobby before starting, with “Change”, or during the call under “Who can join” in the Participants panel. A guest in Knock mode presses “Knock to enter” and sees “Knocking — waiting for” the host. The host hears a knock and sees “wants to join” with “Decline” and “Let in”, and the Participants panel lists everyone under “Waiting”. Each guest is admitted separately; there is no admit-all button.
If the host removes someone, that person cannot rejoin the meeting, and an open or password room switches to knocking for the rest of it unless the host turns that off. The waiting room guide walks through each step, and the meeting link entry explains how links and modes fit together.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a waiting room and a meeting password?
A password lets in anyone who knows it, without the host doing anything. A waiting room makes the host approve each person, so it also stops someone who received a forwarded link. In Meeto these are the Password and Knock entry modes.
What happens if a guest knocks and the host is not in the call?
In Meeto, the guest keeps waiting on the knocking screen and is let in automatically once the host joins and approves. Requests that wait longer than 1 hour are cleared, so if the host has not appeared by then, contact them another way.
What does a guest see if the host declines?
They see "The host declined your knock" on the lobby screen. They can knock again, so if the decline was a mistake, the host can let them in on the next try.
Put it to work
Open your Meeto account to set it up, or explore the working product first.