With the rise of the remote worker, it is increasingly important to be able to get together virtually with coworkers and friends to talk shop, catch up on news, or just hang out and chat. Zoom is a popular choice because it allows for a large number of participants on a single call and includes a free, highly functional tier.
In this piece, you’ll learn how to install Zoom on a Mac and experiment with its capabilities.
Install the Zoom app on your Mac
You’ll need to create a free Zoom account and install the macOS client before you can start utilizing the service. If you want to download it, you can’t do so via the App Store; instead, head to www.zoom.us and hit the “Sign Up, It’s Free” button there.
Click the Sign-Up button after entering your personal information (date of birth, work email, etc.). This will trigger the delivery of a verification email; after it arrives, you may click the Sign In option to return to the Zoom site and finish creating your account.
The desktop program must be installed before you can start scheduling or attending meetings. Either navigate to the Zoom client download page by clicking the Resources tab at the top of your account page and then choosing Download Zoom Client, or use the Download Zoom Client button.
Once the client download is complete, a file named Zoom.pkg will be left in your Downloads folder. To install the software, double-click this and stick to the prompts.
Just because Zoom isn’t on the App Store doesn’t indicate there’s anything wrong with your device or your security settings. To learn how to bypass this protection when using a Mac app, read How to Open a Mac App from an unnamed developer.
The app’s home screen will appear after installation and subsequent launch. Now you can begin communicating with the other person.
Zoom for Mac: How to Use It?
Zoom‘s primary Home page features a calendar where upcoming meetings can be viewed in addition to four huge buttons. New Meeting, Join, Schedule, and Share Screen are the available options. They’re rather obvious, but I’ll explain nonetheless.
- New Meeting
A fresh call would begin at this point, as the name suggests. You can tell there are more choices when you click the down arrow that follows this button. There are two options available when you click the arrow: Use the number indicated here as my Personal Meeting ID (PMI) and begin the movie.
- As Zoom is primarily a video-calling platform, the option to “Start with video” is typically enabled by default, but you can deselect the checkbox if you’d rather decide when and if to share video with others. Zoom naturally provides simple controls for turning the video on and off during a call.
- Zoom recommends saving your Personal Meeting Room for quick video chats with those you talk to frequently, so the PMI feature is a bit different. The meeting can be joined at any time by entering your Personal Meeting ID, making it ideal for a short chat with coworkers.
- A new call is initiated when the New Meeting button is clicked. If you want to make your first call with Zoom, you’ll need to allow the program to access your camera and computer’s microphone.
- You’ll see yourself on the screen as captured by your camera; clicking and dragging the mouse will bring up a menu of controls at the screen’s bottom. These items, starting at the left, are:
- Pressing the mute button mutes the audio.
- Pressing “Stop Video” will pause your recording.
- You can lock the meeting so no one else can enter, have new participants wait to be approved before joining the meeting, and restrict access to certain features inside the meeting itself.
- Invite individuals to the meeting, mute individual attendees, or silence the whole group using this menu.
- When you click “Share Screen,” your presentation mode will be activated and everyone on the call will be able to see whatever is on your screen at the time.
- Create an MP4 video recording of the call.
- In-call Reactions are represented using emojis.
Read More: How to Install Modyolo on Android? A Complete Guide in 2023!
How Can I Send Out Invitations for A Zoom Meeting?
Once you’ve clicked the New Meeting button and your call has begun, you’ll want to invite more participants so that you may carry on a conversation.
- Select the Participants button to open the corresponding sub-menu on the right. If you have any contacts saved in your Zoom account, you can access them by clicking the Contacts tab at the top of the Zoom Home screen, and then inviting them directly from there. Alternatively, you can send an email invitation by clicking the Invite button at the bottom.
- Select the one that best suits your needs and wait for the invitees to respond.
- Turning on the Waiting Room option (accessible via the More button to the right of the Invite button or the Security tab under the main pane) will prompt you to accept or reject each attendee as they log in to the meeting. When this is completed, you’ll be able to view their video feed alongside your own on the main screen.
- Select between Gallery mode and Speaker mode in the top right corner of the display. You can toggle between the two by clicking this. Gallery Mode produces panels so that everyone on the call can be seen, while Speaker Mode makes the person who is speaking the main video that everyone can view.