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Zoom Meetings and Webinars comparison by platform

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See the table below for a comparison of features between the Zoom desktop clients, mobile apps, web client, and PWA (Progressive Web App). 

Note: The Zoom desktop client, mobile app, and web client have different features than the Zoom web portal. The Zoom web portal is primarily used for changing your profile, meeting settings and Zoom Phone settings. You can also use the web portal to schedule, view, and edit meetings.

This article covers:

Prerequisites for desktop client, mobile app, web client, and PWA comparison

  • Latest version of the Zoom desktop client or mobile app.
  • Zoom PWA

Comparison

Note:

  • We recommend using the desktop client or mobile app. Only use the web client if you cannot access the other options.
  • Some features can be disabled by the account owner, admin, or host.
  • For Zoom Phone, see our comparison of Zoom Phone features.
  • The web client column applies to Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari.
Feature Windows
macOS		 Linux Android
iOS		 Chrome OS Web client PWA

Start or join meeting
Join a meeting without signing in ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Join a meeting in progress ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓
Sign in using Zoom account, Google, Facebook, or SSO ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Start an instant meeting. ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Schedule one-time or recurring meeting ✓ ✓ ✓     ✓
Share your screen in a Zoom Room by entering in the sharing key or meeting ID. ✓ ✓ ✓      
Display upcoming meetings ✓ ✓ ✓     ✓
Display synced calendar events (if you added a third-party calendar service) ✓ ✓ ✓      
View, edit, start, or delete your scheduled meetings ✓ ✓ ✓     ✓
Participants are pre-assigned to breakout rooms (if set up by the host) ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓
Transfer meetings between devices ✓ ✓ ✓      

In-meeting controls (participants and hosts)
Join computer audio ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓
(A)		 ✓
Mute/unmute mic ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Start/stop video ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Invite others to join meeting ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Change your screen name for the meeting ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Non-verbal feedback ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Share screen ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(B)		 ✓
In-meeting chat ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Save in-meeting chat ✓ ✓        
Start cloud recording ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Start local recording ✓ ✓        
Request remote control ✓ ✓ ✓
(C)		  

✓
(D)

✓
Give remote control ✓ ✓        

Gallery View and Active Speaker View

 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Stop all incoming video  ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Participant in breakout rooms ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Self-select breakout room ✓ ✓ ✓
(E)		 ✓
(E)		 ✓ ✓
Answer polls ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Language interpretation ✓   ✓   ✓
(F)		 ✓
(F)
Live transcription ✓   ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Reclaim host ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Zoom Apps ✓          
Active Apps Notifier ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓

In-meeting controls (hosts and co-hosts)
Create, edit, and launch standard polls ✓ ✓     ✓ ✓
Create, edit, and launch advanced polls and quizzes ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓
Start and manage breakout rooms (host only) ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓ ✓
View pre-assigned participants in breakout rooms (if set up in web portal) ✓ ✓     ✓ ✓
Live stream meeting ✓ ✓ ✓
(Youtube only)		   ✓ ✓
Focus mode ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓
Immersive view  ✓   ✓      
Report a participant for inappropriate behavior ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓

In-meeting security controls (hosts and co-hosts)
Lock meeting (don't allow other participants to join the meeting in progress) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓
Place the attendee in a virtual waiting room ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓
Control if participants can share screen ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Control if participants can use in-meeting chat ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Control if participants can unmute or rename themselves ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓

Webinar controls (hosts)
Launch question and answer session ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Launch polls ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Live stream webinar ✓ ✓ ✓
(Youtube only)		   ✓ ✓

Manage participants (hosts)
Stop a participant's video ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Assign a participant to be the host ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Assign a participant to be a co-host ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Allow a participant to start or stop a recording ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓     
Assign a participant to type closed caption ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Change a participant's name that is displayed to other participants ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Remove participant from meeting ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Mute all participants/ask all to unmute ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Automatically mute participants as they join the meeting ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Play chime when participants join and leave ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓
Don't allow other participants to join the meeting in progress ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Control who participants can chat with ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Put a participant on hold ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Check invited participants attendance status ✓       ✓ ✓

Share screen controls
Share whiteboard ✓ ✓ ✓      
Share device audio  ✓ ✓

✓ 

      
Annotate on shared screen or whiteboard ✓ ✓ ✓      
Pause your current shared screen ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓ ✓
Show or hide names of annotators ✓ ✓ ✓      
Stop a participant's screen share (host and co-host only) ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓
Share screen to breakout rooms (host and co-host only) ✓ ✓     ✓ ✓
Control if multiple participants can share screen simultaneously ✓ ✓    ✓ ✓ ✓
Side-by-side mode ✓ ✓     ✓ ✓

Profile
Add a personal note ✓ ✓ ✓      
Change profile photo or screen name
Note: On the desktop client, you will be redirected to the web portal to change your screen name		 ✓ ✓ ✓     ✓
Manually change your status ✓ ✓       ✓

Settings
Automatically join meeting by computer or device audio ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Automatically mute when joining meeting ✓ ✓ ✓  ✓ ✓ ✓
Automatically call phone number to join meeting     ✓      
Insert a link preview whenever a chat message contains a link ✓   ✓      
Display meeting reminders ✓ ✓ ✓      
Display connected meeting time ✓   ✓      
Display closed captions (if available) ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓
Automatically disable your video when joining a meeting ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓     
Touch up appearance ✓ ✓ ✓
(iOS only)		      
Virtual Background ✓ ✓ ✓   ✓ ✓
Video filters ✓   ✓      

Note (A): Joining computer audio on Safari is only available for webinar attendees.

Note (B):

  • Screen sharing on Microsoft Edge requires Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise. It is not supported on Windows 10 Home. If you are running Windows 10 Home and need to share your screen, we recommend using Chrome or Firefox.
  • Screen sharing is not supported on Safari.

Note (C): If you joined a meeting on an iOS or Android device, you can't request remote control or give remote control. The participant who is screen sharing with the Zoom desktop client must give you remote control.

Note (D): Requesting remote control of content shared from the desktop client or mobile app is currently supported, but you cannot request remote control of content shared from another web client. 

Note (E): Self-selection on the Zoom mobile app and ChromeOS is available for meeting participants, but not for the host launching breakout rooms. Self-selection of breakout rooms has to be enabled and launched from the desktop client.

Note (F): If you joined a meeting with the web client or PWA, you can only listen to language interpretation, you cannot be an interpreter.

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