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 profilemeeting 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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