Messaging & calls app
Zoom
Video meetings and calls, free for meetings of up to 40 minutes.
Zoom is an app for video meetings, from a two-person call to a class or a company meeting. The host sends a link, and the people invited join from the Zoom app or a web browser without needing an account of their own.
The free Basic plan lets you host as many meetings as you like, each with up to 100 people and a limit of 40 minutes. Paid plans remove that limit and add features such as cloud recording.
Meetings sit inside a wider product called Zoom Workplace, which adds team chat, a shared whiteboard, documents and short video messages. The company changed its name from Zoom Video Communications to Zoom Communications in November 2024.
01Is Zoom free?
Zoom’s free Basic plan lets you host as many meetings as you like, each up to 40 minutes with up to 100 people. Pro, Business and Enterprise plans remove the time limit and add cloud recording and larger meetings. Joining someone else’s meeting is always free and needs no account.
02How to start using Zoom
- 1
To join a meeting, click the link you were sent, then open the Zoom app or choose Join from your browser.
- 2
To host, sign up free at zoom.us with an email address or an existing Google or Apple account.
- 3
Install the Zoom Workplace app on your computer or phone, and check your camera and microphone in Settings before the first call.
- 4
Schedule a meeting and send the invitation, as in how to schedule a Zoom meeting.
03Is Zoom safe?
Uninvited guests
Keep the waiting room or a passcode on, so only people you let in can join, and do not post meeting links publicly.
Encryption
Meetings are encrypted by default. Full end-to-end encryption is an option you turn on in settings, and some features, such as cloud recording, do not work with it.
Fake invitations
Scam emails copy Zoom invitations to steal passwords. Check that a link goes to zoom.us before you sign in.
