We are living in a post-COVID world, and many of us remember the time in which most of us worked from home, communicating solely through video conferencing and forms of mobile device and social media.
Although the world has begun to move on from this period, and most people have returned to their workplaces, many of us still work from home, relying on apps such as Zoom, to communicate with our colleagues.
If you are not participating in a work call, and you’re simply there to listen and learn, you may feel more comfortable to mute Zoom audio so that no one else can hear your surroundings (also see, ‘How To Reduce Background Noise On Mic‘).
After all, there is nothing more distracting than background noise such as a screaming child, or a howling dog, while your boss is giving a presentation.
In this article, we will teach you how to mute yourself on the Zoom app, and how to mute audio of others.
How To Mute Yourself On A Zoom Call?
No matter whether you are hosting a Zoom meeting yourself, or you are simply joining a call, you will be able to mute yourself so that others cannot hear you, or anything that is happening around you.
This feature is particularly helpful if you are taking part in a work meeting through Zoom, but your surroundings are particularly noisy.
Perhaps you are working from home, and you can still hear your kids and/or pets making noise in the next room. Background noises like these can be disruptive and sometimes embarrassing, so best to mute Zoom meetings, as much as possible.
Here is how you can mute yourself while partaking in Zoom meetings.
- Popular video conferencing service.
- Supports virtual meetings, webinars, and collaborative work.
- Provides both free and premium plans.
How To Automatically Mute Zoom Audio Yourself Before The Meeting Starts
If you want to mute yourself during a Zoom meeting before it starts, here is how you can do so:
- First, you will need to open up the Zoom client on your desktop. If you are not already logged into your account, do so now.
- Once you have successfully logged into your account, click on the icon in the top right-hand corner of the app. This icon will display your profile picture, if you have one, and will open up a dropdown menu bar when you click on it.
- On the dropdown menu, select the Settings option. This will open up the Settings tab.
- Once you have opened the Settings tab, look through the options on the left side of the screen to find the Audio option. Click on it, and the Audio pop up menu will open up.
- Scroll down, and you will find an option that reads, ‘Automatically join audio by computer when joining a meeting’. If this option has already been selected, click on the small square next to the sentence to disable this option.
- When you join your next Zoom meeting, you will automatically be muted.
Alternatively, you will be given the option to mute your microphone while joining a Zoom meeting.
Once you have clicked the link to join, you should be given a handful of options, including ‘Turn off my video’ and ‘Do not connect to audio’.
Click on the small square next to ‘Do not connect to audio’, and you will automatically be muted before the meeting starts.
Muting Yourself During A Zoom Meeting
If you have already joined a meeting, and you forgot to click on the ‘Do not connect to audio’ option, here is how you can mute yourself manually during the meeting:
- Once you have joined the meeting, take a look at the options towards the lower part of the screen. Find the Microphone icon.
- If you are already muted, you will notice that the Microphone icon will have a diagonal strike through it, with the word ‘Unmute’ next to it. This means that no one in the meeting can hear you or your surroundings, and you won’t have to take any further action.
- If the Microphone icon does not have a strike through it, and it has the word ‘Mute’ next to it, your audio settings have not been muted. This means other participants in the meeting can hear you and your surroundings.
- Simply click on the Microphone icon, and you will be muted. Alternatively, if you are already muted, you can click the icon again to unmute yourself.
Can You Mute Audio Of Others On Zoom?
If you are hosting the Zoom meeting yourself, you will not only have the option to mute yourself, but you will also be able to mute participants.
The ability to mute individual participants is particularly helpful if a member of the call is being quite noisy while you, or someone else, is trying to communicate.
Here is how you, as the Host, can mute another participant of the call:
- Open up the Zoom application, and start your meeting. If you have sent the joining code to everyone else, your participants should already be part of the call.
- At the bottom of the screen, you should see the Participants window option. Click on it, and scroll through the names of each participant.
- Locate the name of the participant that is being noisy, and hover over their name. You will then be given the option to mute them.
- Once you have selected this option, the noisy participant will be silenced.
It is also helpful, and comforting, to know that if you mute yourself during a Zoom call, the Host will not be able to unmute you without your consent.
However, if they mute you, they will have the ability to unmute you at any time.
So, if you have been muted by the host, it would be wise during this time to avoid making any comments that you wouldn’t want anyone else to hear.
The Host could unmute you at any time, and you may not even notice it happening.
- Popular video conferencing service.
- Supports virtual meetings, webinars, and collaborative work.
- Provides both free and premium plans.
Final Thoughts
Muting yourself, as a participant of a Zoom call, is so incredibly easy to do.
You can either set it up so that you are automatically muted before you join any call, or you can quickly mute yourself with a swift click of an icon.
Additionally, if you are hosting a meeting, you can mute any noisy participants with the simple click of a button.
We hope you found this article helpful.
