Zoom has become huge in recent years, in light of the global pandemic and the huge increase in numbers of people isolating and/or working from home. But how do you join a Zoom meeting from an iPad, and do you have to have the app installed or not?
We’re here to answer your questions. To learn how to join a Zoom meeting on your iPad, simply follow our step-by-step instructions below. For all other information, or if you have further questions, please refer to our FAQ section at the end of this article.
Note: This article helps you to join a Zoom meeting, not to host one.
Table of Contents
How to join a Zoom meeting on your iPad (with the Zoom app)
- On your iPad, make sure you have the Zoom app installed (if you don’t, go and do so now via the App Store – it’s free!)
- Next, open up the Zoom app by tapping on it
- Once the app has loaded, there’s no need to sign in. Instead, simply tap the big blue button toward the bottom of the screen labelled ‘Join a Meeting’
- Next, input the Meeting ID – a short series of numbers which you should have been sent by the meeting host who invited you
- At this stage, you can choose your display name, and your ‘Join Options’ (whether to join with audio, video, both, or none). Simply tap the toggles to enable/disable the options at your preference
- Next, tap ‘Join’
- If the meeting has a password/passcode (which should also have been sent to you by the meeting host), a window will pop-up asking for it. Input it and tap ‘Continue’
- You may need to tap ‘I Agree’ to the Terms of Service, if this is your first time using the Zoom app on this iPad. You may also have to tap ‘Okay’ to the various permissions Zoom asks you to grant it.
- Tap ‘Join With Video’ if prompted
- Finally, tap ‘Call Using Internet Audio’ and the Zoom meeting will start as soon as the host lets you in from the ‘Waiting Room’
- To leave the Zoom call, simply tap ‘End’, ‘Leave’, or ‘Hang Up’
How to join a Zoom meeting on your iPad (without the Zoom app)
- On your iPad, open up your Mail app and locate the email you’ve been sent with the link to the Zoom meeting
- In the meeting invite email, locate the link to ‘Join the Meeting’, and tap on it
- You will be redirected to the Zoom website via your default web browser
- You may be encouraged to download the iPad Zoom app, but you can choose not to by choosing to continue to the Zoom website instead
- The Meeting will load in your browser and at this stage you can choose your display name, and your ‘Join Options’ (whether to join with audio, video, both, or none). Then tap ‘Join’
- If the meeting has a password/passcode (which should also have been sent to you by the meeting host), a window will pop-up asking for it. Input it and tap ‘Continue’
- You may need to tap ‘Okay’ to the various permissions Zoom asks you to grant it.
- Tap ‘Join With Video’ if prompted
- Finally, tap ‘Call Using Internet Audio’ and the Zoom meeting will start as soon as the host lets you in from the ‘Waiting Room’
- To leave the Zoom call, simply tap ‘End’, ‘Leave’, or ‘Hang Up’
And that’s all you need to know about joining a Zoom meeting on your iPad, regardless of whether you have the Zoom app installed or not! If you have any more questions, or need some more insight into the issue, check out our FAQs below.
FAQs
Do I have to have the Zoom app to join a Zoom meeting on my iPad?
Zoom has been around for years, but rose to prominence in 2020 in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, since suddenly millions of people required a competent video-call software to conduct their professional and personal meetings. However, it’s still not always obvious to the casual user how to join a Zoom meeting to which you have been invited.
Lots of us really love using iPads and tablets to take video calls, since the screen tends to be much larger, and of a higher resolution to our smartphone screens. What’s more, they often have better speakers and greater processing power. But do you have to have the Zoom app on your iPad before you can join a Zoom meeting?
The answer, thankfully, is no! You do not have to have the Zoom app installed on your iPad in order to join a Zoom meeting. Whilst the Zoom app undoubtedly improves the efficiency and call quality, and whilst Zoom will try to push you toward downloading their app, you can still join a meeting via your browser instead.
We cover how to join a Zoom meeting both with and without the Zoom app in the tutorials above.
How much battery does a Zoom meeting use on an iPad?
As with any process or app which requires a lot of processing power, Zoom meetings can drain your iPad’s battery quite quickly. Of course, that’s not to say that a fairly-fully charged iPad won’t last a full Zoom meeting.
However, if you’ve had your iPad for a few years, and its battery quality isn’t quite what it used to be, then I would most certainly consider keeping it plugged in for the duration of the Zoom meeting.
Doing so will ensure that your iPad can operate at full power and efficiency, maximising the potential quality of your call, and ensuring that you won’t be cut off halfway through!
Are Zoom meetings good quality on an iPad?
To be perfectly honest, the quality of the Zoom call depends more on the quality and speed of your internet connection than it does on your iPad. If your internet connection is unstable or slow, you will likely experience some lag to the conversation, crackliness in the audio, and/or blurriness to the picture quality.
Of course, the quality of your iPad does impact the Zoom meeting quality, too. If your iPad’s camera is older, or the speakers have taken a beating in recent years, then your own broadcasted video might not appear or sound great to others on the call.
Still, when compared to Zoom meetings held over a smartphone, or a bad internet connection, a Zoom call on an iPad with decent WiFi is arguably the best way to conduct a Zoom call, second only to using a high-powered computer.
How long can Zoom meetings last on an iPad?
Using an iPad for Zoom calls/meetings does not affect how long a meeting can or can’t last. In fact, this depends on whether the meeting host (whether that’s you or someone else) has a Pro Zoom account or a Free one.
Pro Zoom account holders are allowed to host Zoom meetings for an unlimited amount of time (of an average of about one hour), whereas Free Zoom account holders are technically limited to just 40 minutes per meeting. We have found, however, that sometimes (it’s impossible to know when) Zoom seems to slip up, and allow even Free account holders a little extra time.
Either way, a Zoom meeting on your iPad will last for as long as the meeting host’s account type allows (or your battery lasts!)
