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Overview

Amazon Chime's Waiting Room adds another layer of privacy to all your meetings. Anonymous users that attempt to join your meeting are sent to the Waiting Room until you or another attendee from your company admits them in. Registered and signed in attendees who are invited still receive auto-calls and join your meetings without going through the Waiting Room.

Scheduling options also include controls such as moderated meetings and preventing in-room video systems from joining as well as an option to indicate who skips the Waiting Room.

With the Amazon Chime Waiting Room, anonymous users must wait to be admitted into any meeting. The host and any signed-in attendee that is a part of the host's organization can manage access for these anonymous attendees from an Amazon Chime client (Windows, macOS, web, iOS, Android) using the one-click Admit or Deny options presented on the attendees panel.

Note: You cannot use dial-in or in-room video systems to Admit or Deny attendees - someone must join from a supported Amazon Chime client. You or your delegates and moderators can also choose to turn off the Waiting Room after the meeting starts.

There is no special configuration needed. Amazon Chime Waiting Rooms are securing all scheduled and recurring meetings, meetings initiated from a chat room, Instant Meetings, Business Calling meetings and all other types of meetings and calls.

Hosts, their delegate(s), and moderators can also use the Event Mode, Lock, and Remove attendee controls to manage the meeting.

Notes:

1. Hosts: If you are expecting external attendees who may be new to Amazon Chime to join your meetings - make sure that at least one attendee from your company joins with an Amazon Chime Windows, macOS, web, iOS, or Android client so they can Admit you attendees.
2. All Attendees: Make sure you and your attendees join your meeting using an Amazon Chime 5.21 or higher client, dialing in, or joining from an in-room video system (the web app https://app.chime.aws is always the latest).
3. Schedulers: When you schedule meetings, use the Security section to decide if external users who are signed into their Amazon Chime client can skip the Waiting Room.

How it works

All meetings have the Waiting Room turned on by default – including those that use your personal meeting ID.

• Meeting attendees must use an Amazon Chime 5.21 or higher client [Windows, macOS, web, iOS, Android], dial-in, or join from an in-room video conference system. The web client (https://app.chime.aws) from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Chromium Edge is always the latest version so this is a good option to recommend for users running into challenges joining the meeting.
• Invited users who are signed in and other signed in users from the host's company (Amazon Chime Team or Enterprise account) using a supported client can always join directly to the meeting. They do not wait in the Waiting Room.
• Anonymous users (not signed in) and users joining by dialing in with the 10-digit meeting ID from the meeting invite ALWAYS go through the Waiting Room. If, during meeting scheduling, registered users outside of your company (who were not invited) are restricted, they will also enter through the Waiting Room. Review the Scheduling section below for more details.
• When you schedule meetings, you can choose to have external registered users with the meeting ID or attendees joining from in-room video conference systems skip the Waiting Room.
• Attendees who try to join the meeting using an in-room video system when they have been restricted will receive a message that the meeting is locked.

  

Admitting or Denying users

The Waiting Room section of the Attendee panel is presented to the host, delegate(s), moderator(s), and Authorized Users who are from the same company (registered users who are signed in and attending the meeting who are part of the organizer’s company Amazon Chime Team or Enterprise account) when there are one or more users waiting.

• The user’s Display Name, caller ID, or room name will be shown along with their email address if they are signed into an Amazon Chime client
• Authorized users can choose to Deny (X) or Admit (✓) each user or use the options above to Apply the Deny or Admit to all – everyone currently listed in the Waiting Room section of the Attendee panel
• When there are no users listed in the Waiting Room section, it will no longer be displayed
• Authorized Users can choose to collapse or expand the Waiting Room portion of the Attendees panel
• Once admitted, the users are listed in the appropriate section of the Attendee panel. Denied users are removed and not displayed
  

If you want to allow everyone in without requiring the Admit action for each, the host/delegate(s)/moderator(s) can choose Turn off Waiting Room from the More (...) menu (NOTE Authorized users do not have this host control).

• When you choose Turn off Waiting Room all attendees currently waiting are Admitted and new users will join the meeting directly without waiting
• If you subsequently choose Turn on Waiting Room new anonymous or restricted users joining will again wait to be admitted
• To prevent any other attendees who are not already in the meeting from joining, the host/delegate(s)/moderator(s) can use the Lock meeting action and only current attendees and invited attendees can join
  

Attendees joining Non-Moderated Meetings

1. After clicking on the meeting link or entering the meeting ID into an Amazon Chime client, users are presented with the Device Preview to choose and test their video and audio options so they are ready to join as soon as they are Admitted
2. While waiting, a dialog is presented letting the user know that their request to join has been received
   • We offer anonymous users a chance to Sign in (which can help get them into the meeting faster)
   • When users choose dial-in for audio, a voice cue is played every 1 minute while waiting to be admitted
   • If a user chooses the Call me option, the call from Amazon Chime is initiated after the user is Admitted
3. Users wait a maximum of 10 minutes in the Waiting Room
   1. When a user is Admitted, they join the meeting
   2. If a user is Denied, a dialog is presented and the attendee can choose Try again or Leave
   3. If no one has admitted a user in 10 minutes, they are presented with the Deny dialog
   4. If the meeting ends while a user is waiting, a dialog informs them that the meeting was ended

Attendees joining Moderated Meetings

As an attendee, you won't necessarily know if a meeting is Moderated. Moderated meetings require a host, their delegate, or a moderator to enter the meeting passcode to start the meeting.

1. After clicking on the meeting link or entering the meeting ID into an Amazon Chime client, users are presented with the Device Preview to choose and test their video and audio options so they are ready to join as soon as they are Admitted
2. If the host, a delegate, or a moderator has not already joined, a dialog will indicate that the meeting won't start until a moderator has joined and an option to enter the moderator passcode. If you are a moderator, choose Enter moderator passcode to start the meeting
3. Once a meeting has started, anonymous attendees and those entering through the Waiting Room will be presented with a dialog letting them know that their request to join has been received.
   1. Since more than one moderator can join, we also provide the option to enter the moderator passcode. If you are a moderator, choose Enter moderator passcode and join the meeting
   2. We offer anonymous users a chance to Sign in (which can help get them into the meeting faster)
   3. When users choose dial-in for audio, a voice cue is played every 1 minute while waiting to be admitted
   4. If a user chooses the Call me option, the call from Amazon Chime is initiated after the user is Admitted into the meeting
4. Users wait a maximum of 10 minutes in the Waiting Room
   1. When a user is Admitted, they join the meeting
   2. If a user is Denied, a dialog is presented and the attendee can choose Try again or Leave
   3. If no one has admitted a user in 10 minutes, they are presented with the Deny dialog
   4. If the meeting ends while a user is waiting, a dialog informs them that the meeting was ended

Scheduling

The three Amazon Chime Schedule meeting options have several options that control the Waiting Room (In-app Meetings > Schedule a meeting; Amazon Chime add-in for Outlook (O365); and Amazon Chime add-in for Outlook on Windows (COM used to schedule meetings for others)). If you schedule your meetings with https://meetings.amazon.com, start a meeting from Slack (/chime), start an Instant Meeting, or start from a chat room a) external registered attendees will join your meetings directly, b) in-room video systems will be allowed, and c) anonymous users and users dialing in using the 10-digit meeting ID will join through the Waiting Room.

• The Security section is where you choose who can skip the Waiting Room
• When you choose Generate a new ID or Generate a new ID and require moderator to start, you have options to choose who skips the Waiting Room
  • Check the Attendees outside of my company who are signed in option, so anyone registered with an Amazon Chime account who knows the meeting ID joins directly and doesn't wait
  • Check the In-room video systems to allow attendees to join from conference room equipment. If you do not check the In-room video systems option, attendees joining from a conference room will be LOCKED out!
    

• When you choose My personal meeting ID, the options to restrict others are not available – we do not allow you to change the options. Both Attendees outside of my company who are signed in and In-room video systemswill skip the Waiting Room (for backwards compatibility)
  • The panel will show a warning that the meeting is less secure
    

Attendees who try to join the meeting and who are not allowed will receive a message that the meeting is locked.

Additional Resources

User documentation can be found here: Amazon Chime User Guide.

For an overview of the security of Amazon Chime, see our blog post: Understanding Security in the Amazon Chime Application and SDK

For more details on Best Practices using Amazon Chime see: Best Practices for Chime Meetings - preparing, scheduling, during and common questions