If you’re building a Zoom bot or meeting assistant, one of the most common questions is: How do I make my Zoom bot skip the waiting room? By default, Zoom places bots in the waiting room until the host manually admits them, which can lead to missed recordings and unreliable automation.
Many developers search for ways to let a Zoom bot skip the waiting room automatically, but the most reliable method comes from Zoom itself: Zoom join tokens.
What is the fastest way for a Zoom bot to skip the waiting room?
The most reliable method to have your bot skip the waiting room is to use a Zoom join token.
A Zoom join token is a short-lived, meeting-specific credential that pre-authorizes your bot to:
- Skip the waiting room, even if the host isn’t present
- Start local recording automatically the moment it joins
This eliminates the need for the host to admit the bot or approve its recording request.
Why using a token is better than disabling the waiting room
You can disable the waiting room entirely, but that affects every participant, not just your bot. A join token, on the other hand, pre-authorizes only the bot, keeping the meeting secure while still guaranteeing that the bot gets in.
How to guarantee your Zoom bot skips the waiting room
When joining a meeting through the Zoom Meeting SDK, you pass the join token into the recordingToken field. Zoom treats this as proof that the host already granted recording and entry permissions, allowing the bot to bypass the waiting room workflow.
If you want a deeper breakdown, including how to generate join tokens, required OAuth scopes, and real-world examples of when to use them, check out our full guide: Zoom join tokens for local recording.
