Unmute all in a webinar?

[Lizzie123]

We've been testing the webinar feature lately for a big event coming up. In one of our tests, we were able to invite all audience members to unmute so they could applaud for the main speaker. But during our second test run, this feature didn't work. The host clicked 'invite everyone to unmute' but no one got the pop up bubble asking them to unmute. Does anyone know what could be going on here?

[Patricia_B · Accepted solution]

In order for Webinar Attendees to unmute, they would first need to be allowed to talk. Please note this can only be done for a single attendee at a time, so it would take some time to allow this for a larger event. 

Generally speaking, Webinar Attendees are only allowed to view the content of the event, while Panelists have the ability to talk. This prevents disruptions and background noise. I suspect this is also why the feature worked in your test session, as Panelists do not need to be allowed to talk.

If attendee audio participation is important, I would suggest using Zoom Meetings instead of Webinars. Otherwise, you might consider using Webinar Reactions which has a Clapping hands option and would provide visual feedback to the current speaker.

You can also check this article for more information about the various Webinar options: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115004834466-Managing-attendees-and-panelists-in-a-webinar

If this helped, please remember to click on the "Accept as Solution" button below.

[Lizzie123]

Patricia, this is great information! Thank you so much. 

[kochba64]

This response should not be marked as solved because it is not manageable to have to unmute all individually.  There should be an option in webinars to unmute all because there are obviously use cases for needing to do this.  Converting to a meeting loses functionality that is only available in the webinar, so that is not a viable option.  I would not think it would be that difficult to add this functionality to the webinar.