What is the Zoom waiting room chime and can you use it as a reminder?
The Zoom waiting room chime is a notification sound that plays for the meeting host when a participant enters the waiting room. Yes, you can use it as an automatic meeting reminder. Tools like DemoTimer take advantage of this by sending a bot into your Zoom waiting room at a set time before your meeting ends, triggering the chime so only you hear it.
How the waiting room chime works
When you enable the waiting room in Zoom, hosts and co-hosts hear a short chime every time someone joins the waiting room. It plays through your computer audio, not through the meeting itself, so your participants never hear it. Zoom designed this feature so hosts know when someone is waiting to be admitted. But it turns out to be the perfect discreet notification for something else entirely.
Why it makes a great meeting reminder
Most meeting reminder options have obvious drawbacks. Phone timers vibrate in your pocket during a screen share, and they're easy to miss or ignore. Zoom's built-in timer is visible to everyone in the meeting, which can feel awkward. Browser-based timers require you to set them up manually before every call.
The waiting room chime avoids all of these problems. It plays through your speakers or headphones, so you hear it immediately. It's completely invisible to your prospect or client. And if you automate it, there's nothing to remember.
How DemoTimer automates the chime
DemoTimer connects to your Google Calendar and scans for meetings with external attendees and a Zoom link. Before each meeting ends, it sends a lightweight bot into the Zoom waiting room at exactly the right moment. You hear the familiar chime, recognize it as your cue to start wrapping up, and the bot quietly leaves on its own a few seconds later.
There's no app to open before each call, no timer to set, and no configuration per meeting. You connect your calendar once, choose how many minutes before the end you want the reminder, and every external Zoom meeting is covered automatically.
Setup requirements
To use the waiting room chime as a reminder, you need two things: the waiting room feature enabled in your Zoom settings, and the chime notification turned on (it's on by default for most accounts). Once those are set, DemoTimer handles the rest. It works with any Zoom plan, including the free tier, and takes about two minutes to set up.