How to Know Who Is Drawing in Zoom on PC and Mobile

Any video conferencing app is incomplete without the screen sharing feature. Even Facebook Messenger offers it. So, how could the popular Zoom app remain behind? On Zoom, all the participants can annotate on a shared screen. While that’s a welcome change, it also poses the problem of random drawings being scribbled during a call. The main trouble arises when you are unable to identify the person who is drawing on the screen during a video call in Zoom.

By default, whenever the participants scribble on a shared screen in Zoom, you can’t see the names of the people involved in that. Also, things may get confusing and annoying at times if a person starts drawing inappropriate things. To avoid such scenarios, Zoom offers a setting which shows the name of the participant whenever he/she is drawing on the shared screen in a Zoom call.

In this post, we shall tell you how to figure out who is scribbling on the shared screen while using Zoom on the computer and mobile. As a bonus, we will also show you how to stop other participants from drawing on the shared screen or whiteboard during a Zoom video call.

How to Know Who Is Scribbling in Zoom

To know who is currently annotating in Zoom, you need to enable a setting for the same. Only the person who initiated the sharing process can enable the setting. After it is enabled, all the participants can see the name of the person who is drawing.

Let’s see how to enable the setting on PC and mobile apps.

Enable Names of Annotators Setting on PC

For that, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a meeting and start sharing your screen or start a whiteboard.

Step 2: You will see a box at the top that says You are screen sharing. Hover your mouse over it to reveal the toolbar.

Step 3: From the toolbar that appears, click on the More button (three-dot icon). Select ‘Show Names of Annotators’ option.

When you enable the option, you will see the name of the participant whenever that person starts to draw.

Find the Name of Participant for Old Drawings

When you are sharing a screen, click on the Annotate option on the toolbar to see who had drawn or annotated anything.

A new toolbar will open. Now, click on Select. Then, select the drawing or hover your mouse over the respective drawings to reveal the creator.

Tip: Check our guide on how to show a profile picture instead of video in Zoom.

Enable Names of Annotators Setting in Zoom on Android and iOS

To enable the setting on Zoom mobile apps, follow these steps:

Step 1: Start sharing your screen, document, or whiteboard on the Zoom app as you do normally.

Step 2: If you are sharing your screen, you will be taken out of the Zoom app. So, you need to open the Zoom app again. If you are sharing a document or a picture, it will open in the Zoom app.

Now, in the Zoom app, tap on the three-dot icon at the bottom and select Meeting Settings.

Step 3: In the Meeting Settings, enable the toggle next to Show Names of Annotators.

Tip: Refer to our guide to know how to record the screen on Zoom.

How to Stop Participants From Drawing in Zoom

If you don’t want other participants to annotate on your shared screen, document, etc., you can disable it. You can either disable it for each meeting separately or keep it disabled for all the meetings where you participate.

Let’s check both the methods.

1. Disable Annotation for Other Participants in a Meeting

Here’s how to do it on PC and mobile apps.

Stop Participants From Annotating in Zoom on PC

When you have started sharing, click on the toolbar at the top. Then, click on More and select Disable participants annotation. Now, only the person who has initiated the sharing will be able to annotate. Others will not see the Annotate button.

Stop Participants From Annotating in Zoom on Android and iOS

After the sharing has started, click on the three-dot icon at the bottom of the Zoom app. If you are outside the Zoom app, you will need to open the app to access the three-dot icon. And, if you are on the sharing screen, you will have to go back to the main screen of the Zoom app.

Then, disable the toggle next to Annotate on the Meeting Settings screen.

2. Disable Annotation of Participants for All Meetings

To do so, you will need to open your Zoom account settings on the web. You can either open it via the Settings in the Zoom apps or go directly to https://us04web.zoom.us/profile.

Tip: For better quality video calls, check our guide on 13 helpful Zoom video settings.

Click on the Settings from the left sidebar in the Zoom account settings.

Click on the Meeting tab followed by In Meeting (Basic).

Scroll down and you will find the Annotation option. Disable it.

Let’s Draw

Enabling the option to show who is drawing in Zoom is extremely handy. It removes the confusion of the annotations made and even fish out a miscreant. Fortunately, Zoom has made it easy to enable and disable the same.

Next up: Want to become a pro at using Zoom? Check our ultimate guide to Zoom below to learn how you can become a power user of this tool.