Zoom: using Zoom with Light Blue
Linking your Zoom account to Light Blue makes creating online meetings with your clients even more convenient. You’ll be able to:
- Create online scheduling calendars that automatically create Zoom meetings. e.g. for an initial consultation with a client, you could ask them to pick a convenient date & time for their appointment and Light Blue will automatically create a Zoom meeting for it. The meeting join link will be displayed on the booking confirmation page for your client, and you can also include it in your confirmation and reminder messages by using the %EventURL% mail-merge tag.
- Create Zoom meetings for appointments via the Light Blue desktop app.
Linking your Zoom account to Light Blue
To use these features, you need to link your Zoom account to Light Blue:
- Open the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app and go to the “Integrations” section.
- Click on the “Online Meetings” heading and click the “Link Zoom Account” button. You’ll be taken to the “API & Integrations” section of your account on our website.
- Click the link to authorise Light Blue’s access to your Zoom account. Zoom will present a page of information about what Light Blue will be able to do with your Zoom account. Click the “Allow” button to authorise Light Blue’s access and return to the “API & Integrations” section of your account.
- Once you have linked your Zoom account to your Light Blue account, you can reload the “Integrations” section of the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app (by clicking the “Refresh” button in the top right corner of the window) and set the defaults for Zoom meetings created by Light Blue, including:
- Whether the host and/or participant video defaults to on or off.
- Whether participants can join meetings before the host.
- Whether to use computer or telephone audio.
If you need any help linking your Zoom account to Light Blue, please contact our email support team for help.
Removing Light Blue from your Zoom account
If you no longer want to allow Light Blue to create and manage Zoom meetings, you can remove Light Blue from your Zoom account. When you do this:
- Light Blue will delete the information required for it to access your Zoom account, as well as the email address of the Zoom account that you had linked. We don’t keep any of that information once you have removed Light Blue from your Zoom account.
- Light Blue will no longer be able to automatically create Zoom meetings for online bookings.
- Light Blue will no longer be able to automatically reschedule or cancel any Zoom meetings that are linked to your appointments or shoots.
- Light Blue will keep the join URLs for any Zoom meetings created by this integration. This enables you to join meetings that you have already scheduled, or share the link with your clients.
To remove Light Blue from your Zoom account:
- Click this link to show the apps that you’ve authorised access to in your Zoom account. Alternatively, in your Zoom account, click Manage >> Added Apps or search for the “Light Blue” app.
- Click the “Light Blue” app.
- Click Remove.
Setting up scheduling calendars to create Zoom meetings
You can use Light Blue’s online scheduling calendars to allow clients to book shoots or appointments with you simply by selecting an available time and filling out their details in a booking form. You no longer need to send messages back and forth to find the perfect time, or rely on complicated integrations with third-party scheduling tools.
Once you’ve linked your Zoom account to Light Blue, you can configure scheduling calendars to automatically create a Zoom meeting when a client makes a booking. Although you probably won’t want to do this for all of your scheduling calendars, it’s very useful for appointments like online consultations or online viewing sessions because it saves you from having to manually create a Zoom meeting and send the join URL to your clients.
To configure a scheduling calendar to automatically create Zoom meetings:
- If you haven’t already done so, link your Zoom account to your Light Blue account.
- Open the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app and go to the “Scheduling Calendars” section.
- Select the scheduling calendar you want to create Zoom meetings for and go into its “Additional Options” tab.
- Go to the “Create Online Meeting” setting and change it to “Create Zoom Meeting”.
- Test your client’s experience by clicking the “Open In Browser” button to open the scheduling calendar in your browser and make a test booking. On the confirmation page, you’ll see the Zoom join URL.
If you allow your clients to reschedule or cancel online bookings, doing so will automatically reschedule or delete the Zoom meeting created for it.
Creating a Zoom meeting for an appointment or shoot in Light Blue
You can also create Zoom meetings for appointments or shoots in the Light Blue desktop app. For example, if you book a meeting with a client and enter it into Light Blue yourself (rather than asking your client to book it via an online scheduling calendar), you can click a button in Light Blue to create a Zoom meeting for that appointment.
To create a Zoom meeting for an appointment:
- Double-click the appointment in Light Blue to open it.
- Click the options menu next to the URL field (i.e. the cog icon) and select “Create Zoom Meeting”.
- The Zoom meeting will have the same start date, time, and duration as the appointment.
To create a Zoom meeting for a shoot:
- Click the options menu next to the Location field (i.e. the cog icon) and select “Create Zoom Meeting”.
- The Zoom meeting will have the same start date, time, and duration of the shoot’s first session.
Using Zoom meetings created by Light Blue
When an online scheduling calendar creates a Zoom meeting, the join URL for the meeting is displayed on the booking confirmation / booking management page.
You can also include the join URL in any confirmation or reminder messages you send for this booking, by using the %EventURL% mail-merge tag.
The Zoom meeting join URL is displayed in the Light Blue desktop and mobile apps:
- For appointments, it’s displayed in the “URL” field.
- For shoots, it’s displayed in the “Location” field.
- The options menu next to the Zoom URL (i.e. the cog icon) allows you to open the URL or copy it to the clipboard. There’s also an option in there to delete the Zoom meeting.
Zoom meetings created by Light Blue will automatically be updated if you change the date, time, or duration of the appointment or shoot that they belong to. If you cancel the appointment or shoot in Light Blue, or make it an all-day event, the Zoom meeting will automatically be deleted.
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Why wasn’t a Zoom meeting created when my client made a booking online?
- Check that Light Blue has access to your Zoom account. You can do this in the “Added Apps” section of your Zoom account. If you haven’t granted access to Light Blue, follow the instructions in the “Linking your Zoom account to Light Blue” section of this article.
- Check that you’ve configured the scheduling calendar to automatically create a Zoom meeting. You can do this in the “Additional Options” tab of the scheduling calendar in the Preferences window of the Light Blue desktop app.
- Check that the scheduling calendar isn’t creating all-day events. Zoom meetings need to have a start time and duration, so you can only create them for timed events in Light Blue.
What happens if a client reschedules or cancels an online booking that has a linked Zoom meeting?
The Zoom meeting will automatically be rescheduled or deleted.
What happens if I reschedule or cancel a shoot or appointment that has a linked Zoom meeting?
Zoom meetings created by Light Blue will automatically be updated if you change the date, time, or duration of the appointment or shoot that they belong to. If you cancel the appointment or shoot in Light Blue, or make it an all-day event, the Zoom meeting will automatically be deleted.
Changes made to Zoom meetings because of changes you’ve made in Light Blue will happen a few minutes after those changes have synced from our desktop or mobile apps to your Light Blue account. This allows you make several changes (e.g. editing the date and then editing the time) in quick succession without triggering multiple changes to the linked Zoom meeting.