How to Use & Remove Zoom’s Watermark Feature

A Zoom watermark can be both a blessing and a curse. If you’re looking for a way to declare ownership of your content, it’s a blessing — but if you can’t figure out how to remove it from your meetings, it’s a curse! Luckily, like most other tools in Zoom, it’s not hard to learn how to wield the watermark tool however you see fit. Find out how you can watermark videos and even add audio watermarks, or if you’d rather do without, learn how to be rid of this feature quickly. Leverage this tool to boost your marketing efforts by adding your company’s logo.

What Is Zoom’s Watermark Feature

Zoom offers two watermark features to its users. The first, an image watermark, is precisely what it sounds like — an image overlay that appears on your video and features the name or logo of your organization. This type of watermark is most commonly used to thwart unauthorized video sharing or prevent another party from taking credit for its content. Companies or individuals may use it, but it has many other potential uses beyond this, including its potential as a tool for marketing and branding.

In addition to image watermarking, Zoom offers the ability to add an audio watermark to your video, too. Unlike the visual watermark, an audio watermark is undetectable unless you’re specifically looking for it. The audio watermark allows Zoom to capture identifying information from any meeting attendee recording the stream. This information is stored in the file’s audio channel, but it is not audible unless a meeting administrator submits a request to Zoom Technical Support. If you need to do this, you should include the date and time of the call as well as the Meeting ID.

How to Add Your Watermark to a Zoom Meeting

If you decide that you want to watermark your next Zoom meeting, it’s surprisingly easy to do so. Adding a visual watermark is as simple as toggling a switch. Indeed, in the settings section for your meeting, you will see a button that says “Add watermark.” If this switch is toggled on, every attendee of the meeting can see part of their email address as a watermark. They can see this if the content is shared or if somebody is sharing their screen during the meeting. Please note that the meeting restrictions must allow only signed-in users to join before watermarking can be enabled.

The process is just as simple if you want to add an audio watermark. Below the toggle to enable a visual watermark, you will see another switch that says, “Add audio watermark.” As with visual watermarking, this setting requires that the meeting be restricted to users signed into their Zoom accounts.

How to Remove Zoom’s Watermark

Unfortunately, it’s not relatively as easy to remove a watermark as it is to add one. You can toggle the switch off to turn watermarking off during an ongoing meeting. Still, it’s decidedly difficult to remove it if it’s embedded in an already-recorded meeting. Indeed, Zoom watermarks are intended to identify an individual who shares a meeting without authorization, so they are designed to be challenging to remove—some programs on the web claim to be able to remove a visual watermark. Still, given that the image is embedded in the video feed, it’s unlikely that any will offer satisfactory results.

It is similarly difficult to remove an audio watermark, but it should be noted that audio watermarks cannot be accessed without the request mentioned above to Zoom. This means that an audio watermark may slide by undetected unless a meeting administrator happens to file a request for more information. If you want to turn off an audio watermarking currently in progress, you can toggle off the audio watermarking switch. No watermark will be registered if the button stays off until the meeting is saved.

Looking For Other Ways to Add Your Logo in Zoom?

The watermarking feature that’s built into Zoom isn’t just for preventing people from sharing the video. If you want to add a customized image watermark — for example, your company logo — you can do this through the Zoom meeting management web portal. This is called a “live streaming watermark,” it can feature any image you want to add to your meeting’s feed. You should first enable visual watermarking per the process mentioned above. You can then go to the Meetings and Webinars section under branding and scroll to the option that allows you to upload a live streaming watermark.

You can click Change and upload a PNG or JPG image that will be featured in the bottom right corner of your stream. In addition to being visible during the live stream of your meeting, it will be captured in any recordings that may be made. Adding a logo to your meeting is a great way to prevent prohibited sharing, but it’s also a great marketing tool. If your meeting video gets shared online and goes viral, you’ll receive tons of free publicity simply by having the video watermarked!

There are other ways to add a logo to a Zoom meeting, too. Another simple way to do this is to invest in a customized virtual background. A virtual background lets you choose an image, personalize it, and upload it as your background when you log onto meetings and video calls. A live streaming watermark requires an account registered to an enterprise, business, or educational institute. So if you don’t meet these criteria, a virtual background is an excellent way for individual users to publicize their company’s logo. Upload a virtual background and impress your teammates the next time you’re in a meeting.