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

Any videoconferencing application is incomplete without the screen sharing function. It is even present in a social chat application such as Facebook Messenger. So how could the popular Zoom app stay behind? On Zoom, all participants can annotate on the shared screen. While this is a welcome step, it does pose the problem of random scribbles during a call. The main problem arises when you cannot identify the person who is drawing on the screen during a video call in Zoom.

By default, each time participants doodle on a document in Zoom, it does not display the name of the person drawing. Things can get confusing and sometimes even boring if a person starts to draw inappropriate things. To avoid this, you can have the participant’s name appear every time someone draws during a Zoom meeting.

In this article, we will explain how to know who is scribbling on the split screen in Zoom on the computer and mobile applications. As a bonus, we also mentioned how to prevent other participants from drawing on the shared screen or whiteboard during a Zoom video call.

How to Know Who Scribbles in Zoom

To find out who is currently annotating in Zoom, you need to enable a setting for the same. Only the person who started the sharing process can activate the setting. Once activated, all participants can see the name of the person drawing.

Let’s see how to activate the setting on PC and mobile applications.

Activate the Annotator Names setting on PC

To do this, follow these steps:

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

2nd step: You will see a box at the top that indicates that you are sharing the screen. Hover your mouse over it to bring up the toolbar.

Step 3: In the toolbar that appears, click the Plus button (three-dot icon). Select the “Display annotator names” option.

When you activate the option, you will see the name of the participant each time that person begins to draw.

Find participant name for old drawings

When sharing a screen, click the Annotate option in the toolbar to see who drew or annotated something.

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

Point: See this guide for how to display a profile photo instead of a zoomed video.

Activate the Annotator Names setting in zoom on Android and iOS

To activate the setting on the Zoom mobile applications, follow these steps:

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

2nd step: If you share your screen, you will be removed from the Zoom app. You must therefore reopen the Zoom application. If you share a document or image, it will open in the Zoom application.

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

Step 3: In the meeting settings, toggle the switch next to Show annotator names.

Point: Refer to our guide for how to save the screen to Zoom.

How to prevent participants from drawing in zoom

If you do not want other participants to annotate on your screen, document, etc. shared, you can turn it off. You can deactivate it for each meeting separately or keep it deactivated for all meetings in which you participate.

Let’s check both methods.

1. Disable annotation for other meeting participants

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

Prevent participants from annotating on PC

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

Let’s draw

Activating the option to show who draws in Zoom is extremely practical. It removes the confusion of annotations made and even catches a disbeliever. Fortunately, Zoom made it easy to turn the same on and off.