Zoom meeting reminders on Mac
The reminder lives in your calendar, and it is a banner. Here is how to make it hard to miss.
Zoom does not keep your schedule. A Zoom meeting is an event in Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar with a Zoom link inside, so the reminder you get on a Mac is whatever that calendar manages to show: a small banner, in the corner of one screen, for a few seconds.
Why Zoom reminders get missed on Mac
- Banners are built to disappear. macOS shows a notification for a few seconds, on one display, and it stays out of the way on purpose.
- You are in something else. Another call, a full-screen app, a screen share or a Focus hides or silences it.
- The event has no alert. Invitations you accepted can arrive without a notification set. Each calendar has its own default.
- Notifications are blocked. Check that Calendar, or your browser for Google Calendar, is allowed in System Settings, Notifications.
Fixes for each calendar are on these pages: Google Calendar, Outlook and Apple Calendar.
Make it impossible to miss
Slapss sits in the menu bar and puts a full-screen alert over everything when the meeting starts, with the meeting name, the time and a Join button. It appears at the start or anywhere from 10 seconds to 15 minutes before. You pick Join, Snooze or Dismiss, and you cannot keep typing until you do.
Set it up in a minute
1
Make sure your calendar is in macOS: System Settings, Internet Accounts for Google, iCloud, Outlook or Exchange.
2
Install Slapss from the Mac App Store and allow calendar access when it asks.
3
Pick which calendars should alert you in Slapss Settings, Calendars. Done.
One-click Join
Slapss finds the Zoom link in the event's location, notes or body. The Join button opens it, and Zoom hands it to the Zoom app. The same button works for Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Whereby, Around and Yandex Telemost, and Slapss keeps the right Google account for Meet links if you use more than one.
When you present
A full-screen alert in the middle of a demo is the opposite of what you want. Turn on Presenting Now and Slapss holds alerts while you share your screen, then shows them when you are done.
What else you get
- The next meeting and a live countdown in the menu bar.
- Snooze for 1, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 hour, or until the meeting ends.
- An optional sound with the alert.
- Back-to-back meetings wait in line and show one after the other.
Get Slapss free on the Mac App Store
Questions
Where does a Zoom meeting reminder come from?
From the calendar the meeting is in. A Zoom meeting is an event with a Zoom link, so the reminder follows the settings of Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar and of macOS notifications.
Does the Join button open the Zoom app?
Yes. It opens the Zoom link, and Zoom's own page hands it over to the Zoom app on your Mac.
Which calendars does it work with?
Anything in the macOS Calendar app: iCloud, Google, Outlook and Exchange. There is also a built-in Microsoft 365 sign-in that works without macOS Calendar.
Can I stop it from covering my screen while I present?
Yes. Presenting Now holds alerts until you are done presenting.
Is Slapss free?
Yes. No subscription, no in-app purchase, no limit. Slapss is open source under the Apache 2.0 license.