What is TaoBot?
TaoBot is a Zoom-native meeting readiness assistant. It helps you see who was expected, who is here, who is excused, who is still waiting, and what follow-up is available through Slack or Zoom chat.
What TaoBot Is
TaoBot is a Zoom-native meeting readiness assistant. It runs in the Zoom sidebar and helps hosts, co-hosts, organizers, and workspace teams see who was expected, who is already here, who is excused, and who still needs attention.
It brings together Zoom meeting context, Google or Microsoft calendar fallback, live Zoom attendance when available, manual check-in when needed, Slack reminders, Zoom chat updates, personal defaults, workspace seats, and team setup controls.
The job is simple: less roll call, less spreadsheet cleanup, less “where is everyone?” chaos. More getting the meeting moving.
Add TaoBot to Zoom
Use the TaoBot website when Zoom asks for a documentation or add-from-site path. The public add link starts at /add-to-zoom and sends you to the configured Zoom Marketplace listing or to the Zoom authorization flow while the listing URL is being finalized.
- Open taobot.work in your browser.
- Choose Add to Zoom.
- Review the Zoom authorization screen, requested permissions, and account context.
- Approve the app if the permissions match how you plan to use TaoBot.
- Start or join a Zoom meeting and open TaoBot Attendance from the Zoom Apps sidebar.
Use TaoBot in a Zoom Meeting
- Open the Zoom meeting where you want attendance help.
- Launch TaoBot from the Zoom Apps sidebar.
- Review Ready Yet?, expected attendees, present attendees, and anyone still waiting.
- Use manual check-in when live Zoom attendance is unavailable or incomplete.
- Connect calendar fallback only when TaoBot asks for more expected-attendee context.
- Use Slack reminders or Zoom update delivery only when those optional workflows are connected and allowed by your plan or workspace.
Remove TaoBot
You can stop using TaoBot from Zoom or disconnect related services from your TaoBot account. Workspace admins may also remove seats, shared apps, or workspace defaults for their team.
- In Zoom, open the Zoom App Marketplace or your installed apps list.
- Find TaoBot Attendance.
- Choose the Zoom option to remove, uninstall, or revoke the app for your account.
- Open TaoBot account settings to disconnect optional Google Calendar, Microsoft Calendar, or Slack connections.
- Use the privacy controls or contact support if you need access, deletion, correction, or other data-rights help.
How It Works
TaoBot starts with the meeting you are in, builds a quick readiness snapshot around the scheduled start time, then keeps the picture updated as the room changes.
It checks Zoom first. If Zoom cannot confirm the expected attendee list for this connection, TaoBot asks for your selected Google or Microsoft calendar. If live Zoom attendance is not available, TaoBot switches to manual check-in instead of leaving you stuck.
- Ready Yet?: the top snapshot for the meeting TaoBot is looking at right now.
- Total Invited: everyone TaoBot is tracking for this meeting. Optional attendees stay out unless you include them.
- Not Expected: people TaoBot is not waiting on, such as declined, out-of-office, or excused attendees.
- Expected: everyone TaoBot still expects to see.
- Not here now: expected people TaoBot has not seen in live attendance yet.
- Not checked in yet: in manual check-in mode, expected people who still need a check-in.
- Include optional attendees and Treat declines as absent: quick count controls when the room needs a slightly different read.
Setup
Setup follows the shortest useful path for the meeting you are in. Zoom comes first, calendar is only needed when Zoom cannot confirm who was expected, and Slack is optional for reminders.
- Zoom first: TaoBot needs Zoom so it can understand the meeting and run inside the Zoom sidebar.
- Calendar only when needed: TaoBot asks for Google or Microsoft calendar when Zoom cannot confirm the expected attendee list.
- Slack is optional: Slack powers private reminders. Skip it now with Not now and add it later when you need reminders.
- Browser handoff is normal: Google, Microsoft, Slack, and some account flows may continue in your regular browser. TaoBot refreshes when the flow finishes.
- Manual open is built in: if Zoom cannot open a setup page automatically, TaoBot shows a copyable URL so you can keep moving.
Personal vs Workspace
TaoBot always runs in a context: your personal profile or a team workspace. The current context decides which plan, apps, defaults, Slack setup, seats, and permissions apply.
- Personal: uses your own plan, connected apps, defaults, and billing.
- Workspace: uses the selected workspace's plan, seats, shared apps, workspace defaults, and admin rules.
- Workspace rules: admins can let members choose settings, recommend defaults, or lock settings for the team.
- Seats matter: some team features only work after a workspace admin assigns you an active seat.
- Switching context: when you switch between personal and workspace, TaoBot reloads the meeting state so the panel does not mix rules from two places.
Assist Status
Assist Status is TaoBot's quick self-check. Click the badge near the top-right of the sidebar to see what TaoBot can do for this meeting right now.
- Know who's expected: whether TaoBot can build the expected attendee list from Zoom or your active calendar fallback.
- Know who's here: whether TaoBot can use live Zoom attendance or manual check-in.
- Share updates: whether TaoBot can post attendance updates into Zoom chat.
- Send personal reminders: whether TaoBot can use Slack reminders right now.
Ready means the core meeting flow is solid. Trying means TaoBot is still useful, but working with limited meeting signals or lower-confidence inputs. Away means setup, access, plan limits, workspace rules, or permissions are blocking that part.
The overall badge focuses on the two core jobs: knowing who was expected and knowing who is here. Reminders and updates are shown separately because they are helpful, but not required for the main readiness read.
Manual Check-in Mode
Manual check-in is TaoBot's dependable fallback when live Zoom attendance is unavailable, incomplete, or not confident enough. You still get a clean roster, and you stay in control of the final state.
- Every person has one clear state: Waiting, Present, or Excused.
- You can change any person at any time. TaoBot does not lock the roster when the room gets messy.
- Automatic activity matching controls how much TaoBot helps from available meeting signals: Off (manual only), Exact (fewer mistakes), or Best guess (more automatic).
- If TaoBot sees a likely match but is not confident enough, it shows a suggestion instead of guessing silently.
- Remind all and per-person reminders only target people who are still waiting.
- Slack reminder status stays plain-English: Sent, Sent recently, Slack not connected, Not in Slack, or Needs retry.
Live Attendance
Live attendance works when TaoBot has the Zoom Apps runtime and the current Zoom connection can read live participant data. When it works, TaoBot can update the roster as people join, leave, or become visible through Zoom signals.
If live attendance is missing, TaoBot falls back to manual check-in automatically. If TaoBot joined late, you may see Trying instead of Ready because early joins may need a quick manual pass.
Sharing Updates
The Keep Everyone in Sync card controls Zoom chat delivery. Use it when the room needs a clear attendance update without turning the start of the meeting into a roll call.
- Manual send: nothing goes out automatically. Use Send Summary Now when you want to post the current picture.
- Auto send: TaoBot schedules the main summary after the meeting's scheduled start time and can send throttled live updates when live attendance is available.
- Visibility: choose Everyone or Host + Co-hosts. When full meeting chat is unavailable, TaoBot falls back to host/co-host delivery.
- Timing controls: Summary timing delays the main recap, and Update throttling limits how often live updates can fire.
- Plan gating: delivery can be blocked by plan limits, trial-meeting eligibility, missing Zoom chat access, workspace setup, workspace selection, or seat access.
Account, Plans, and Billing
When TaoBot says Upgrade, See plans, Start checkout, or Manage billing, it is sending you to the TaoBot website side of the product. The Zoom sidebar handles meeting work. The website handles account setup, plans, workspaces, billing, and connected apps.
- Account: manage your plan, apps, defaults, workspaces, attendance history, and billing links.
- Easy: the free starting point. Try 10 meetings each month before choosing a paid path.
- Smooth: the paid personal path for one organizer who owns the roster, reminders, and follow-up.
- Together: the shared workspace path for teams that need seats, team reminders, workspace Slack setup, and Zoom updates.
- Scale: the larger workspace path for governance, policy defaults, Organization Slack app setup, and automatic Zoom updates where supported.
- Plan & Billing: buy, change, or manage a personal or workspace plan.
- Billing overview: shows your Stripe credit balance and TaoBot's preview of what should apply to the next invoice.
- Sign-in is linked-account only: on the website, sign in with a provider that is already linked to your TaoBot account.
- Some Zoom clients block billing links: if a billing handoff does not open, use TaoBot on desktop or open the TaoBot website directly.
Privacy
TaoBot is for meeting readiness, not recording. It does not store chat message text, speech/audio, transcripts, or calendar event titles, descriptions, or bodies.
Attendance history is off by default. If you opt in, choose how much TaoBot saves:
- Nothing saved: TaoBot can keep the current meeting state around for the active run, but nothing is persisted for later.
- Numbers only: saves meeting totals, such as invited, expected, and not-here counts.
- Names + numbers: saves meeting totals and the named present/absent roster for your TaoBot account, including manual and TaoBot-confirmed check-ins when available.
If you save attendance history, TaoBot keeps it until you clear it. Use Clear saved attendance history to permanently delete saved attendance history for your TaoBot account across meetings.
Troubleshooting
- Zoom needs attention: use Connect Zoom on first launch, or Reauthorize Zoom if the session expired.
- Calendar is still needed: if TaoBot asks for Google or Microsoft, use Reconnect calendar and finish setup in your browser.
- Setup will not open inside Zoom: copy the URL TaoBot shows and open it in your regular browser.
- Live attendance is missing: reopen TaoBot from the Zoom in-meeting Apps panel. Without the Zoom Apps runtime or live participant access, TaoBot uses manual check-in.
- The attendee list looks incomplete: connect the requested calendar, check whether optional attendees are included, and confirm how declines are being handled.
- Updates or reminders are blocked: the blocker may be plan access, trial-meeting eligibility, workspace selection, seat assignment, workspace admin rules, missing Slack setup, or missing Zoom chat access.
- Billing links do not open: some Zoom clients cannot open billing handoff links. Open TaoBot on desktop or use the TaoBot website instead.
- You need help from an admin: if TaoBot says a seat, workspace setup, admin role, or workspace policy is required, that part cannot be fixed from the meeting panel alone.
- Support needs details: open Diagnostics in Help & Debug and copy the log.
Common Questions
Is TaoBot an attendance tracker?
Yes, but the better framing is meeting readiness. TaoBot helps the person running the meeting get the right people into the room and keep the meeting moving.
Does TaoBot record meetings or read transcripts?
No. TaoBot does not store chat text, speech/audio, transcripts, or private calendar event details.
Why does TaoBot need Zoom?
Zoom lets TaoBot run in the meeting sidebar, understand the current meeting, and use meeting signals when they are available.
Why does TaoBot need Google or Microsoft calendar?
Only when Zoom cannot confirm who was expected. Calendar access helps TaoBot build a more accurate attendee list without exposing event titles, descriptions, or bodies in the help flow.
Why does TaoBot need Slack?
Slack is optional. TaoBot uses Slack for private reminders so you can nudge missing people without calling them out in the meeting.
What happens when live Zoom attendance is unavailable?
TaoBot switches to manual check-in. You can mark people Present, Waiting, or Excused, and TaoBot may suggest matches when it has enough signal.
What is the difference between personal and workspace mode?
Personal mode uses your own plan, apps, and defaults. Workspace mode uses the team's plan, seats, shared apps, workspace defaults, and admin rules.
Why is a feature blocked?
Common blockers include setup, missing permissions, plan limits, Easy trial limits, workspace selection, missing workspace seat, missing Slack setup, or workspace admin policy.
What plan should I choose?
Start with Easy if you are trying TaoBot. Choose Smooth if one organizer owns the follow-up. Choose Together if a team needs shared workspace coordination. Choose Scale if admins need governance, policy defaults, Organization Slack app setup, and automatic Zoom updates.