Synapse Journal Club — Zoom app documentation

Adding the App

Follow these steps to add and authorize the app:

1. Sign in to Synapse at synapsesocial.com/login.
2. Open a journal club where you are a moderator or admin, then choose Create session.
3. Under Zoom / meeting options, click Connect Zoom.
4. You will be redirected to Zoom. Sign in with the Zoom account that should host meetings, review the requested permissions, and click Allow.
5. After authorization, Zoom redirects you back to Synapse. You should see that Zoom is connected for that host account.
6. Alternatively, install Synapse Journal Club from the Zoom App Marketplace, then complete Connect Zoom from Synapse Create session so Synapse can store the connection for your club.

Prerequisites: a Synapse account with moderator/admin access to a journal club, and a Zoom account that can create meetings. Cloud recording ingest requires a Zoom plan that supports cloud recording.

Usage

After the app is connected, hosts can use the following features.

Create a Zoom meeting from a journal club session

• In Create session, choose Create Zoom meeting (with Zoom connected).
• Synapse creates a scheduled Zoom meeting (including cloud auto-recording settings when available) and stores the join URL on the session.
• Prerequisites: Zoom connected via Production OAuth; permission to create meetings on that Zoom account.

Paste an existing Zoom link

• Instead of auto-create, paste any Zoom join URL (https://zoom.us/j/…).
• Useful when the meeting already exists or OAuth create is unavailable.

Join on Zoom for attendees

• Attendees open the public event page or session page and use Join on Zoom / Open in Zoom.
• On web, Join here embeds the Meeting SDK in the session page. The host starts the meeting in that embed (SDK JWT role=1 plus their Zoom Access Key). Other connected members join as themselves with their own ZAK. If the embed cannot start, stay on the page and retry — Synapse does not send you to the Zoom app. Open in Zoom is the optional app/web-client fallback. The embed needs the viewer's own Zoom connection.

Cloud recordings → journal club recaps

• When a Zoom cloud recording completes, Synapse ingests audio, video, and transcript into the journal club recap pipeline.
• Look for the recording on the session page recap, not the public event page.
• No minimum length, participant count, or topic. A host-only recording of a few seconds is enough. You can start the meeting anytime — the scheduled time is for RSVPs only.
• Typical timing: Zoom finishes cloud processing (often a few minutes after the host ends the meeting), then Synapse ingests shortly after the recording.completed webhook. Late transcripts arrive on recording.transcript_completed. If a webhook is missed, Synapse retries every few minutes for up to 48 hours — not a once-an-hour or once-a-day batch.
• Prerequisites: cloud recording enabled on the Zoom account (paid plan); app still authorized; session created with “Create a Zoom meeting for me” (or otherwise linked to that Zoom meeting). Paste-a-link sessions are join-only and do not ingest recordings.

Removing the App

To remove / de-authorize the app from your Zoom account:

1. Sign in to Zoom and open Installed Apps in the Zoom App Marketplace.
2. Find Synapse Journal Club and choose Remove / uninstall.
3. You can also disconnect from Synapse by reconnecting a different Zoom account later from Create session → Connect Zoom.

What de-authorization means:

• Synapse can no longer create Zoom meetings or read cloud recordings on behalf of that Zoom user.
• Existing journal club sessions keep any join URLs already saved; new auto-create and recording ingest stop until Zoom is connected again.
• Synapse stores encrypted OAuth tokens and meeting/recording identifiers needed for the connector. After you remove the app, those credentials are invalidated by Zoom; Synapse stops using them. How we handle account and content data is described in our Privacy Policy. To request deletion of Synapse account data, email support@synapsesocial.com.

Troubleshooting

• Connect Zoom fails or loops: confirm you completed OAuth with the intended Zoom account and that pop-ups/redirects are allowed. Try again from Create session → Connect Zoom (do not paste a bare authorize URL without Synapse's signed state).
• Join on Zoom missing: open the session and confirm a Zoom join URL was saved (create meeting or paste link), then check the public event page.
• Recording not in Synapse: wait until Zoom shows the cloud recording as completed, then open the session page (not the event lander). Confirm the meeting was created with Connect Zoom + “Create a Zoom meeting for me”, and the app is still authorized. Short meetings are fine. Email support with the session link if it still does not appear after ~15 minutes.
• More help: Support.