How to use video in Microsoft Teams
Desktop
When joining a Meeting or a team call, it is possible to customize many aspects of your video experience, including how the video is displayed and how others can see the video, when joining a Meeting or a team call.
Turn your video on or off
Before a meeting
As soon as you join a meeting, you have the option to choose the Camera option right before you enter the room. This way, you will be able to see the video as soon as you enter.
During a meeting
You can likewise turn off your video during the course of the meeting if, for example, you would prefer that people only see you when you are speaking, and then turn it back on during the meeting if you wish to be seen only when you are speaking. When you are in the meeting controls, you can select Camera at any time during the meeting.
Change your background
The option of blurring your background, as well as replacing it entirely with any image you wish, is a great way to change what you appear behind you in your video.
While setting up your audio and video for a meeting, you will have the option of selecting Background filters from the bottom of the video image. When setting up your audio and video for the meeting beforehand, you can select Background filters. In the right-hand column, you will see the options that you have for your background.
Note: Please note that if you do not see the option to turn on background effects, that might mean that the feature has not yet been added to your device. Check out the following article for more details on how to customize your background for your Teams meeting if you would like to know how to do so.
Change your view
As a member of a Teams meeting, you can customize the way you view the video of other people. An example of this would be if you were in a large meeting and want to have access to more than one video feed at the same time.
Note: The number of videos you’re viewing at once may be reduced to ensure that you are getting the best possible audio and video quality if you’re not running out of bandwidth or memory on your device.
- We look forward to seeing you at your meeting.
- Click on the Change your view button in the meeting controls.
- Due to the size of the meeting, it may not be possible to offer some options.
Notes:
There are three different views that you can choose from:
- The default view of the gallery is the following:
- The large gallery is a gallery with a lot of pictures
- Is there a mode called “Together”?
Gallery
If you decide to join a meeting, the default setting will be that you will be shown at the same time as nine other people if you choose to join the meeting. The people in attendance are prioritized based on whether they have their video on and whether they are speaking the most when there are more than nine others in attendance.
If the person has not turned on their video (or their initials in the case of people who have not added a profile picture) then Teams displays a profile picture instead of the person’s video in the case where the individual does not have a video.
Large gallery
Up to 49 people can watch their videos at the same time. In order to use this option, you must have at least 10 cameras turned on at the same time.
Note: If there is no video being shared by anyone, Large gallery will not be available for you to select from the menu.
The gallery with pages allows you to see all of the participants in a Teams meeting when there are more than 49 participants present. When there are more than 49 participants in the largest gallery view of the image gallery, there will be a navigational control at the bottom of the gallery that allows you to navigate between them. This navigation bar allows you to view more participants or interact with more of them if you use it to navigate around.
Together mode
You feel that you are part of the same meeting space as everyone else in the group. Whenever there are more than five participants in a meeting, the Together mode is available.
When it comes to meeting organizers or presenters, there are a variety of scenarios to select from when you are presenting a meeting. In the bottom left corner of your screen, there is a list of the scenes that you wish to change, and you can select one of them by clicking on its name in the list.
Choosing a scene is as easy as selecting it and clicking on Apply. Everyone who is in the Together mode will see a change in the scene.
Note: Upon entering the classroom scene, you will immediately be seated apart from any other participants or the first presenter in the meeting (depending on when they joined the meeting).
2×2 (web only)
When using Teams on the web (either the Edge or Chrome browser), you have the option to view up to four video streams at the same time. Your role as the team member, as soon as you enter the meeting, you ask your team members to turn on their cameras, so that a 2 x 2 grid of video clips from all four team members appears simultaneously as soon as they enter the room.
Note: 2×2 video is currently available on Teams for web (Edge and Chrome) for public preview. The 2×2 video feature is still under development and may undergo further changes before being made available to the general public as a general release. Switch to the Teams public preview if you wish to gain access to this feature as well as other upcoming features.
Focus
Whenever content is shared, this feature will be available to you. In this view you can focus on the content at hand, without being distracted by people’s video feeds, which makes it a perfect choice when you want to focus on the content at hand.
Note: In order to use the Large Gallery, Together mode, and Focus, the meeting experience needs to be enabled in order for the new meeting experience to be used.
- I look forward to joining your meeting.
- You can change the view of the meeting by selecting Change your view from the meeting control panel, and then selecting Focus.
Notes:
Pin someone’s video
The video feed of someone can be pinned to your view by clicking on the more options option next to the name of the person (next to their name), so that the video will always appear on your screen regardless of who is speaking.
Pin your own video
In your video feed, you will find More options (next to your name) that will allow you to pin your own video. You can pick Pin for me from this selection. As long as you pin your video to your own profile, no one else will be able to see that it has been pinned. It is possible to unpin yourself by selecting More optionsUnpin for me if you do not wish to be pinned any longer.
Spotlight a video
Highlighting a video on the screen is similar to pinning it on the board for all of the meeting attendees to see. If you are the organizer or presenter of the event, the attendees will be able to view whatever video you choose for the main video (including your own video) as it will be the first video they see.
A spotlight is made by right-clicking on the video in which you wish to highlight someone else.
Select Show participants on the left hand side of the screen to highlight your video. Right-click on your name in the Participants section and choose ‘Spotlight’ from the menu. As well as spotlighting your own video, you can also spotlight any other video that you want.
It is possible to spotlight someone in your Teams meeting, if you would like more information about that.
Hide your own video
You can select More options, which is located next to your name in your video feed, and there you will find a menu option that will allow you to select Hide for me, if you wish to hide your own video. Clicking on this option will allow you to hide your video from the public view, but it won’t prevent others from being able to view it as well. Unhide for me is an option that can be selected if you do not wish to be hidden anymore.
Reframe a video
In an effort to make sure that the videos fit better on your screen, Teams can crop some videos so that they fit better on your screen. It was pointed out earlier that if you choose More options in their video feed and then Fit to frame to be able to view the full video of a certain video, you will be able to view the entire video, but if a person’s face is cropped out of the video or if only a portion is shown, you will only be able to see part of their face.
The closer, cropped version of the image can be viewed by selecting Fill frame.
Mobile
If you are using the Teams app on your mobile device and you want to join a meeting or call, you can customize the video experience in many different ways. In terms of how you want the video to play and how you want it to be shared, you have the option of adjusting it.
Turn your video on or off
Before a meeting
Just before you join a meeting, you can turn on your video by tapping Turn video on just before you join.
During a meeting
For example, if you want to make sure that people only see you while you are talking, then you may want to turn off your video at certain points during the meeting. To turn the video on during a meeting, you can go to the meeting controls at any time during the meeting.
Blur your background
If you do not want other people to be able to see your background during or before a meeting, you can blur your background before or during the meeting. Despite the fact that you will be appearing nice and clear, all the things behind you will be subtly concealed.
Before the meeting, just tap Background blur in the upper left corner of your screen before tapping Join.
For more details about changing your background, see Change your background for a Teams meeting.
Change your view
If you are a part of a Teams meeting, you can change how you view the video of other people. In the case of a large meeting, for instance, it may be helpful for you to be able to watch as many feeds as possible at the same time.
Various examples of Gallery views on various devices are shown in the following examples.
view example of phone
view example in Tablet
- You can choose from more than one meeting view by selecting More options Meeting views.
- Please note that you can adjust your view by pinching in or out depending on the choice you make.
Gallery
Upon joining a meeting, you are automatically presented with the following view as soon as you are introduced to the meeting as soon as you join the meeting. The most important thing to note is that in case there are more than seven people in attendance (eight if the tablet is used), Teams will display the people who have their video on and who speak the most. There is always a video feed to the right hand side of your screen in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
- You can see different videos of featured participants if you are using a phone, and there are also 15 additional people to scroll through if you are using a computer.
- If you are using a tablet, you will be able to view up to nine videos featuring the featured participants at the top of the screen, and you will have 20 additional people to scroll down the list.
Large gallery
As long as at least nine people have started their cameras, you will be able to use this option if at least nine people have started their cameras. There is a limit of 100 videos per participant you can view at a time (but not all at once).
Depending on the device and its software, you will be able to see as many people on your screen as you want at one time.
Device type | iOS 13 or later | iOS 12 or earlier | Android 9 or later (or greater than 4 GB RAM) | Android 8 or earlier (or less than 4 GB RAM) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Phone | 10 people at once | 49 people at once (lower resolution) | 10 people at once | 49 people at once (lower resolution) |
Tablet | Nine people at once | 49 people at once (lower resolution) | Nine people at once | 49 people at once (lower resolution) |
- Click on the left or right side of the screen to see more participants or to engage with them.
Together mode
Gives you the feeling that everyone in the meeting and you are all sharing a common space together. There is a “Together mode” that is available when a meeting is attended by at least five participants.
There is an array of settings and scenes to choose from if you are organizing a meeting or presenting it. You can change the scene on your screen by tapping on the name of the scene located at the bottom left corner of the screen to select the scene you wish to change.
The first thing you need to do is select the scene that you want and click Apply. Everyone who is in the Together mode will see a change in the scene.
Pin someone’s video
Regardless of who is speaking, you can pin a video to your view by pressing and holding the video you want, and then tapping on the Pin option.
Spotlight a video
There is an important difference between spotlighting a video and pinning it for everyone in a meeting. You are not able to turn on or off spotlighting for videos via the mobile app at the moment, and the video will be spotlighted for you when a user on the desktop app spotlights a video just as it would be for those who use the desktop app.
A notification will also be sent to you to let you know that your video has been spotlighted.