Spotlight a video In Microsoft Teams
Desktop
Highlighting a video during a meeting is much like pinning it on a board so that everyone can see it at the same time. There are three types of video feeds that participants can highlight during a conference (including their own), which can be used by organizers and presenters to highlight the video feeds of other people.
Notes:
Spotlight someone else’s video
To do this, there are several different ways that you can go about it:
- Right-click on the video of this person that you wish to see more of, then select Spotlight from the menu that appears. In the case of spotlighting something that has already been highlighted by someone else, you may select Add spotlight.
- It is possible to see a list of the participants to the meeting by clicking on the Show participants button on the bottom of the page. If you want to highlight the video of a particular person on the list, select the name of that person, right-click on it, and choose Spotlight in the menu that appears.
You can end the spotlighting process by right-clicking again and selecting Stop spotlighting from the pop-up menu that appears. It is possible to stop spotlighting multiple people at the same time in the Show participants window if more than one person is being highlighted.
Spotlight your own video
It is possible to do it in two ways:
- You can highlight your video by right-clicking on it and selecting Spotlight me from the menu.
- The button Spotlight me is found next to your name in the Show participants section. Upon clicking on it, you will be presented with the spotlight me icon in an enlarged version.
You can exit by right-clicking again and selecting Stop spotlighting in the menu that appears.
Mobile
For full participation in a meeting, the meeting organizer and presenter have the option of selecting up to seven people’s video feeds (including their own) for their presentation to highlight for all the attendees.
It is possible to spotlight a video in a variety of ways, such as:
- If the camera is not on, long press the profile picture (or video) of the person whose video you wish to highlight, where Spotlight appears in the menu. It is possible to spotlight someone else, as well, by adding their profile picture to the spotlight group menu, if they have already been spotlighted.
After you have spotlighted someone, the last thing you have to do is long-press on their video, and then you will be presented with the option to turn off the spotlight.
- When you select Show participants from the menu, you will be given the option of selecting the person you wish to highlight, then selecting the name of the person you wish to highlight and then selecting Spotlight from the selection menu.Using the long-press option again, you will be able to turn off the spotlight for this person when you long-press on their name again.
Surface Hub
When someone’s video is spotlighted in a meeting, it’ll be the main video you see on Surface Hub.
It is currently not possible to start or stop the spotlighting process on Surface Hub, but you will be notified if someone uses the desktop app to highlight the video, but you cannot control whether or not it will be spotlighted on Surface Hub. Surface Hub will also feature videos that are highlighted by users of either the mobile app or the desktop app when they are using the app.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spotlight in MS teams?
Does spotlight on teams show for everyone?
During a Teams meeting, the Spotlight feature can be used to highlight a specific participant that you would like to bring to the attention of everyone in order to get everyone’s attention on that particular participant. Participants can only be spotlighted by meeting presenters.
What is the difference between PIN and spotlight in Teams?
How do you preview a video in a team?
- In order to see what the video will look like when it is turned on, just hover your mouse over the button that will turn on the camera to see what it looks like when it is turned on.
- There is a dropdown menu at the top of the window where you can select Blur my background if you would like your background blurred in a specific way. The More background effects window allows you to view a preview of a custom background or to add your own custom background.
- Once you have finished the above steps, you will have to click the Apply button and after that, you will have to turn on the video.