How does Teams prioritize and display video feeds when exceeding 49 participant limit in Gallery view?

Question

I'm looking for clarification on Teams' video feed prioritization in large meetings. The documentation states Gallery view supports up to 49 participant videos, but I have specific questions:

1. Is the 49-video limit applied per viewer or globally for the meeting?
2. When paging through participants, can I eventually see all attendee videos, or only 49 total?
3. How does Teams determine which 49 videos to display if there are more participants? Is it based on most recent active speakers?

We've noticed in larger meetings that several people appear to have their cameras turned off, however, we've verified that their cameras are on in their Teams client.

Any insights from the community would be helpful, particularly from those who regularly manage large Teams meetings.

Answer 1

Hi @Charlie Vogt

As the article you refer to mentions, the Teams desktop app supports a gallery view of up to 49 participant videos. For users who haven't turned on their video, Teams will instead show their profile picture (or initials if they haven't added them).

The gallery size can be changed during a meeting. In Teams for desktop, you can choose to view 4, 9, 16, or 49 people at a time, depending on how many people are in your meeting. In Teams for web, you can see 4 or 9 people at a time.

For your questions:

1.Is the 49-video limit applied per viewer or globally for the meeting?

The limit of 49 videos is applied per viewer. This means that each viewer can see up to 49 video feeds at the same time, and each viewer's view is independent, so you can see more participants' videos by paging.

2.When paging through participants, can I eventually see all attendee videos, or only 49 total?

When paging participants, you can view all attendees' videos by paging. Although you can only see up to 49 videos on a page, you can browse and view other participants' videos by using the paging controls. This means that you can eventually see all attendees' videos.

3.How does Teams determine which 49 videos to display if there are more participants? Is it based on most recent active speakers?

When there are multiple video sources, the priority of video display is generally based on the following factors:

• Active speakers: Teams will prioritize the video of the most recent active speaker.
• Focusing on content, pinning or spotlighting videos: If you or other participants are focusing on content, or have pinned certain videos, these videos will also be prioritized.
• Content sharing: In situations where bandwidth is limited, content sharing will be prioritized over participant videos.
• Bandwidth and device performance: If bandwidth or device performance is limited, Teams will automatically adjust the amount and quality of videos displayed to ensure smooth meetings.

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