Connect in meaningful ways with view options
View options help learners and colleagues connect in meaningful and personalized ways. By default, Teams smartly resizes participant thumbnails and content based on the scenario.
Gallery views in Teams meetings
Microsoft is changing the way educators, learners, and colleagues see each other—literally! By default, Teams meetings begin in the Gallery view, which, as attendees join, automatically expands to a 3x3 gallery to show up to 9 people. Educators can change their default view to a 4x4 gallery to show up to 16 people. They can also select the Large gallery view of 7x7 to show up to 49 participants!
Meeting background options
When attendees are using video, they might prefer to blur or replace their background for many reasons. Attendees can change what appears behind them in the video meeting before they join or during the call. They can:
- Blur their background
- Replace it entirely with any image they want
- Use Teams virtual background templates
Together mode in Teams meetings
Things get even more interesting in together mode, which offers a more engaging and personal virtual meeting for everyone. Together mode brings participants together on a shared background as if they’re sitting together. This view makes participants feel like they’re all in the same room.
Together mode is a product of cognitive psychology as much as programming and is designed to reduce the fatigue of hours of video conferencing. It takes the randomness out of the movements shown on screen in the traditional grid view and restores meaning by bringing back nonverbal body language to virtual meetings.
How to turn on together mode in a Teams meeting
- During the meeting, go to the meeting controls.
- Select View > Together mode.
- Choose from available images to replace the current background or upload an image (in .JPG, .PNG, or .BMP format). Each background shows how many maximum participants it supports.
When educators select together mode, everyone sees the new view by default. To let attendees change their view, clear the Select together mode for everyone checkbox.
The shared background expands as participants join or turn on their cameras! In together mode, select View to change the scene or assign seats. Educators can even customize scenes to suit the mood or theme for the meeting.