Microsoft Teams is one of the leading video calling platforms, widely popular amongst schools, colleges and even a few corporates. It allows creating multiple teams for different purposes, along with individual chatting and calling. Within the team, participants can also share files and schedule meetings. Within a meeting with a vast group of participants, all participants may not be visible.
In this article, we will see how to view all the participants in Microsoft Teams within a meeting and how to spotlight a specific person.
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Viewing participants in the team
A team created within Microsoft Teams generally hosts multiple participants, divided into members and guests. Follow the steps below to add a new member to the team or view all current members of the team.
Step 1: Click on the desired team.
Step 2: Click on the three dots beside the team name and select Manage team.
Step 3: The Owners and the Members, and guests of the team can be seen by clicking on the down arrow beside them.
To add a new member, click on the Add member option visible on the right.
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Viewing participants in a meeting
In a meeting in Teams, it is possible to incorporate almost more than 250 participants. Hence, it is almost impossible to see all 250 participants at a given time. But teams with various rounds of updates, Microsoft Teams have upgraded from viewing only four to nine participants, now up to 49 participants. Teams plan to increase this number going forward, but as of date, the number remains constant to 49 members, with their cameras enabled or videos on.
Generally, there seem to be more issues in viewing more than 4 participants on the Teams web application. Therefore, it is highly recommended to download the desktop application of Teams to take full advantage of the features available.
Microsoft Teams can be downloaded here
Step 1: Click on the three dots (…) in the top panel, beside the video option.
Step 2: Select the Large Gallery (Preview) option.
The Large Gallery mode is activated only when the videos of the participants is on. Otherwise, there will be 9 participants shown at all times.
The Large Gallery mode can show the videos of 49 participants at a given time. When the Large Gallery mode is selected, all the participants with enabled videos are visible.
Also read: How to share screen in Microsoft Teams?
The Together mode
The Together mode aims to provide a classroom like feeling, but virtually. By using this mode, all participants with enabled videos will be viewed in a classroom-like space in seats.
Step 1: Click on the three dots beside the video icon.
Step 2: Click on the Together mode.
Step 3: The Together mode is enabled.
Spotlighting a participant
Spotlight is a new feature where one participant, irrespective of their video status, can be highlighted/spotlighted for the entire meeting to view. Any participant in the meeting can spotlight another participant. The spotlighted participant has an option to exit the spotlight anytime they want.
Step 1: Click on the three dots beside the name of the participant.
Step 2: Click on Spotlight.
It is also possible to spotlight someone who isn’t visible on the main screen. Go to the participant’s list, click on the three dots beside the participant’s name, and click on the spotlight (Similar to the pinning method).
To be able to spotlight any participant, permission from the host must be enabled. In case the host has disabled the required permissions, you will not be able to spotlight anyone.
If you have been spotlighted by someone else and wish to exit the spotlight, click on the Exit spotlight option visible on the top banner.
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Pinning a participant
Microsoft Teams gives the participants an option to select what they desire to see. In the middle of an ongoing presentation, it is possible if you wish to pin other participants and view them instead of the presentation.
Step 1: Click on the three dots beside the participant’s name you wish to pin.
Step 2: Select the pin option.
At any given time, up to 9 participants can be pinned. Furthermore, the same process can be followed to pin participants even if there is no presentation.
Participants who aren’t visible on the screen can also be pinned from the participants’ section.
Step 1: Open the participants’ section from the top banner option beside Request control.
Step 2: Click on the three dots beside the name of the participant you wish to pin.
Step 3: Click on Pin.
To switch back to the presentation without unpinning the participants, click on the presentation that will be visible beside your profile in the meeting.
The pinned participants will remain pinned, but in the banner below, the presentation will be visible again. If the presentation is stopped, these pinned participants will be visible on the screen again.
To unpin participants, click on the pin visible beside their name, click on the three dots beside their name and click on unpin.
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