Video shows only those on camera in the grid

[KKnoelk]

Hey there!

With the new update there is a larger grid view which is great. However in my organization only some people get on the web cam and others do not. When this happens the grid only shows those on video. So I will be in a meeting with 20 people, 3 of which are on their webcams and Microsoft Teams will only show the tile for those 3 people in the grid and omit tiles for the remaining 17 from view. Is there a setting that allows us to still see all participants even if some are on camera and some are not?

[#2]

@KKnoelk 

You should be able to see them at the bottom of your view as circles as well as in the attendee list if you open that on the far right of the client.  Feedback has been that people don't want to fill space with a placeholder of someone not using video so unless video is turned on, they will be listed in the roster and visually you can see them as participants in the meeting at the bottom of your screen.

[#3]

@Laurie PottmeyerWhat I am looking for is a solution that allows some people to be on video and some not but still have everyone visible on the grid view. If I am in a meeting with 4 people two on camera and two not on camera but all collaborating and talking only the two on camera show on the grid.

"Feedback has been that people don't want to fill space with a placeholder of someone not using video so unless video is turned on, they will be listed in the roster and visually you can see them as participants in the meeting at the bottom of your screen."

This does not work for our team. Is there and option to allow "placeholder" icon on the grid of all members regardless of whether they are on video or not? We want everyone present on the grid not just people on camera.

[#4]

Hi @KKnoelk 

This might be the direct answer to your query. Earlier when we had 2x2 video feature enabled we used to have our Audio Feature displaying the person who was talking for more than 10 seconds into the meeting on the grid view. Which was also called as Most Active Speaker in the Meeting Feature. 

With the latest release of 3x3 feature which is rolled out globally here is the change that is happening. Person with the Video will be given preference over the person with the audio. This below message is a part of the notification send from Microsoft to the Office 365 Admin in the Admin center. 

"We are increasing the number of participants shown on the stage to 9 and making it video optimized. For more than 9 participants, we will prioritize those with video on and show them on the stage. Participants with audio will be shown below the meeting stage. To provide a high audio and video quality experience, the layout logic will consider user bandwidth and alter the number of videos shown to provide the best meeting experience."

Hope this answers your query.

With Regards,

Satish U

[#5]

I am currently training Teams for our teachers and this newest implementation of the grid is one of the biggest sources of frustration with no seeming workaround.  As we transition from Zoom which just seems to get this display right, it is crazy that this seems like such a challenge in Teams. 

The teachers want all of the students in a grid form but if all but let's say that one student has the cameras turned on but 4 have it turned on.  The only person on the screen is the attendee with the webcam on if you're sharing your desktop and that student occupies all of the screen real estate which is not what a teacher would want.  Similarly for training sessions.  I would share my desktop and most attendees turn off their camera.  New attendees would arrive with it turned on and would suddenly occupy the entire desktop.   The previous behavior was much preferable to how Teams is handling the grid now.

The only way to achieve the grid is for all participants to have the webcam on or all to have it off, which becomes a Teams management headache.  You're forced to pin panes to get these to the desired spot and the effect is wonky and unpredictable.  

Microsoft, fix this.

@RealTime_M365 

[#6]

@kennypierce  - thank you! Well said.

I work at an organization of 4000+ employees and this is not working for us. I don't understand why it has to be all or nothing and why the tool can not be set up to allow users to choose like other applications.

@satish2805

[#7]

@KKnoelk 

I too, am a little frustrated in the way the Teams app displays a participant center stage just because they chose to enable their Video while all others are minimized to the bottom row of the app who do not enable video.  For example, let's say 6 people have joined a Teams call but they do not enable their video.  They are presented within the main stage area as an appropriately sized tile with either their static photo showing or just an icon.  Then all of a sudden, I join and choose to enable my video.  My video ends up taking over the entire main stage area while all of the other 6 people's tiles are bumped to the bottom row of the app in smaller thumbnail sized tiles.  My video is pretty much full screen to all the participants for the entire duration of the call whether my mic is muted or not.  I basically need to manually turn video On/Off to simulate highlighting me with a circle around my tile every time I speak. 

It would be a nice enhancement if Microsoft would put an option in Settings to allow the end user to select whether they want all participants to be tiled equally within the stage area whether they have video enabled or not.  When a video caller is speaking, I would suggest they should be the same sized tile as all of the other tiled callers within the main stage area and not practically full screen.  I understand there is probably a real estate space limit within the main stage area, so if there are too many participants on the call, minimize so many to the bottom row of the app that have been casual speakers, while displaying the top 10 or so most recent active speakers within the stage area who are speaking for 5-10 seconds or longer.  All participants can still be found in the Right Hand pane as toggled by the end user between Chat or Participants.  Hopefully Microsoft will take all of our feedback from this forum and a good solution can be implemented that works best for everybody.

[#8]

@Laurie Pottmeyer  I think you need more recent "feedback". As others have commented, Zoom has this right.  A simple grid, whether on video or not. Please, please, please change this.  Thank you.

[#9]

@KKnoelk 

Really a dumb feature. When I am with students I wanted to see all students and if one student turns off the webcam he is removed from the grid, really a frustrating thing to me.