Use video in Microsoft Teams

There are a lot of ways to customize your video experience—and the video you share with others—when you join a Teams meeting or call.

Turn your video on or off

Before a meeting

To turn on your video before a meeting, turn the Camera toggle on before you join.

During a meeting

To turn your video on and off during a meeting, select Camera in the meeting controls.

Apply video effects and filters

Change your background

Before a meeting, select Effects and avatars to open background options.

During a meeting, select the dropdown arrow next to Camera to view backgrounds.

To learn more, see Change your background for a Teams meeting.

Use video filters

Customize your video feed with video filters like:

• Soft focus to create a smoothing effect for your face over video.
• Adjust brightness to enhance your video quality when lighting is poor.

To apply a video filter before your meeting:

1. Select Open device settings on the pre-join screen.
2. In Video Settings, turn on the toggle next to your desired filter.

To learn more about video filters, see Apply video filters in Teams meetings.

Change your view

Gallery

Gallery is the default view during a Teams meeting. On Teams for desktop, customize how you see people in your meeting.

For people who haven't turned on their videos, Teams shows their profile pic instead (or their initials if they haven't added one).

Change gallery size

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.

Devices might show fewer participant videos based on hardware capabilities.

To change gallery size:

1. Select View in the meeting window.
2. Select Select max gallery size.
3. Choose how many people you want to see.

Prioritize videos

Gallery view will show participants equally in the meeting window, whether their cameras are turned on or off. Prioritize video to see more people who have their cameras on.

To prioritize video:

1. Select View in the meeting window.
2. Select Prioritize video.

Reposition your video

See more video feeds during your meeting by repositioning your video feed in the meeting window. You can place your video outside the meeting window or hide it altogether.

To hide your video:

1. Select View in your meeting controls.
2. Select More options > Hide me .

This option only hides your video from your view. Other people in your meeting will still be able to see your video unless you turn your camera off.

To unhide your video:

1. Select View in your meeting controls.
2. Select More options > Unhide me .

Large gallery

In large meetings, Teams' Large gallery view shows up to 49 participant videos in the meeting window at once.

When more than 49 participants join a Teams meetings, select the navigation controls < > at the bottom of the gallery to view or engage with more participants.

Together mode

Choose from different scenes and assign seats in Together mode to make everyone feel like they’re in a shared space together during Teams meetings. Name labels and status icons will appear next to each person to show their names, reactions, and more

If you’re an attendee, switching to Together mode will only affect your view. If you’re the meeting organizer, you can apply the Together mode view to everyone in the meeting.

To turn on Together mode and change scenes:

1. Select View > Together mode in your meeting controls.

2. To choose a different scene:

   • As an organizer, select the dropdown arrow next to Everyone and select Change scene in your meeting controls.

     

   • As a participant, select Scenes in your meeting controls.

     Note

     In the top-right corner of each scene, you’ll see a number indicating how many participants are displayed in that scene. Additional participants will appear in the gallery above the scene.

3. Choose the scene you want to use and select Apply.

If you’re a meeting organizer, select Everyone in your meeting controls to apply the view to everyone in the meeting.

Assign seats

Meeting organizers can manually assign participants to seats in a Together mode scene. Anyone who joins after seats have been assigned will be assigned to a seat randomly.

To assign seats:

1. Select View > Together mode in your meeting controls.
2. Select the dropdown arrow next to Everyone in your meeting controls.
3. Select Assign seats .
4. Drag and drop each participant to a seat.
5. Select Assign.

Focus on content

Pay close attention and eliminate distractions while someone is presenting content.

To focus on content:

1. Join your meeting.
2. In the meeting controls, select View > Focus on content.

Pin a video

Pin your own video

To pin your own video:

1. Hover over your video feed.
2. Select More options next to your name.
3. Select Pin for me . This will pin your video for your own view, others won't see you pinned.
4. To unpin yourself, hover over your video feed and select More options > Unpin for me .

Pin someone's video

Pin someone's video to see it regardless of who's talking.

To pin someone's video:

1. Hover over their video feed.
2. Select More options next to their name.
3. Select Pin for me .
4. To unpin someone, hover over their video feed and select More options > Unpin for me .

Spotlight a video

Spotlight someone's video feed to highlight it for everyone in the meeting. Organizers and presenters can spotlight anyone's video feed, including their own.

To spotlight a video feed:

1. Hover over the video feed and select More options .
2. Select Spotlight for everyone .
3. To remove a video feed from the spotlight, hover over it and select More options > Stop spotlighting .

People can also exit the spotlight themselves by selecting Exit spotlight in their meeting controls.

For more details, see Spotlight someone's video in a Teams meeting.

Reframe a video

Teams crops some videos to make them fit your screen better. If you want a different view of a particular video—for example, if someone’s cropped out of the video or it only shows part of their face—select More options in their video feed then Fit to frame to see the entire video.

Select Fill frame to see a closer, cropped view.

When you join a Teams meeting or call on the mobile app, you can customize your video experience—and the video you share with others—in a bunch of different ways.

In this article

Turn your video on or off

Before a meeting

To turn on your video before a meeting, tap Video is off before you join.

During a meeting

To turn your camera on or off during a meeting, tap the camera icon in your meeting controls.

Blur your background

Blur your background before or during a meeting to subtly conceal what's behind you. You'll appear nice and clear in the foreground.

To blur your background before a meeting:

1. Tap Background effects in the corner of your screen.
2. Tap the blurred background effect to preview it.
3. Tap Done to apply the effect.
4. Tap Join to enter the meeting with your camera on and background blurred.

To blur your background during a meeting:

1. Tap More actions in your meeting controls.
2. Tap Background effects .
3. Tap the blurred background effect to preview it.
4. Tap Done to apply the effect.

For more details about changing your background, see Change your background for a Teams meeting.

Change your view

Customize how you see other people's video during a Teams meeting with Views . For example, in a large meeting, you may want to see as many video feeds as you can at one time.

The following examples show the default Gallery view on different devices.

Phone view example

Tablet view example

1. Select More actions > Views .
2. Tap the view you want.
   
3. Pinch in or out to zoom and adjust your view.

Gallery

The default view when you join a meeting. When there are more than seven others in attendance (eight if you're using a tablet), Teams features the people who have their video turned on and those who speak the most. Your video feed always appears in the corner of the screen.

• If you're using a phone, you can see up to eight featured participant videos and 15 additional people to scroll through at the bottom of the screen.
• If you're using a tablet, you can see up to nine featured participant videos and 20 additional people to scroll through at the bottom of the screen.

Large gallery

This option is available when at least nine people have their cameras turned on. You can view up to 100 participant videos (though not all at once).

The number of people you can see on your screen at once depends on your device and its software.

• Swipe left or right to view or engage with more participants.

Together mode

Experience your Teams meetings as if you're in the same shared space with everyone. Together mode is available in meetings with at least five people present.

Meeting organizers and presenters can choose from a variety of scenes in Together mode. To change the scene, tap the scene name in the corner of your screen.

Under Choose a scene, choose the one you want and tap Apply. The scene will change for everyone who's in Together mode.

Pin someone's video

To pin someone's video to your view:

1. Press and hold their video.
2. Tap Pin for me .

To unpin someone's video from your view:

1. Press and hold their video.
2. Tap Unpin .

Spotlight a video

When a video is spotlighted, it's pinned for everyone in the meeting. Spotlighting someone's video isn't currently supported on Teams for mobile, but you can see who other people have spotlighted.

For more info, see Spotlight someone's video in a Teams meeting.

Hardware acceleration

Experience better video quality, power efficiency, and device performance during Teams meetings with hardware acceleration in compatible iOS and Android mobile devices. Devices with hardware acceleration compatibility offload video processing from the CPU to specialized hardware in the device. 

On devices with hardware acceleration, you’ll automatically experience: 

• Higher maximum video resolution during meetings (360p to 720p)
• Lower battery consumption
• Reduced device heating

To view a list of currently supported devices, see Hardware acceleration devices.