How to View Everyone at Once on Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is one of the most popular video conferencing apps among students and remote teams. It allows you to participate in high-quality conference meetings or interactive lessons from the comfort of your home. Thanks to recent updates, the app has been improved with many new features.

Now users are wondering whether they can view everyone at once and how to do it. In this article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about Teams and viewing participants.

Can I See Everyone at Once in Teams?

As you know, Microsoft Teams allows you to include up to 250 participants in one meeting. The number is impressive as it won’t compromise the quality of video and tone. However, it’d be hugely impractical to show all 250 participants at once.

Ultimately, Microsoft Teams allows you to see a video of 49 people at the same time. Whatever you do, you won’t be able to see more participants at once. Given that you originally could only see four people at once and then nine people, this is a significant improvement for the app and its users.

However, that doesn’t mean Microsoft intends to stop there. We can expect new changes in the future, and you may be positively surprised.

When Can We Expect an Update to Microsoft Teams?

It may be too early to say anything precisely. After all, it was only recently that seeing all participants on any video meeting app became possible. Zoom was the first app to introduce this option and others have been quick to follow. However, there is something you can do while we’re waiting.

You could vote. That’s right. Microsoft only upgraded the number of videos from four to nine due to users feedback via UserVoice. Other suggestions included upgrading to see all the participants, a suggestion which already has more than 40K votes.

You can contribute by voting and inviting your friends to do the same. Also, if you sign up with your e-mail address, you’ll be notified about the progress, and may be one of the first to know when this feature becomes available.

Viewing Multiple People at Once in Teams

In Microsoft Teams, you can quickly adjust the number of people you can view on your screen, here’s how.

1. Open up Microsoft Teams and host or join a meeting.
2. Then, click on the … icon in the right-hand corner.
3. Now, click on Large Gallery.
4. Teams will now automatically display all of the participants with enabled cameras.

Note, you only see the Large Gallery option if there are more than ten people participating in the chat, otherwise you’ll need to pin them to the meeting.

Customize What You See in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is trying to figure out what kind of content people want to see during a meeting. The app assumes that you’d like to see the person who’s speaking. For that reason, their video will always appear by default. You may think that other users have been chosen randomly, but that’s not the case.

The people whose video you see are those most active during the meeting. Even if you haven’t heard their voice a lot, they were perhaps engaged in sharing content and chat.

Moreover, when someone shares their screen, you’ll get to see their video, even if you haven’t seen them before. Microsoft Teams is intuitive, and it doesn’t want you to miss an important presentation. Sometimes, it prioritizes the multimedia content over the speaker.

However, if you don’t want to watch a presentation the whole time, you can switch between presentation and videos. All you have to do is click on the video icon of the person you want to see. That way, you’ll feel as if you were in a conference room because you’ll be able to see both the presentation and reactions of your colleagues.

Pinning a Video in Microsoft Teams

If you want to be able to see a video of a particular member all the time, you can do it in a couple of clicks.

1. Choose the person whose video you want to see, right-click on it, and select Pin. Their video will now be pinned to your home page so you can watch it until the meeting ends. Note that it won’t alternate even when someone else starts speaking.

You can pin more people – that’s the best way to customize your view. If you pin nine participants, their videos will be the only ones that appear on your screen.

1. To remove someone you’ve pinned, all you have to do is click on their video and select Unpin. Don’t worry as the other person won’t be notified when you pin or unpin their video.

Be Patient

A lot of people can’t wait to be able to see everyone all at once on Microsoft Teams. Although we’re sure this feature will eventually be available, we advise you to be patient. Things like this can take time because Microsoft is trying to figure out the best solution for everyone.

What do you usually use Microsoft Teams for? Are you satisfied with the app, and is there anything else you’d like to change? Let us know in the comments section below.