Regardless of the avenue used to virtually meet with team members, there are several ways to customize your experience when joining a meeting or call.
When you join the meeting the Audio and Video settings window will appear. Your window may look different, depending on whether you are joining from the Desktop application or the web version (through teams.microsoft.comLinks to an external site.).
Provide a meeting title: Only available if you are the meeting organizer.
Turn your video on or off
Turn your audio on or off
Change your video background: There are options to blur your background or replace your background with an image.
Manage the device settings for your audio and video inputs
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Audio off: Joins meeting with audio muted and video off
Phone audio: Allows users to enter their phone number to receive a call to join the meeting or manually dial into the meeting.
Add a room: Specify a connected MS Teams enabled room system or conference phone device.
View the following Microsoft Support video for more information.
Organizer Navigation Basics
The organizer of the meeting has several navigation options. See below for an explanation of the options.
Meeting elapsed time.
Show participants: Displays the list of meeting attendees and allows the organizer to invite more people to the meeting. Enables the organizer to download an attendance list and manage attendee permissions.
Show conversation: Displays the meeting conversation and enables the organizer to send messages to the chat.
Raise your hand: Lets people know you want to contribute without interrupting the conversation. Anybody with a raised hand will have an icon next to their name under the participant list. Meeting presenters will receive a notification when a hand is raised.
More actions: Device settings, meeting options, meeting notes, meeting details, video layout, background effects, start recording, dial pad, turn off incoming video.
Turn camera off/on
Mute/unmute
Share content: Enables organizer to share entire desktop, a specific window, a PowerPoint, or a file.
Leave: Provides options to leave or end meeting.
View the following Microsoft Support video for more information.
Participant Navigation Basics
Meeting participants have several navigation options. See below for an explanation of the options.
Meeting elapsed time.
Show participants: Displays the list of meeting attendees
Show conversation: Displays the meeting conversation and enables the participant to send messages to the chat.
Raise your hand: Lets people know you want to contribute without interrupting the conversation. Anybody with a raised hand will have an icon next to their name under the participant list. Meeting presenters will receive a notification when a hand is raised.
More actions: Show device settings, enter full screen, turn off incoming video.
Turn camera off/on
Mute/unmute
Share content - Enables participant to share entire desktop, a specific window, a powerpoint, or a file. Only available if you are a presenter or the organizer has enabled the ability to share content for everyone.
Leave
Your video stream: If video is turned off, your initials will be displayed.
Video and Audio Calls in Chat
Users can start a one-on-one or group call directly from a chat without having to schedule a meeting. While the calls are private, entries for the calls will appear in the chat. A maximum of 20 people can be in the same video call.
In addition, the screen sharing feature enables users to instantly share their screen with members of the chat.
Go to the chat that you would like to start a call or screen share in.
Select the video icon to start a video call.
Select the audio icon to start an audio call.
Select screen share icon to start sharing your screen.
Calls can also be made by accessing the Calls icon in the app bar on the left.
Select the More added apps icon from the app bar on the left.
Select the Calls icon from the pop-up menu.
To make a call select the Make a call button.
Type the name of the member of your organization that you would like to call.
Select the audio or video icon to start an audio or video call.
Video Layout Options
When you join a Teams meeting using the Teams app, the default video layout is Gallery View. During a meeting, there are several different video layout options to choose from. Each option depends on the meeting size and the number of attendees that you would like to see on the screen at once.
Teams meetings joined through the web do not support gallery view, and thus only the video stream of the current speaker will display on the screen. For the best meeting experience in Teams, use the desktop or mobile app.
Gallery View: Allows you to see the video streams of up to 9 other people at once. If there are more than nine attendees, gallery view will display the video streams of people who have their video turned on, as well as those who speak the most. For those who do not have their video on, their profile picture or initials will be displayed.
Large Gallery: Allows you to see the video streams of up to 49 other people at once. *This option is only available when at least 10 people have their cameras turned on.
Together Mode: Places attendees' video streams in an auditorium-style space. Allows attendees to feel like they are in a shared space.*This option is only available when at least 5 people have joined the meeting.
Focus: Only displays the content being shared, removes the video feeds of other attendees to minimize distractions.*This option is only available when content is being shared.
Pin a video: Allows you to focus on a particular video regardless of who is talking. You can pin as many videos as will fit on the screen.
Spotlight a video: Allows you to pin a video for everyone in the meeting. *This option is only available to meeting organizers and presenters.