Viewing Options During a Meeting

Each user on a Zoom meeting has the ability to change the video layout. There are three main options: Gallery View, Active Speaker View, and a floating thumbnail. When the Shared Screen feature is being used by someone else in the meeting, you have an additional option: Side-by-side mode. These options are summarized below and on the Zoom Support page for changing the video layout.

Viewing options without screen sharing

Active Speaker View

Active Speaker View will automatically put the video of the participant who is speaking in a large video window, with other participant videos arranged in smaller windows at the top of the screen. (In meetings with only 2 people, the other person's video will appear in the large window and your video will appear in a small window.) You can use the arrows at the top of the window to click through and see other participant videos if they are not visible on your screen.

Zoom active speaker view

Gallery View

In Gallery View, the video panels for all participants of the Zoom meeting will be the same size and distributed through the Zoom window. Depending on how many participants are in the meeting, there may be multiple pages that you can click through (using the left/right arrows) to see all the participants' videos. Gallery View is useful when you want to see as many participant videos and/or reactions as possible.

Zoom gallery view

Viewing options while screen sharing

The video layout options while screen sharing are summarized below and on the corresponding Zoom Support site.

Side-by-side mode (for other meeting participants)

When someone shares a screen, Zoom will automatically switch to Side-by-side mode for all other participants. The shared screen will be on one side of the Zoom window and participant videos will be on the other side. You can adjust the relative space devoted to the shared screen by dragging the vertical gray bar.

In Side-by-side: Speaker mode, only the video of the person speaking is shown. In Side-by-side: Gallery mode (shown below), the video of all or some of the participants is shown. You can drag the gray bar to see more videos.

Zoom view when someone else is screen sharing - side-by-side gallery view

Floating thumbnail (for the person sharing their screen)

After you share your screen, the participant videos will appear as an adjustable video panel over the top of your screen. You can move this panel and adjust its size. You can also hover over this panel with your mouse to see options that will allow you to minimize the panel or show only the speaker.

You can also click on the More button (the ellipsis: ...) at the top of the Zoom toolbar and select Hide/Show Video Panel if you would like to hide or un-hide the participant video panel.

Switching between views

By default, Zoom uses Side-by-side Mode when you view a shared screen.

At any point during a meeting, you can switch between Active Speaker View and Gallery View by clicking the corresponding button at the top-right of the Zoom window.

Zoom view options

If you minimize the Zoom program, you will see a small floating thumbnail view of the Zoom window appear on your screen. You can click the Exit Minimized View button to return to the normal Zoom view.

For more information, visit the Zoom Support page for changing the video layout.

Pin Video

You can also view up to 9 specific speakers using the Pin video function. This disables Active Speaker View in order to show only the pinned videos you selected. This is a helpful feature for locally recording Zoom meetings to your computer, as only pinned videos will be recorded and you can therefore avoid recording the participant videos that happen to be visible on your screen. (Note that this will only affect your local view and local recordings, not the view of other participants and not cloud recordings.)

To pin a video, click on the Options button (the ellipsis: ...) on their video and click Pin. Repeat to unpin the video.

For more information, visit the Zoom Support page for pinning videos.

Hide self-view

You can hide your own video by clicking the Options button (the ellipsis: ...) on your video window and selecting Hide Self View. (Note that other participants will still see your video.) You can bring back your video by clicking Show Self View at the top-right of the Zoom window.

Dual Monitors

If you are using two or more monitors, you can use the dual-monitor feature to put the video layout (Gallery or speaker view) and screen share content (e.g. a PowerPoint or video) on two separate screens.

To enable this feature:

Open the Zoom desktop client, click on your profile picture, and go to Settings.
Click General.
Check the Use dual monitors option under Content Sharing.

For more information, visit the Zoom Support page for Using Dual Monitors.

Zoom Support