Speaker View in Teams Meetings

Teams is introducing Speaker View, which will allow users to effortlessly track the active speaker. Speaker View is particularly effective in scenarios with a limited number of key speakers and a large audience, such as town halls, trainings, or lectures. This view option can be selected from the view switcher within meetings.

Speaker View offers several enhancements, including:

• Easy tracking of the active speaker: The view includes a primary area on the stage to focus on key participants in the meeting.
• Higher speaker video resolution: The active speaker’s video will be rendered at a higher resolution to provide better visual clarity.
• Equal representation for audio and video participants: All attendees will be equally represented in the meeting, regardless of whether their video is enabled or disabled.
• Inclusive by default: Speaker View utilizes 16:9 tiles, providing ample space to fully display hand gestures and body language.
• Predictable experience: The use of 16:9 tiles and consistent placement of audio and video participants on the same stage ensures a fluid experience. Users toggling their videos on or off will not cause the entire stage to be re-rendered. The main area designated for the active speaker is also utilized for shared content, enabling seamless transitions during presentations.

In addition to the new view option, the button to disable incoming videos will be relocated. The button will move from its current position in the “More” overflow menu. Users will be able to select a new view from the view switcher. This view will not be set as a default view.

Victoria Burnett • 2023-Apr-18