How to see all participants in a Microsoft Teams meeting
Microsoft Teams is a fantastic collaboration and communication platform that incorporates many fantastic features, including video conferencing, file sharing, chat, and more. One of the questions I get asked most often is whether I can see all participants in a Teams meeting at the same time. By default, Teams provides a gallery view of all participants whose video is enabled. However, if you’re in a larger meeting, you may find it frustrating not being able to see everyone at once.
In July 2020, Microsoft released a new meeting experience that gave users the ability to see more than 9 people when using video conferencing options. This new meeting experience was called Together Mode. In previous versions, this feature had to be enabled for it to be available, but it is now (since mid-2021) enabled by default. It has been further enhanced by the ability to use different layouts in Together Mode, called “scenes.”
It’s important to note that this won’t work if any participants in your meeting are only sharing audio. If participants have video turned off, they’ll need to turn it on for these different display options to work.
How do I access Teams?
The first thing to ask yourself is how you access Microsoft Teams. This impacts the features you have access to, so it’s important to understand the different options.
You can access Microsoft Teams by:
- web browser (Teams Online)
- desktop application
- mobile application
The desktop app gives you access to ALL the new features, and I highly recommend using it as your go-to option for using Teams. Accessing Teams through your web browser is fantastic when you’re not at your regular computer or want to access it from somewhere other than your regular office. The mobile app lets you access Teams using your smartphone from anywhere, but again, you won’t have all the features available through the phone app.
Download the Teams desktop app
To download the latest version of the Teams desktop app, follow these steps:
- Open a web browser and go to https://teams.microsoft.com
- Sign in using your Microsoft 365 username and password.
- Click on your profile picture in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Select Download Desktop App from the options
- The installation file will now be downloaded to your computer.
- Locate your downloads and double-click the Teams installer file.
- Follow the prompts to complete the installation
If you don’t have Together mode?
Together mode is now part of Teams by default. Just make sure you’re using the latest version of the Teams app.
- Open the Microsoft Teams app
- Log in, enter your username and password.
- Click the Settings button (…) in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Select Check for updates
- The teams will now check if any updates are available.
- Continue working normally and all updates will be automatically installed.
Using Together Mode
Your online meeting must have at least 9 participants with video enabled for the additional meeting display options: Large Gallery and Together Mode. These participants must be sharing video. This will not work if video is disabled.
- Start an online meeting (this is not available if you are using the Meet Now option via Chat)
- The meeting now opens in a separate window, allowing you to move between the two Teams windows.
- When your meeting is in progress, and 9 or more people are participating with video enabled, click the ellipse button (…)
- In the options, select Large Gallery
- The Grand Gallery view allows you to see up to 49 participants at a time.
- Click the ellipsis button (…) again and choose Together mode.
- Together mode is available when you have 4 or more participants with video enabled.
- Click the ellipsis (…) button again and choose Together mode. Together mode is available when you have 4 or more participants with video enabled. The Together mode option allows you to see participants from a different perspective, as if you were all lined up in a conference room.
Check your Microsoft Teams app version
If you want to check which version of the desktop app you are using, follow these steps:
- Click on your profile picture in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Click About > Version
- Microsoft Teams app version details appear in a banner at the top of the window, along with the date of the last update.
FYI: I have Microsoft Teams version 1.4.00.22422 updated on August 19, 2021.
Update your Microsoft Teams app
- Click on your profile picture in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Select Check for updates
- Microsoft Teams checks for updates and installs them while you continue working.
Conclusion
I hope this helps you when using the large gallery or Together mode in Microsoft Teams. A big thank you to my volunteers who joined a meeting so I could take screenshots. Comment below if you have any questions.
