Active Speaker View

Participants in a Zoom meeting have some control over their own view of the meeting, especially when no one is sharing their screen. (A host cannot control whether participants are using Active Speaker View or Gallery View.)

As the active speaker, you will never see your own video, even if you are speaking! Zoom displays the most recent active speaker other than yourself.

Meeting and webinar participants who are viewing a shared screen can switch to Side-by-side Mode. This enables them to see the shared screen alongside either the Speaker View or Gallery View, depending on which view they choose. They can also adjust the location of the separator between the shared screen and video to change the relative size of each side.

Viewing a Shared Screen in Side-by-Side Mode

  1. Sign in to Zoom through your Canvas course.
  2. Start or join a meeting.
  3. While viewing a shared screen, click on View Options and choose Side-by-Side Mode as shown. The shared screen will appear on the left, and the speaker's screen will appear on the right.

  1. To adjust the size of each view, place your cursor over the boundary between the shared screen and the participants' video until it changes to a double arrow and you see a gray line separating both views.
  2. Click and drag the separator bar to adjust the size of each view.
  3. Click Speaker View or Gallery View (at the top of the screen) to switch between the two.
  4. To exit Side-by-Side Mode, click View Options and uncheck the Side-by-Side Mode option.

The speaker's video is now displayed at the top of your screen. The shared screen is in the center of the window as shown below.

Automatically Enter Side-by-Side Mode

It's possible to automatically enter side-by-side mode when a participant shares a screen.

  1. Sign in to Zoom through Canvas.
  2. Click your profile picture, then click Settings.

  1. Click the Share Screen tab.
  2. Click the Side-by-Side Mode checkbox.