Your video conferencing sessions on Zoom will now look more like real-life meetings, thanks to “Immersive View,” which can simulate holding a video meeting in a classroom or office space.
Say goodbye to seeing everyone in their own square box. Immersive View instead places all participants on a shared background to recreate the sense of an in-person gathering.
“Whether you want to create the feeling of being in a classroom, a boardroom, a conference auditorium, or your favorite place to catch up with friends, Zoom’s Immersive View assembles up to 25 participants in one fun, consistent meeting environment,” the company wrote in its announcement.
According to Zoom, a meeting host can upload any image to use as a shared background. The meeting host can also manually place and resize each participant. Of course, you also turn off Immersive View, and revert back to the standard Speaker or Gallery mode.
Immersive View is rolling out first for Windows and macOS for both free and paid Pro accounts. To use it, you’ll have to update to Zoom version 5.6.3 or higher.
We haven’t received access to the feature yet. But Zoom says a host can toggle it on during a video meeting by going to the top-right hand corner, selecting the View icon, and then clicking Immersive View. Then let the Zoom application automatically place participants across the shared background or opt to do so manually. The company created a support document with more details on how to access and use the feature.
If you’re on an older version of Zoom, your video sessions will occur via the Speaker or Gallery mode, even if the host is conducting the meeting via Immersive View. If the 25-person cap is exceeded, the remaining participants will appear in “a thumbnail strip” on top of the scene.
Zoom originally unveiled Immersive View back in October, months after Microsoft Teams debuted a similar feature called “Together Mode.”
