Zoom’s new immersive view feature lets you virtually sit next to your fellow video call participants in a classroom, a boardroom or anywhere else in one virtual background.
Zoom says the feature can evoke the feeling of being in a classroom or boardroom, with everyone arranged in front of the same backdrop.
In that sense, it could offer a less distracting setup compared to the traditional gallery view, by replacing the grid format for a shared background that places participants next to each other. To keep things fun, users can upload their own virtual backgrounds or use the scenes provided by Zoom. If you’re getting a feeling of déjà vu, it’s because last summer Microsoft Teams offered something similar with Together Mode. The feature relied on AI to pull your image and place it together with your co-workers in a virtual space, like an auditorium. According to Microsoft, the aim was to provide a cohesive layout for larger meetings to overcome “video fatigue” in the remote working era.
Zoom’s new feature can host up to 25 people in a scene, with additional participants displayed in a thumbnail strip. Hosts wield the power to automatically or manually place users into a virtual background of their choosing and can also move people around and resize them. In the case of a webinar, attendees can view the hosts and participants in the scene. Recordings, meanwhile, will currently just revert to the gallery or speaker view layout, depending on which was originally set.
