Microsoft Teams to have 49 participants in gallery view

Microsoft Teams is planning to expand its gallery view for video calls by bringing Teams video to 49 visible participants, CRN USA reported on Wednesday.

The Teams currently shows up to nine participants on a single screen, even when meetings involve as many as 250 members.

Moving to a 49-person gallery view will also bring Teams in parity with the popular Zoom video conferencing app which also allows 49 users on screen at once.

Cisco WebEx, which is also popular in the enterprise, allows users to see up to 25 participants. Hangouts in G Suite supports up to 25 people on a video call.

"The Microsoft Teams roadmap does include increasing the number of people viewable during a Teams video call to 49," the report quoted a Microsoft spokesperson as saying.

Video calling on Teams currently has a 3 x 3 grid for viewing nine participants simultaneously, up from the original maximum of four visible participants.

"We realize 3-3 is a start, but not good enough. We are continuing to work to include more videos during a meeting, as well as enabling support for mobile devices," a Microsoft representative posted in a Teams user feedback forum in May.

In April, Microsoft reported that Teams had grown to 75 million daily users, more than double its early March figure. On one day, it logged 4.1 billion meeting minutes.

"As Covid-19 impacts every aspect of our work and life, we've seen two years' worth of digital transformation in two months," Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft said in April, when the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings.