Zoom Rolls Out Immersive View to Bring Participants Together in a Virtual Room

Zoom is rolling out a new Immersive View feature to make meetings and classrooms more engaging and collaborative. This feature will allow the host to set a single custom background theme for their meetings or create layouts where participant videos are embedded within a scene that everyone shares, like a classroom or courtroom. This feature was first announced at Zoomtopia 2020 last Octber, and it is now rolling out for desktop users. Immersive View lets you create environments like boardroom, classroom, or auditorium depending on the event you're hosting.

The company announced that Zoom is rolling out Immersive View for all Windows and macOS desktop clients using version 5.6.3 or higher. Immersive View is enabled by default for all free and Pro accounts. It can be enabled via the web portal for all other account types. Immersive View looks to reduce fatigue during long class sessions, meetings, or other events. It supports up to 25 participants as of now.

The new Zoom feature allows hosts to arrange video participants and webinar panelists into a single virtual background, bringing people together into one scene to connect and collaborate in a cohesive virtual meeting space. The new Immersive View feature will first need to be enabled by the admin or group head in their account settings. Even an individual user will need to enable it by going to Settings > Meetings > InMeeting (advanced) > Immersive View. After it is enabled, users can opt for Immersive View once the meeting has begun by clicking on View > Immersive View > Selecting the scene > Start.

When enabling Immersive View, hosts will have the option to either automatically or manually place participants into a virtual scene of their choosing. Hosts can also easily move participants around that scene and even resize a participant's image for a more natural experience. Furthermore, the host can easily change the scene or revert back to Speaker or Gallery View at any time. Zoom has provided a few scenes to get users started, but they can also upload their own.

For those participants on Zoom desktop and mobile apps that do not support Immersive View will continue to see other meeting participants in either Gallery View or Speaker View, just with a simple black background. Others in the meeting will still view these unsupported participants in the Immersive View scene with their original backgrounds.