Use the New Focus Mode Zoom to Take Control of Unmanaged Meetings
Sometimes, large Zoom calls can be a little noisy , especially when children are involved. But Zoom understands this and, in response, launched a new “Focus” mode that turns off video for everyone else to help you maintain control over large or particularly hectic groups.
When you enable focus mode, participants can see the host (and the shared screen), but cannot see other participants. The host, however, will continue to see all the participants in their opinion. Keep in mind that the focus mode is limited to video only, so if the participants are too loud, you can turn them all off as well.
How to enable focus mode in Zoom
Like many other Zoom features, you must first enable Focus mode on the host account through the Zoom website, but the steps differ depending on the account type. For an individual account, open the Zoom web portal and log in to your account. Then click the Settings button on the Profile page and in the Meetings tab, find the Focus Mode feature. Click the radio button next to it to enable the feature.
However, if you are the manager of a large Zoom account in which you have multiple users (for example, if you are a school administrator), follow these steps.
- Sign in to your Zoom account .
- In the ” Administrator ” section, click on ” Account Management ” and navigate to the ” Account Settings ” option.
- Go to the Meetings tab and under In Meeting (Optional) turn on Focus Mode .
- If you see a confirmation popup, click the Enable button to confirm. If you do not see this option, it means that you do not have account rights to enable this feature, and you will have to talk to your account administrator.
How to use focus mode in Zoom
Now that the focus mode feature is on, make sure you are using version 5.7.3 or higher and start a meeting as a host or co-owner. Click the three-dot More button on the meeting toolbar and select the Start Focus Mode option.
Press the Start button to confirm (you can use the Don’t ask again option to skip this confirmation step) and focus mode is now active. You will see a small icon (a circle with a dot) in the upper left corner of the camera view to indicate that focus mode is on.
When you’re done with focus mode, press the three-dot More button and select the Stop Focus Mode option.