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Configuring the desktop during a meeting

Forum|Forum|23 days ago
June 19, 2026
6 replies
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I’m very new to Zoom so apologies if I’m asking a dumb newbie question…

I’m running the Zoom app on Windows and it’s working fine. Let’s say I join a meeting with 4 participants. At the top of my meeting view I see 4 x small windows, one for each participant. And just below it there’s a larger view showing whoever’s currently speaking. Is there any way I can invert that view? i.e. have the large window at the top with the 4 smaller windows below it?

Meeting Features

Best answer by Annie warner

Hello,

Not a dumb question at all—Zoom's layout options can be a bit confusing when you're just getting started.

Unfortunately, Zoom doesn't currently offer a built-in setting to simply "flip" the Speaker View layout so that the large active-speaker window appears at the top and the participant thumbnails appear below it.

You can switch between Speaker View, Gallery View, and Side-by-Side Mode, and you can also move certain panels around in some situations (such as when screen sharing), but for a standard meeting the position of the active speaker window and thumbnail strip is generally fixed by Zoom's interface.

If this is a layout you'd find useful, it may be worth submitting it as a feature request to Zoom, as I can see how having the main speaker at the top with participant thumbnails underneath would feel more natural on some screen setups.

I hope that helps, and welcome to Zoom!

MGSR

Community Manager

Hello @johne53,

In the regular Zoom desktop app on Windows, you can switch between Speaker view and Gallery view, and you can resize the Zoom meeting window—but you can’t manually “flip” the layout to force the large active speaker video to stay on top with the smaller participant thumbnails below it.

What you can do instead:

Switch views: Click View (top-right of the meeting window) → choose Speaker or Gallery.
Pop out the active speaker (separate window): If available on your client, go to View → Speaker and use the option to pop out the active speaker (this gives you a separate large window you can place wherever you want on your screen).
Use multi-monitor mode (if you have two screens): In the Zoom desktop client settings, enable Use dual monitors, then you can keep Gallery on one screen and Speaker on the other.

Let me know if you need further assistance.

J

johne53Author

Explorer

Thanks for the quick reply @MGSR. I’ll give that a try at my next meeting. Just experimenting here on my own I can find how to switch between View->Speaker and View->Gallery but whereabouts will I be able to find the pop out option?

F

Frank_TB

Community Champion | Customer

Hello,

It’s in the menu (icon that looks like 9 squares) at the top right hand corner of your screen.

Regtards

J

johne53Author

Explorer

Sorry to be a thicko but I’m still not getting this. Are you saying that the Gallery option and the opt out option are that same thing?

J

johne53Author

Explorer

I found something (can’t remember if it was called opt out or pop out) under the Participants menu. Whatever it was I pressed it and got a small “popped out” window. Is there a way to pop it in again? I can’t see anything obvious.

[Edit...] It’s okay I found it (it’s called merge). So is that what you guys were talking about when you referred to opt out?

Annie warnerAnswer

Participant

Hello,

Not a dumb question at all—Zoom's layout options can be a bit confusing when you're just getting started.

Unfortunately, Zoom doesn't currently offer a built-in setting to simply "flip" the Speaker View layout so that the large active-speaker window appears at the top and the participant thumbnails appear below it.

You can switch between Speaker View, Gallery View, and Side-by-Side Mode, and you can also move certain panels around in some situations (such as when screen sharing), but for a standard meeting the position of the active speaker window and thumbnail strip is generally fixed by Zoom's interface.

If this is a layout you'd find useful, it may be worth submitting it as a feature request to Zoom, as I can see how having the main speaker at the top with participant thumbnails underneath would feel more natural on some screen setups.

I hope that helps, and welcome to Zoom!

J

johne53Author

Explorer

Thanks @Annie. I submitted some feedback just now so hopefully it’ll find its way to the developers!