Dissatisfaction with the "Hide Non-Video Participants" Feature

[rkelty008]

Hi, I'd like to see Zoom get rid of the feature, "hide non-video participants" in a meeting. Quite frankly, I find this to be a very bizarre and inequitable feature of Zoom. I don't see why a person who has to spend part or indeed all of a meeting should be completely excluded from that meeting, especially when the person participates via the chat (or does not participate in the chat). A participant who is unable to turn their video on for one reason or another does not mean that they don't want to participate in a more engaged manner. Most hosts of meetings don't seem to hide non-video participants, but I was informed recently that other participants in a meeting may utilize this feature. I don't see the point of this feature and I never use this myself. I hope that Zoom considers permanently getting rid of this feature. Thank you! 

[Frank_TB]

One use case is that many Zoom users are recording meetings for broadcast or online delivery. If the setting isn't applicable to you don't use it. Zoom in used in a variety of ways that may be different than your use case.

Regards,

Frank

[Ray_Harwood]

Hi, @rkelty008,

I think you've misinterpreted the action taken by this feature.  The participation by "hidden" users is not affected by selecting this feature.  If you select it, only the "blank box" (possibly with their name or profile icon) is hidden, allowing the user to just see people whose video is on.  All the other features are unaffected.

A side effect of this setting, though, is that there is no box for the Raise Hand feature or their mute/unmute status to be seen on the main screen... however the Raised Hand and Mute/Unmute status is still visible on the Participant view.

Some people with certain visual or cognitive disabilities are negatively affected by the additional boxes without video, and some people just find them distracting.

[TracyG]

Hi.  I used hide non-video participants for the first time.   I was informed after the meeting that several participants who were not using video were unable to unmute.  Do you know why?  I see your post above, but I don't understand the side effects you noted.  Thank you!

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @TracyG.

Hiding participants would not affect their ability to unmute themselves.  Normally this occurs in either of the following conditions:

• The Host has disabled the "Participants can unmute themselves", but this would of course affect everyone.
• If the Host manually mutes someone (often due to background noise when not speaking), then they are unable to unmute.

In either case, the Host can select the "Request to Unmute" item from the participant's ellipsis ... menu in the Participant panel; this will reset the prohibition of unmuting, and should allow them to unmute freely.

If you have enabled the "Ask participants to allow you to unmute them" option -- and they agree to allow it -- then you should be able to unmute them directly.  This action should also re-enable them to self-unmute.

[TracyG]

Thank you for your quick response.  I will have to ask the two participants who were unable to unmute more about their specific issues.  Others were able to mute and unmute.