Hide Presenter video / Profile Image during screen share

[Rohnsman]

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to turn off the camera (or avatar icon) from appearing in the upper right corner of the screen when a presenter is sharing their screen. We are a camera club and frequently show/discuss photographs. We want NOTHING on the shared screen but the shared image itself. It would be really nice if this could be turned off with a keyboard combination and even better still if it could be turned off as a default and left that way. Almost never do we need to see the presenter in the upper corner of the screen. How can I eliminate this?  (Don't suggest "Hide non-video participants."  That doesn't work even if the presenter's camera is turned off.  The static profile picture still appears in the upper right corner).  

[CarlaA]

Hi @Rohnsman!

Currently, we do not have the option to remove the video thumbnail from participants when screen sharing. However, I understand that some members of the community have expressed their interest in this feature. I encourage you to submit a feature request by following the steps outlined here. The more votes it receives, the higher the chances of it being included in our roadmap. Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns!

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @Rohnsman.

I saw your similar request over on the Facebook group Master of Zoom, where I wrote a brief answer.  Here, I'll go into more detail.

First, a lot depends on whether you're hosting a Meeting or a Webinar.  First, I'll cover Meetings, with Webinars down below.

For Meetings

Meetings are, by design, set up so that each participant has control of their own device and view of the session.  So you can't force a view that does not have any people showing. 

Side-By-Side View Method

The easiest way is for each participant to set their View to Side By Side Speaker or Side By Side Gallery.

This will give you a display similar to this:

This has a speaker view or gallery view of the camera videos off to the right, with a vertical bar separating the Screen Share on the left from the video view.  The vertical bar can be moved as desired to see more or less of either side.  Not ideal for full screen viewing of images, but very easy for each individual to select at any time.

Keep in mind the Host can't force this view on anyone; the individual users have to select the Sinde-By-Side options for this to work.

Standard View Method

The second way to accomplish this in Zoom Meetings requires that ALL participant Camera Video be stopped, and that each participant select the Standard View.  (See the Checked item in the menu above.)

This will produce the following view for the participant:

Notice the lack of any participant camera video on the screen.  However, as soon as anyone Starts Video, they will appear (potentially also with unstarted video, if enabled by the participant).  Note also that I have the "persistent menu bar" at the bottom of the screen enabled; individual participants can enable or disable that as they wish.  Unfortunately, the green and black You are viewing <someone's> screen can't be hidden, that I'm aware of... though it can be moved by dragging the green portion of the bar.

Again, each participant has to make the viewing choices they wish.  I recommend you have a PDF document with these instructions available to your attendees in advance (or enable File Sharing in the Chat window and make it available there), so they have the opportunity to try this a few times.  Once you know the process, it can easily be replicated -- as long as you follow all of the instructions.  And individual participants can't stop people from starting the camera video, and no combination of Show/Hide Self View, Show/Hide Non-Video Participants, and Start/Stop Incoming Video will make the camera video box go away.

If you as the Host want to stop all video, I highly recommend setting Video to Off for both Host and Participant during the meeting setup:

... and to also disable the Allow Participants to Start Video at the beginning of your meeting:

You can individually stop any participant's video if they refuse to comply with your request to stop video, but if you do Stop Video for a participant, they will not be able to restart video until a Host or Co-Host first initiates a, Ask to start video request from the Panelist window. 

Bottom Line

Side-By-Side view works with any cameras started; Standard view will only be a "clean presentation" if all cameras are off.

Webinars

Webinars are designed so that the Host has the ultimate control of what the attendees are seeing.  Note that the Host can't control what the Panelists and other Co-Hosts are seeing.

The process for forcing full screen view with no camera video for all attendees involves two steps:

1. Select the Attendee View -> Standard from the Participants window ellipsis menu.
2. Turn off all cameras of all Panelists, Hosts, and Co-Hosts.

Generally this is easily done due to the limited number of panelists and hosts.  Also disable Start Video for Panelists so they will not "accidently" spoil the view.  Hosts and Co-Hosts can't be prevents from starting video, and if you can't trust them to follow instructions, then don't make them Co-Hosts. 👎

Generally speaking, I use the Attendee View -> Side-By-Side Speaker setting when producing/facilitating webinars, and Spotlight the panelists and/or hosts/co-hosts I want the attendees to see.  Side-By-Side Speaker only shows the Spotlit videos.  If you select Attendee View -> Side-By-Side Gallery, the attendees will see all cameras that are started... fine for when you want a crowd onstage, but I rarely use it.

The other mode not mentioned -- while I'm covering the camera view details -- is with Attendee View -> Side-By-Side Speaker and no spotlighting.  This forces the "who is the primary person speaking" behavior, which is fine when there is good audio control, but not so good when people won't mute their mics while other people's dogs are barking or kids are playing.