To make things easier for teachers, Zoom has announced a new feature called Focus mode. Zoom says that the feature is meant to keep students from getting distracted while they’re in a virtual classroom.
“Focus Mode allows educators to see their students’ videos, and students to see their teachers without seeing other class participants. With this feature, teachers can supervise their class, but students won’t be distracted by their peers’ video feeds or feel self-conscious about turning on their own camera,” reads a blog post.
You asked for it. 😎
Focus Mode 🔍 The perfect way for the host and co-hosts to view all participants’ videos without other participants seeing each other. https://t.co/fObYBR3yID pic.twitter.com/M3PN3hI0Qj
— Zoom (@Zoom) August 11, 2021
When a user turns on Focus mode, the participants attending the meeting will not see other participants’ videos or screen shares. Access to those screen shares will be limited to the user alone.
Active Zoom users must be wondering: wait, isn’t that the same as ‘Webinar mode”? Well, the feature offers similar controls to that of the Webinar mode. However, Webinar mode does not come with the free account and provides less flexibility when compared to regular Zoom meetings.
Zoom will allow hosts to turn focus mode on and off at will, which can help them to use the feature for specific use cases. Focus mode is also available to free accounts, which can further help more teachers show students during a less destructive environment.
While Focus mode is on, participants will also be able to see their own video, names of other participants, and even emoji reactions by others. The feature can be enabled for user accounts, groups, or even individual users. To access Focus mode, you can click on the “More” button that appears on the bottom panel of the screen while you’re in a call.