Microsoft Teams: How to disable participant cameras to reduce bandwidth?

If the covid health crisis had an upside, it’s that it democratized remote work at record speed. For nomads like us, this is great news. While working 100% remotely might have made some prospects hesitate before, that’s no longer the case at all!

Everyone is now used to using Zoom, Teams, or other Google Meet.

The problem with video conferencing is that it consumes a lot of bandwidth (and it increases with the number of participants). A 30-minute video call with 4 people uses up 900 MB!

When I have a wifi connection that’s too weak for a good quality call, I sometimes use my phone’s 4G.

During a recent video call on 4G with 6 participants (all with video), I realized thanks to my software Trip Mode how significant the data consumption was. I was worried about burning through all my 4G data (and watching the euros fly by at the same time), and that’s when I discovered a very handy Microsoft Teams feature.

In the window that appears during the call, all you have to do is click on the “three little dots” and then “disable incoming video”. You won’t have the video anymore, only the audio, and the data consumption is incomparably lower.

Note that any screen sharing will still display, allowing you to follow the discussion easily.

I now use this feature systematically when my wifi is poor or when I’m on 4G.

Unfortunately, Google Meet doesn’t offer a similar feature.