Reducing data usage while using zoom for participants
How to fine tune data usage for Zoom meetings
This article should give a short overview of how to adjust the data usage while participating in a Zoom meeting. View settings and window sizes need different amounts of data. By adjusting or changing the settings the data usage can be decreased if the data speed is limited or connection is poor.
Comparison of Window sizes (maximized/half screen)
Download
Gallery view | max | ~310 KB/s | half ~135 KB/s
Speakers view | max | ~160 KB/s | half ~110 KB/s
Screen sharing* |max ~70 KB/s | half ~50 KB/s
*the host has shared the screen, for instance a PowerPoint presentation
Comparison of camera (for self video) on or off
Upload
Self video* | on ~20 KB/s| off ~3 KB/s
*self video upload is is not altered by the view settings
Test case
- Meeting with 13 participants
- System: MacBook Pro 13" (Retina display); Catalina v10.15.7
- Data usage displayed with MenuMeters
- Maximized and half maximized windows scaled with Spectacle
- Different views in Zoom
Views
Maximized screen (max)
- 2560 x 1560 pixel (227 ppi)
Half maximized screen (half)
- 1280 x 1560 pixel (227 ppi)
Conclusion
Zoom already uses relative less data volumes, however the overall data usage can be reduces by some simple tricks. The gallery view setting in zoom, is the most easiest way to have an overview of all participants. Caused by the different small windows of many different participants the data usage is increased in this viewing mode compared to the speakers view. In both view modes the data usage can be reduced, whereas reducing the window size (2560 x 1560 pixel) of the zoom window to half size (1280 x 1560 pixel), reduces the data from ~310 KB/s to ~135 KB/s for gallery view, which has a much higher effect compared to speakers view. In other words, if gallery view is the preferred view mode the downloaded data can be reduced significantly by decreasing the window size.
Watching a shared screen (e.g. a presentation) is also very friendly in regard of low data usage, which is a helpful information for users watching or users hosting a zoom meeting.
Finally, to turn off the own camera to save data usage does not really have a significant effect. The data usage for video uploads is with ~20 KB/s anyway relatively low compared to the downloaded data.
All the results presented here may strongly depend on the kind of meeting (e.g. number of participants) or content of the shared screen for instance, therefore the effect can be different for individual users. My suggestion is to install any software to view data usage and try out if changing the window size has an effect.
