How to Stop Tiles From Resizing or Moving Around in Group FaceTime

FaceTime comes with a nifty feature that automatically enlarges the tiles when people start talking. Apple calls it Automatic Prominence, and this feature may be essential when you have dozens of people involved. But when FaceTime group calls are crowded, you may want to prevent the tiles from resizing or moving the screen on your iPhone or iPad. .

In group calls, people often talk to each other and with active automatic prominence it can get boring. The constant resizing and shuffling of the tiles is not pleasant to see. If you don’t like the feature, find it disorienting, or just want to stop using it before a large group call, consider disabling it.

So let’s see how you can prevent the tiles from resizing or moving around in the FaceTime group by disabling automatic highlighting. You’ll also find solutions to a few other FaceTime issues, so read on.

Update software on iPhone and iPad

Before disabling automatic resizing or moving thumbnails in the FaceTime group, you must update your iPhone or iPad to at least iOS 13.5 or iPadOS 13.5, respectively. Otherwise, you will not find the option to turn off automatic highlighting in the FaceTime settings.

To make sure your device is up to date, open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, tap General, and then tap About. You should see the current version of iOS or iPadOS next to the software version.

If iOS / iPadOS 13.4 or earlier is installed, return to the previous screen, tap Software update, and then tap Download and install to update your device with the latest system software.

If your device is running the latest version of iOS or iPadOS, you can turn off the auto highlight feature in FaceTime.

Disable automatic prominence on iPhone and iPad

To turn off automatic prominence in FaceTime group calls, you need to briefly dive into the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Once the feature is disabled, FaceTime tiles will no longer be automatically resized or moved to the screen the next time you join a group call.

Again, you must have updated your iPhone or iPad to at least iOS 13.5 or iPadOS 13.5 or higher to turn off automatic highlighting.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.

2nd step: Scroll down the Settings screen and tap the option labeled FaceTime.

Step 3: Find the section called Automatic prominence, then turn off the switch next to Speak.

Automatic prominence is now disabled. Although you have prevented FaceTime from automatically resizing the tiles, you can still manually zoom in on people by tapping the tiles.

If you want to activate the feature later, follow the steps above and activate the switch next to Talking under automatic prominence.

Other FaceTime settings to disable

Aside from automatic highlighting, FaceTime also has a few other default privacy and feature-related settings that you can turn off.

Disable Siri suggestions

By default, Siri “learns” from FaceTime when you use the app over time. Which then leads him to make certain suggestions on the lock screen, such as who to call at certain times of the day, for example. This can be embarrassing or even harm your privacy.

To stop these suggestions, go to iPhone / iPad Settings> FaceTime> Siri & Search. Turn off the switch next to Show Siri Suggestions under the lock screen section.

Also turn off the switch next to Learn From This App if you want to prevent Siri from monitoring your FaceTime activity patterns in the first place.

Disable live photos

While you are in a Facetime video call, anyone can take a live photo of you by simply tapping the shutter icon.

If you’re not comfortable with that, go to iPhone / iPad Settings> FaceTime, then turn off the button next to FaceTime Live Photos.

This should prevent others from taking live photos of you.

Stop iPhone calls on iPad

If you are using FaceTime on the iPhone and iPad, you may not want FaceTime calls that you receive specifically on your iPhone cellular account to also start putting on the iPad.

It is quite easy to stop this behavior. On your iPad, go to Settings> FaceTime, then turn off the button next to Calls from iPhone. However, this will prevent you from using the iPhone cellular account to make calls from your iPad.

Disorient more

With FaceTime’s ability to participate in group calls with up to 32 people at a time, implementing automatic promotion makes sense. While functionality can help you stay focused, the opposite is true: tiles that resize and move too frequently can spoil things.

Apple has correctly provided the ability to turn off automatic highlighting. And if you start to miss the functionality, it is quite easy to reactivate the thing.