Provided are methods for switching active speakers during a video conferencing session. An image of an active speaker in a video conference is provided for presentation in a main display area of a display screen, where the active speaker is one of a plurality of users participating in the video conference over a network. When, a new active speaker out of the users participating in the video conference is detected, resolutions of available video streams received for each of the users are determined. In response to determining that the resolution of the video stream received for the new active speaker is below a threshold resolution, the image of the active speaker continues to be provided for presentation in the main display area until a predetermined period of time has elapsed.