Many people are unclear about the pinning issue because they may be confusing it with spotlighting. Pinning and spotlighting both bring the speaker to the forefront, so it's easy to confuse one with the other. Spotlighting is when the host or co-host of the meeting pins a particular video, making it viewable by everyone on the call. Other participants are unable to control this feature. Up to nine videos can be spotlighted at a time. Permission is not required to spotlight participants, so it would be useful to bear that in mind during your next Zoom session. Hosts tend to use the spotlight feature to ensure everybody can see the speaker. It's handy in keeping distractions to a minimum, for example, keeping others from unintentionally grabbing the microphone's attention by coughing or making other such noises. If you pin a video, you will see it on your screen irrespective of the spotlighted video.