Work From Home has become the default arrangement for many employees across the globe. In the spirit of staying home and staying safe, our ability to meet friends and colleagues face-to-face has been limited. Now that we’re advised not to gather in person, video meetings and virtual hangouts on platforms like Zoom are the next best thing, whether it’s for work, school, or fun!
With these Zoom hacks, your virtual video meetings might very well be even better than boring, old in-person conferences.
- Hide your messy room with a background
In such distressing times, not everyone’s got their act together a hundred percent. If moving all your messy items on short notice has left mayhem in its wake, Zoom’s Virtual Backgrounds let you easily hide your mess from fellow participants without spending hours dealing with it.
It’s convenient, too. Zoom swaps out your IRL background for preset ones like a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge or a view of outer space. You can even set your own backgrounds for humorous effect – perfect for a moment of levity.
- Touch up your appearance without any makeup
Just because you’re stuck at home doesn’t mean you show up to work looking all scruffy. But if this Circuit Breaker is the perfect time for you to go #bareface and recuperate from your relentless makeup routine, Zoom has got you covered.
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Take a quick tour of the settings, and you’ll find “Touch up my appearance” in the settings. It isn’t perfect, though.
- Split the meeting into smaller breakout rooms
Bigger isn’t always better, and that’s especially true for meetings. To avoid muted mics and awkward nodding, Zoom hosts can split large meetings into breakout rooms.
Participants can be automatically split into a set number of rooms randomly, or be manually assigned by the host. This feature isn’t enabled by default and requires you to access the advanced settings.
To enable: Settings > General > View More Settings (which will open a new browser window and prompt you to sign in) > In Meeting (Advanced) > Breakout Room
- Quickly invite contacts from your email address book
In real life, roping in participants in a meeting can be as easy as spinning around and calling for them. However, with all the tech involved, online meetings can be more of a hassle.
On Zoom, you’re able to quickly invite email contacts to join in your video meeting with a simple keyboard shortcut. If your Zoom account isn’t connected with your email, you can obtain a simple link that will allow participants to join in without the need for any downloads, installs, or sign-ups.
To enable: In a video call, simply press ⌘Cmd + I (Mac) or Alt + I (PC) to invite a participant from your contacts list.
- Allow Annotations
Sometimes, a visual aid is necessary to convey complex ideas. Like many other video calling services, Zoom supports screen sharing, but it goes the extra mile.
Meeting participants are able to concurrently annotate screen shares or a blank whiteboard, and you can choose to share an entire screen, a specific app window, or even a crop of your screen.
To enable: Settings > General > View More Settings (which will open a new browser window and prompt you to sign in) > In Meeting (Basic) > Annotation/Whiteboard