Popular video call app Zoom has recently rolled out the Avatars feature, which allows users to wear virtual 3D avatars in Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars. This feature is similar to how Apple’s Memoji app works. It’s currently available on Windows, macOS, and iOS.
Zoom is among the most used video conferencing applications around and has continuously been improving its features to stay at the top. One of its most-used features is the ability to enable a virtual background screen. This time, you can now hide your appearance, as well, with the use of Avatars.
The Avatars feature is highly reminiscent of Memoji’s augmented reality emojis, which tracks a user’s movements and overlays a virtual mask on them via the camera. These are usually caricatures—and in Zoom’s case, the Avatars are currently all animals. Now, users can hide behind cool-looking 3D masks to either entertain those at the meeting or get in character for an online event.
To enable this feature, first make sure that your client is running version 5.10.0 or higher. Your web camera must be on and the video option is enabled during a call. In the meeting toolbar, open your video options by selecting the “Stop Video” menu. Then, select the “Choose Virtual Background” or “Choose Video Filter” option. After that, go to the Avatars tab and choose your avatar.
If you want to change it, just go back and select a new one. If you don’t want the filter, choose “None” there. You can also choose “Turn off avatar” in the self-view video tile and the “Stop Video” menu during meetings. Otherwise, here’s a quick guide on how to use Zoom filters during calls.
Zoom assures that while its technology can detect where a face is on the screen, it doesn’t actually use facial recognition and so doesn’t distinguish between features or log images of users anywhere. Your privacy is still a priority here, which is great as future updates on this feature will be centered around adding more avatar options.
Image credit: Zoom Blog
