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WFH Zoom video conferencing: 5 simple hacks to make your video calling experience better

Photo: Charles Deluvio/Unsplash
Photo: Charles Deluvio/Unsplash

Everyone's doing a Zoom meeting; here's how you can make yours better

If you, like us, are working from home, chances are Zoom has become your best friend. The video conferencing app that’s beaten its traditional rivals like Skype has taken over almost all work-related communications. At the moment it’s the most-downloaded app on Android in India and we’re fairly certain you’re probably reading this while you’re pretending to pay attention to what your boss is saying on Zoom right now. Since, it would seem, you’ll be using Zoom for the foreseeable future, you could do with these hacks to help you make your video calls better.

1. Set notifications for specific keywords

With everyone working from home, the amount of online correspondences has probably gone through the roof. If you were dealing with ten messages a day, chances are you’re receiving a hundred now and not all of them may be of relevance to you. So the way to separate the wheat from the shaft is by simply adding keyword notifications. Head over to Settings > Chats > Receive notifications for keywords. Then enter the keywords you’d like the app to look for and you’ll receive notifications for those specific keywords so you don’t waste your time going through all messages and chats.

2. Record your meetings to the cloud

You’ll always have some meetings that are more important than the others and these, you’d like to have a record of. To turn your video calls into videos, hit the three dots on the bottom-right of your screen and tap on Record to the Cloud. Once you do that the app will start recording the video from that point till the meeting ends. Then the video will get uploaded to a cloud drive that’s linked to your email id where you’ll receive a notification.

3. Get yourself a background

One of the coolest features of Zoom is adding a background. Sure it may seem childish at first but then your boss calls you suddenly when you’re, say, in the loo or have a laundry pile behind you. The backgrounds feature is a great way to mask what’s going on behind you while you take your call. Kids playing behind you? Your home doesn’t look presentable? Simply tap the three dots, hit Virtual Background and select from the backgrounds the app has to offer or simply select a video or photo from your gallery.

4. Add a beauty filter

Think it’s too vain? But the beauty filter is your best friend when you’ve, say, not shaved, or had a bath for a day or three. Hit up the three dots on the bottom right of your screen, tap on Meeting Settings and then scroll down till you see Touch up my appearance. The AI takes care of the rest.

5. Protect your meetings

Zoom has received much flack for being unable to protect its users’ privacy but it has a setting that claims to help you lock up your meetings and prevent hackers from sneaking into these meetings. Once everyone’s in the meeting room, tap the three dots, go to Meeting Settings and hit Lock Meeting. With that, you’re done.