“In a sense we’ve all become set designers,” said Mark Marino, who says he’d used Zoom a handful of times before coronavirus but now uses it regularly as a professor who teaches writing at USC. Your friends are going to care less about what your house looks like than your boss might, but it’s still good to tidy up before guests come over, even if only virtually. Otherwise, you risk incurring the dreaded down-facing double chin. Put your laptop on top of a stack of books so the camera is at about eye level while you’re sitting down. I covered this in my complete guide to working from home, but it all still applies here. To look your best, put your laptop on a stack of books and check your background before you go live.What sounds to you like the normal hustle and bustle of making dinner in the background while you listen to your friends talk might be a magnified banging and clashing to them. Laptop and phone microphones pick up sound differently than our ears do. But when five or more people are joining the video call, it’s polite to mute yourself when you aren’t speaking. In a get-together with a couple of other friends, sure, leave yourself unmuted. Zoom, the videoconferencing service that has exploded into the vacuum created by the COVID-19 outbreak, has endured the revelation of a string of privacy and security flaws in recent weeks. Technology and the Internet Is Zoom safe to use? Here’s what you need to know To change the view, go to the top right of the screen and click “Gallery View.” Gallery view gives you the “Brady Bunch”-style grid in which you’re all in the same size window. Sometimes, more than one person is talking, or some other noise prompts the camera to switch over, like sirens outside or a dog barking. Speaker view makes sense when you’re watching a work presentation but feels less natural in a group setting. With speaker video, the person making the most noise is a big picture, while everyone else is in a little bar at the side or along the top. With Zoom, gallery view is better than speaker video.It also makes it feel a little more natural if you need to get up - like you’re just pushing your chair back from the table at a dinner party instead of making everyone else stare at your ceiling as your phone sits face up while you refill your drink. Also, if you have your laptop set up on a table in front of you, it’s easier to eat and drink. The video and sound quality tend to be lower coming from your phone. You’ll quickly discover that holding a phone up at face height for an extended period of time is no fun. Using your laptop is better than your phone.Once you’re ready to attain the next level of video-conferencing capabilities, come back here. If you’ve never joined or set up a video call before, our ultimate guide to hanging out with your friends online has instructions. ![]() Patrick Soon-Shiong is an investor in Zoom.) There’s a lot of overlap between pro tips for using Zoom, Skype or Google Hangouts for work and with your friends.
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