Hear ye, hear ye, I recently learned something at a conference that is important for all of us to know about Zoom and Apple products. Many of you are probably already ahead of me on the learning curve, but, in case you’re not, I hope you find this information helpful to avoid potential embarrassment. Until last Friday, I was not aware that both Zoom and MacOS have a feature that can turn a hand signal into a video reaction.
In mediation, we are often dealing with very serious matters, and the last thing I want to do is inadvertently send a message to the parties that I’m not giving their case the time and attention it deserves by doing something that is distracting. If your settings are not done correctly, a simple hand gesture could start a video reaction that’s visible to all of the participants on Zoom. For example, if I were to give two thumbs down because I was trying to tell someone I couldn’t hear them on audio, it creates a rainstorm on the screen. If I were to give two thumbs up to indicate that the audio was working, it creates fireworks. And, while I can’t think of a time when I would use the heart symbol with my hands during a mediation, it creates a shower of hearts as shown here:
To disable the floating video reactions in Zoom, go to “in meeting (basic) settings” and turn off the floating video reactions. This is applicable in Zoom version 6.0.0 or later. As an extra precaution, I turned off the use of emojis altogether.
If you are a Mac user or on an iPhone, you will need to take an additional step to disable the reactions in FaceTime. Apparently Zoom and Apple are working on a solution to avoid Apple overriding your Zoom settings and allowing video reactions. Until then, to disable the video reactions on your Apple device, start a FaceTime call and you will see a green box with a camera at the top of your screen. This is applicable to those using macOS Sonoma 14 and/or IOS 17. Click on that box and the settings will become visible. Turn off the reactions tab.
Technology is moving at a rapid pace and it is hard to keep up. If you were not aware of these features, I hope you found this helpful and that it helps you avoid pitfalls in a mediation or an online hearing.
Leave a Reply