Tip of the week: Become a Zoom animal
Zoom is getting a little more cartoonish with its new animal avatar feature. If you’re running version 5.10.0 or higher, head to Settings > Background & Effects (or, during a video chat, click the arrow next to “Stop Video” and select “Choose Virtual Background”), then look for the new “Avatar” tab. From there you can select from a menagerie that includes dogs, cats, bunnies, bears, cows, and foxes; each avatar will follow your head movements and reflect your facial expressions.
Transforming yourself into a cartoon animal may not fly on every conference call, but Zoom points out that the avatars may be useful in classroom or social settings, and could even curb some anxieties during medical consultations.
While we’re on the topic, a brief refresher on other video chat services with similar features:
- In Facetime: Hit the star icon during a video chat, then tap the “Memoji” tab at the bottom and choose an avatar.
- In Google Duo (mobile-only): Tap the vertical ellipses button during a call, then tap “Effects” and select one of the avatar options.
Hey folks, it’s nice to back after taking the last week off.
In this week’s full issue of Advisorator, I wrote about why the password won’t die despite repeated efforts to kill it, a neat website for staying focused, and a new way to delete your Google searches. I also recently published a big list of smartphone tips on the members-only website. Sign up for a free trial to get an expanded newsletter every week and access to the full online archives.
Thanks for reading!
– Jared