Zoom has rolled out a new feature called “Avatars” on its platform. This will allow users to replace their heads with that of a cartoonish animal during a Zoom meeting. The character will mimic the head movements and facial expressions of the user.
According to the official blog post, this feature will appear in the Backgrounds & Effects menu. Apparently, it works similarly to certain Snapchat filters and Apple’s Memoji feature.
Avatars are available for Zoom webinars as well. Therefore, the organizers can make creative use of the feature to increase engagement with their audience.
Although this feature can accurately detect your face, it doesn’t identify it. So, from a privacy-focused perspective, Zoom has assured that users need not worry about the security of their facial data. In addition, the firm has also confirmed no facial data is stored on or sent to servers either.
To use Avatar, you must have Zoom version 10.50.0 or newer on Windows, macOS, or iOS. Apparently, it hasn’t yet made its way to Android, and there’s no information on if it will arrive on the same.
How to use Avatars in Zoom?
- Log in to Zoom, start or join a meeting and make sure your webcam is on.
- From the meeting toolbar, select “Stop Video” to view video options.
- Select “Choose Virtual Background” or “Choose Video Filter.”
- Click/tap on the “Avatars” tab.
- Choose your Avatar from the available options
This wraps up all you need to know about Zoom’s Avatar feature. If you’re a newbie to the video conferencing service, you might want to check out our Zoom how-to articles.
