Zoom is now offering Immersive View, a feature geared towards recreating in-person meetings within a virtual space. Video calls have become an important staple over the past year, with Zoom becoming a leader in this section of the tech sphere. Since then, many have turned to Zoom and other video calling apps for work meetings, classes, and simply to keep in touch with friends and family.
Users have a lot of choice when using Zoom, including device options. Recently, Zoom expanding those options by allowing users to make a video call on a Facebook Portal TV or an Amazon Echo Show 10. There's also the option of personalizing the background, with the process quick and easy on either an iOS, Android or Windows device. Options include Pixar-themed backgrounds, like Finding Nemo and Toy Story, as well as popular franchises, such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Animal Crossing. Other popular backgrounds themes include Golden Girls and Seinfeld, along with HBO shows like Westworld and Game of Thrones.
According to Zoom, Immersive View is currently available on Windows and macOS desktop clients, for users with either a Free or Pro account. With the feature enabled, users will be able to create and take part in a more immersive-looking environment, including a boardroom where all participants are sitting behind the same virtual table. Users can even become pictures hanging on a wall in a virtual art gallery. When Zoom initially announced the feature last year, it showcased a classroom setting, where each person appeared to be sitting in their own seat. However, Immersive View currently doesn't support Zoom meeting recordings or older versions, with those users seeing whichever view version was previously in use or set as the default.
Users will first need make sure they have the most recent version of Zoom (5.6.3 or higher) in order to actually see an Immersive View meeting. To enable the feature, they will need to go to the account settings and then click on the Meeting tab before clicking on Immersive View. For hosts, starting an Immersive View background requires a quick click on View in the top-right corner followed by another click on Immersive View. The host will then have the option to place people where they want or choose to have Zoom automatically position them. Hosts can also resize participants by clicking on the video and then clicking and dragging the blue box that appears to the desired size. When everyone is sized and placed correctly, simply choose the background, and click on Start to begin the immersive chat experience. Zoom doesn’t recommend using Immersive View with groups larger than 25 participants, although more than 25 can be added with the additional people displayed as thumbnails at the top.
Immersive View looks like a good way to make video conferences feel more natural as it eliminates the webcam tiles and puts participants together in the same scenario. Not to mention, it might be a way to make Zoom calls a little more fun for larger friend and family video calls. If nothing else, and considering virtual meetings aren’t likely to be going anywhere soon, Zoom's Immersive View offers an opportunity to change up the online video-chatting experience many have been resigned to over the past year, and into something that at least looks slightly more normal and like an in-person meeting.
Source: Zoom, Zoom Support
https://ift.tt/3tXvx8x
April 27, 2021 at 05:25AM
