In a move similar to Apple's Memoji or the humanoid cartoons that the Metaverse plans to utilize, Zoom today announced the addition of human avatars to its video meeting software.
The human avatars come after Zoom released animal avatars earlier this year to infuse humor into less formal meetings and enable people to be there without going on camera.
Zoom Is Entering 2023 With New And Improved Avatars
With the use of avatars, users can transform into a 3D virtual version of themselves that mimics their head motions and facial expressions.
According to Zoom Support, avatars are a quick and enjoyable way to interact with your meeting guests and inject some humor.
Users who don't want to utilize their camera but still want to take advantage of body language and facial expressions have an excellent alternative with avatars.
The Zoom technology detects where a face is on the screen when this feature is activated during a meeting and applies the chosen avatar effect.
While the company only previously allowed users to pick which animal avatar they want to use in a meeting, the new update from the virtual meeting software now allows users to make a humanoid of their own likeness.
As the beta test develops, Zoom says it will provide new facial characteristics, hairstyles, and customization choices.
However, it is important to note that beta testers can access the functionality, but they must have a paid account, Engadget writes.
It is also important to note that this function does not identify users because it does not use facial recognition technology.
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Zoom Avatars Are Not The Only Ones With An Upgrade
Zoom introduced templates as quick access points for different meeting types, where users can design their own templates or select one of three pre-configured arrangements.
These include huge meetings with automatic captioning and content recording, as well as seminars with stricter crowd-control measures and disabled screen-sharing.
Moreover, it also has support for K-12, which is a template that permits polls and tests while limiting disruptive elements.
Furthermore, threaded messages and reactions will soon be added by the company for in-meeting communications.
Message threads, which are akin to those in Slack, Facebook Messenger, or iMessage, make it simpler to determine which message someone is reacting to.
It will also have emoji reactions function, which is a one of the cleanup functions in chats by matching the response to the original message.
Later this month, according to the virtual meeting software company, threads and emoji reactions will be available, Engadget says.
Finally, Zoom is introducing Q&A in meetings, with the goal of helping meeting hosts maintain organization by limiting group queries to a single section of the app.
Meeting hosts can view, respond to, or reject questions using the Q&A pop-out, and users can also specify whether all questions will be displayed to attendees or only those that have been answered.
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