11 Handy Zoom Hacks to Make Your Digital Life Easier

After years of essays, group projects, and corporate strategy plans, you just might consider yourself an expert at using Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, and other popular programs. Video-chatting with Zoom, on the other hand, still feels like new territory for many workers who are spending more time working from home. From keyboard shortcuts to virtual breakout rooms, here are 11 handy hacks to make your Zoom meetings easier (and maybe even more fun).

1. Automatically disable video and audio when you join a Zoom meeting.

Sometimes it’s hard to predict whether or not your colleagues will decide to appear on video for any given meeting. To save yourself the awkwardness of being the only person to show your face, you can go into the “Video” tab of your Zoom settings and check the “Turn off my video when joining a meeting.” If it ends up being a true video chat, you can always turn your camera on after the meeting has started.

You can do this with audio, too, so you’re automatically muted at the beginning of every meeting. Under the “Audio” tab in settings, just check “Mute microphone when joining a meeting.”

2. Hold down the space bar to temporarily unmute yourself.

Another useful box to check under the “Audio” tab is “Press and hold SPACE key to temporarily unmute yourself.” That way, you’ll be heard for as long as you hold down the space bar, and Zoom will automatically mute you again as soon as you let go. It’s pretty similar to using a walkie-talkie.

3. Use existing keyboard shortcuts—or customize them.

There’s an extensive list of handy keyboard shortcuts in your Zoom settings, including ones to mute and unmute your audio (Shift+Command+A on a Mac), start and stop screen-sharing (Shift+Command+R), and invite attendees (Command+I). If you find any of them particularly difficult to remember, you can come up with your own instead.

4. Enable keyboard shortcuts for when you’re in a different tab.

Toggling between tabs is par for the course when it comes to Zoom calls, and maybe you don’t want to leave your Google Doc to unmute yourself to make a quick comment. Fortunately, you can still use Zoom’s shortcuts when the Zoom app is hidden behind other windows. In the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab in your settings, just check the “Enable Global Shortcut” boxes.

5. Automatically copy the invite URL when a meeting starts.

You can always use the keyboard shortcut (Command+I on a Mac; Alt+I for Windows) to open the meeting invitation window, where you can invite guests from your Zoom contacts, via email, or by copying the meeting URL and sending it to them through another platform. But there’s an even quicker way to achieve the same goal.

Under the “General” tab in settings, there’s an option to “Automatically copy invite link once the meeting starts.” Check that box, and the URL will magically be copied to your clipboard as soon as you join a Zoom meeting. (So when someone sends you the inevitable “What’s the meeting link again?” message, you can paste it immediately.)

6. Record your Zoom meeting.

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to record your Zoom meeting; maybe you’re conducting a media interview, filming a virtual comedy show, or watching an academic lecture that you’ll need to study later. If you’re the meeting host, you can easily capture this by hitting the “Record” button along the bottom menu bar of your Zoom screen. If you aren’t the meeting host, you can do it by logging into your Zoom account on the web browser, going into the “Recording” tab in your personal settings, and switching on the button for “Automatic recording.” (If you only need to record one meeting, you can always switch it off later.) You can choose where to store your recordings and customize other settings in the “Recording” tab in the actual Zoom app.

7. Hide everyone who isn’t on video.

If some users have disabled video or dialed in via phone, it can feel a little strange to stare at—or talk to—a few video users among a sea of blank squares. To customize your view to actual faces only, check the “Hide non-video participants” box in the “Video” tab in your Zoom settings.

8. Set reminders for upcoming calls.

If your regular calendar is a web of birthdays, personal appointments, and other miscellaneous meetings, notifications about Zoom calls might blend in with the rest. To keep you from forgetting, Zoom will send you separate reminders—under Settings > General, you can choose to be reminded five, 10, or 15 minutes before upcoming meetings.

9. Got two computer screens? Make your meeting show up on both.

Anyone with dual monitors can use them both for a Zoom meeting—just check the “Use dual monitors” under Settings > General. Then, when someone’s sharing their screen in a Zoom meeting, you can view the shared screen on one monitor, and see the other meeting participants on the other.

10. Split participants into small groups.

Zoom’s “breakout rooms” feature allows teachers and managers to break participants into smaller groups without making them leave the meeting, set up their own meetings, and then rejoin the original meeting. First, sign into Zoom through your web browser and make sure the “Breakout room” button is turned on under Settings > Meeting >In Meeting (Advanced). There’s also an option to “Allow host to assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling,” if you want people to know their groups before the meeting. When you’re hosting a meeting, you’ll see a breakout room icon in the bottom menu bar, and you’ll be able to choose groups manually or let Zoom do it for you.

11. Change your Zoom background.

And, of course, you can add a little pizzazz to happy hours and quarterly business reviews by changing your background to something from Schitt’s Creek or Harry Potter. Log into Zoom through your web browser and make sure virtual backgrounds are enabled under Settings > Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced). Then, under the “Virtual Background” tab in your Zoom app settings, you can update your background to any image saved to your computer.