With more people staying home than ever, many people are turning to Zoom to stay connected with family and friends as well as working from home. If your social life seems to have taken a turn and is a bit mundane, then you may be looking for ways to spice up your social interactions.
Thankfully, there are some easy things that you can do to add some variety to these calls since it’s the best way to stay connected right now.
Four Zoom Keyboard Shortcuts
Many quick short cuts can easily make your sessions easier on this conferencing app. Here are some of the best ones to use on Zoom calls with your friends:
• Record Your Sessions
By merely using Cmd+Shift+R, you can easily record your sessions with ease. (PC: Alt+P)
• Screen Sharing
One of the best features of this video conferencing platform is the ability to screen share. To start page sharing, type Cmd+Shift+S. If you need to pause this feature, type Cmd+Shift+T. (PC: Alt+Shift+S) (PC: Alt+T)
• Mute Your Voice
It’s advisable to keep your mute button going if you’re in a video conference. Use Cmd+Shift+A to mute your voice on this platform. Use Cmd+Ctrl+M to mute everyone in the video conference. (PC: Alt+A)
• Quickly Invite Someone
Cmd+I will allow you to invite someone to your conference quickly. (PC: Alt+I)
Learn how using telemedicine can help you avoid the germs of a doctor’s office.
Making Virtual Calls More Fun
When you’re stuck at home with nothing do to the Zoom, virtual parties may be just what you need. If you lack the creativity to enhance these web-based connections, there here are six tips for you.
1. Add Pizzazz with Special Effects
Did you read the story on the internet of the lady from Washington, DC, who turned herself into a virtual potato? The hilarious part is that she had to face her colleagues in an online meeting while being a spud. There are so many special effects on these video apps that can enhance your experience.
While you may not want to be a potato, the sky is the limit when it comes to virtual choices. A few options to consider include giving yourself frog eyes or becoming an extra-terrestrial. You can go to a black and white or sepia tone, or you can even become a ghost. What could be more fun than that?
Do you want to hide the clutter of your home? Then you can put a new background on your screen so that it appears that your sitting beachside rather than in your home office. Another option that you have is to distort your image.
The options are limitless and easy to do with the click of a button. You should play around offline to see what kind of effects you can add. Remember, you must turn these effects off when you switch from personal to business roles. You don’t want to be a spud like the lady from the capital city.
2. Send Super-Imposed Videos
It can be quite annoying to send video links when you copy and paste them into a taskbar. Then, your friend must follow the link and open it in a new window.
Using Zoom or another popular app, you can send videos in real-time. Add a bit more to your videos, and you can super-impose your body over the ones in the production.
What would your friends think if they see you on an underwater diving adventure in a foreign land, or you can saddle up a horse and ride in the Wild West?
You can immerse yourself in all the video chat options that are available to you on this app. The Intel® RealSense™ technologies are changing the way people communicate with one another, and it’s all for the better.
3. Make It a Virtual Game Night
Children and adults alike have become bored with social distancing and not being allowed to venture far from home. However, why not use Zoom to bring your friends in on your virtual world? You can create game nights right from the comforts of home.
You can play video games together, or you can opt for other fun classics like Charades or Win, Lose or Draw. The key to making this a success is to get as many people together as you can. Since you are connecting via an internet server, you can see and hear them.
These new game playing sessions can become so real that you might have to remind yourself that you don’t have a house full of friends. Sure, it’s not going to be just as fun as having them in your home, but think of the mess that you won’t have to clean up when the night is through.
4. Take a Trip Down Memory Lane
Do you have boxes of old photographs stored in your closets? Are there are old films that have family gatherings recorded for the later generation to see? Zoom is the perfect way to put on a display and have the family take a walk down memory lane.
Since you are connecting with them in a manner where they can see and share videos and photographs, you can all bring your offerings to the table. Years of generational pictures can be shared with ease. Plus, you will learn a few remarkable things about the family you probably didn’t know.
Today’s generation uses digital platforms for their photos. However, back a decade or so ago, there weren’t the options that we have now. Make sure to record these sessions so that you can hear the stories time and again.
While the present seems to be wavering, why not look to the history of your family to bring you comfort. Plus, the elderly members of your clan would probably enjoy a stroll down memory lane with you and their loved ones.
5. Have an Old-Fashioned Bake Off
There is nothing better than the smell of freshly baked goodies wafting throughout your home. Do you love to cook? Do your friends, or family members also enjoy this past time? Why not have a virtual baking contest?
You can show off your culinary skills when you whip up a few fantastic dishes to entice everyone in your meeting. Teach some tips and tricks that you’ve learned over your cooking career, as well as take advice from those who’ve been baking up goodies for decades.
There are so many things that you can do with this tip if you only let your mind wander. You can charge a small fee and teach cooking classes, or you can have a hang out on Zoom for fun. Your perception only limits the options.
Just think you can show everyone what a great cook you are, and you won’t feel the pressure of having people breathing down your neck. Additionally, you can hide the mess when you’re on camera too.
Have you ever wanted to run a cooking show? Do you see yourself as one of the great chefs of our day like Rachael Ray, Julia Child, or the Frugal Gourmet? Since you’re already on camera, you might as well record these sessions. Who knows, you could be what one of those popular food networks is looking for as the next big thing in cooking.
6. Have a Virtual Dinner Date
Why talk when you can eat? Virtual parties should always begin with food. While going on a traditional date when restaurants are closed may make dating difficult, there’s nothing that says you can’t sit and dine with someone on the world wide web.
The best part about virtual dating and having these online dating sessions is that you can log off if things aren’t going as you planned. With the touch of a button, you can disconnect from Zoom.
Grab a glass of your favorite wine, a plate of delicious food, and sit in front of your computer ready to chat the night away. Thankfully, Zoom has a mute feature where you can mute your side of the conversation should you need to burp or have some other gaseous explosion. You may find that you like internet dating way better than doing them in person.
Use some of the other techniques talked about in this article to jazz up your date. Change the background to a tropical scene, or you can become an avatar with a made-up persona. It’s utterly amazing what the power of the internet allows you to do and grow when you feel that your options are limited.
While nothing is as enjoyable as holding hands, snuggling, or kissing under the moonlight, internet dating can be made possible with online apps.
Final Thoughts on How to Make Virtual Calls on Zoom More Fun
Video calls can be fun, especially if you’re both working and socializing from home. However, you can make things better using the power of technology. When you use your creative side and explore all the possibilities the internet offers, then you can see how much enjoyable the virtual world has become.
