Now that we’ve been living and breathing video calls for (are you sitting down?) nearly a year, it’s time to think about streamlining the process. Keyboard shortcuts can help workers trim a few seconds off of the time it takes to do simple things like unmuting themselves or screen-sharing, and those few seconds can make a big difference. We’ve reached out to dozens of video meeting veterans to get their favorite hidden features and little-known tips. This round-up should be all you need to take your video calls to the next level. Before we start, there’s one note of caution worth mentioning: Keyboard shortcuts differ by operating system. Our tips here are calibrated for Windows users — Mac users should, in most cases, swap out the ‘Ctrl’ button for the ‘command’ key, aka the “⌘” one.
Zoom tipsSkype tipsGoogle Meet tipsMicrosoft Teams tips
Zoom Tips
We’ll be honest, entirely half of these tips are dedicated to Zoom. What can we say? We’re giving the people what they want. Read on to learn how to set up transcriptions, remain effective, drop the ‘thumbs up’ at a moment’s notice, and look good doing it.
Hold the space bar to unmute temporarily 🔇
Working from home with a crying child? You’ll need to stay muted on video calls, and sometimes it can be hard to click unmute fast enough. Just hit the space bar, which will unmute you for only as long as you hold it down. ~Muhammad Ali Sangi, Digital Marketing Executive, PureVPN
“Touch up” your look ✨
Video calls don’t always capture your best look, particularly for those of us who work remotely and roll out of bed with so little time before a meeting that they need to choose between getting a cup of coffee and shaving (I’ll pick coffee every time). But there’s a feature for that: ~Kevin Parker, cofounder, vpnAlert
The screen-sharing shortcut 💻
The ability to share your screen to others on a video call isn’t new. But there’s a fast keyboard shortcut that not many know about: Press Alt + S, and you’ll be able to pull up the option painlessly and quickly. ~Kaelum Ross, founder of What in Tech
Emoji reactions 👍
Sometimes you don’t want to interrupt the flow of a conversation, even with a written comment, but you still want to affirm someone’s point. Enter the emoji reaction. ~Andrew Fox, CEO of Aim Workout
Figure out how Breakout Rooms work 🗣
Anyone missing out on the opportunity that a physical meeting room provides for pulling aside one or two coworkers for a quick chat just needs to try the Breakout Room feature. ~Remco Bravenboer, Software Developer at Laptoid
And how the Invite window works 💬
If a meeting is currently ongoing and you need to pull in another coworker quickly, you’ll need to have the invite link ready to go. There’s a shortcut for that. ~Ben Taylor, Founder of HomeWorkingClub.com
Grab a screenshot 📷
If you’re watching a presentation, you’ll likely want to get a closer look at one slide in particular, which means you’ll need to take a screenshot to study later. That’s a keystroke away: ~Yvonne Morriss, cofounder and CEO at IP ToolWorks.
Autosave your chats 💾
Go to General Settings > View More Settings > Auto-saving chats to turn this one on. ~Kaelum Ross, founder of What in Tech
Try out attention tracking 👀
Zoom’s advanced settings include some unusual ones that you might never have thought of otherwise. One of those is attention tracking. ~Kristen Bolig, founder at SecurityNerd
Default to ‘mute’ 🤫
Ever entered a meeting only to see everyone else is already muted, forcing you hunt down the mute button, feeling juuust slightly shamed by the experience? With the right feature checked, you’ll be able to enter the meeting already safely muted. ~Afoma Umesi, of Reading Middle Grade
Set up live captions and transcripts ✏️
Here’s a fantastic feature for anyone with hearing loss or a long interview to transcribe: Zoom has recently added an AI-powered integrated captioning ability — not only will it add captions in near-real time, but it allows you to save a full transcript to refer to afterwards. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than nothing. Here’s a video breaking down how to set it up — you’ll need a paid Zoom plan do to so.
— Léna Remy-Kovach (@LenaRemyKovach) February 4, 2021
Skype Tips
Skype’s a popular option, and it offers a great range of keyboard shortcuts. Memorize them all, and you’ll be able to breeze through video calls and catch ups.
Quickly search contacts 🔍
Skype’s sidebar of contacts can take a little while to scroll through, and time is of the essence when your boss is staring expectantly at you from your computer screen. ~Simon Elkjær, Chief Marketing Officer at avXperten
Record calls 📹
Maybe you need to take notes, maybe you want to make the full meeting available to others. Either way, Skype’s video-record option is a big boon. ~Matthew Paxton, founder at Hypernia
Presenter controls 👩🏫
Skype gives the presenter of the conference a handful of extra functionality worth knowing about: ~Jenny Abouobaia, COO, Clever Touch Marketing
Set up Caller ID 📞
Phone calls greatly benefit from the invention of Caller ID, and now your Skype calls can as well. Only if you set up your ID, however. ~Jason Hughes, CEO, Vegan Liftz
Shortcut to answering and ending calls 📲
Thanks to Patrick Smith, Editor-in-chief at Fire Stick Tricks, for this tip.
Google Meet Tips
Google Meet (formerly Hangouts) is as popular as everything else in Google’s suite of free products. Here’s how to navigate it best.
General keyboard shortcuts ⭐
Google Meet’s shortcuts can help users quickly accomplish a lot of goals. If you use the service frequently, then memorizing this short list will turn you into a veritable wizard of effective video meetings:
Toggle Mic on/off: Ctrl + DToggle Video on/off: Ctrl+EAnnounce current speaker: Shift+Ctrl+Alt+A then SHide/unhide an attendee: Ctrl + Alt + P
Live subtitling ✏️
Google Meet has its own version of captioning, as well — users should spot a “CC” on/off toggle button at the bottom of their video screen. ~Peter Baltazar, Technical Content Writer, MalwareFox
Intelligent noise cancellation 🔊
Do you also have that one neighbor who is always moving their lawn right when you need to place a video call? Finally, the magic of technology can wash them out. Go to More > Settings > Noise cancellation for some peace and quiet on calls. ~Jenny Abouobaia, COO, Clever Touch Marketing
Microsoft Teams Tips
Teams is best for larger businesses using the full Microsoft ecosystem, such as Outlook, Excel and more, rather than for those just looking to place easy video calls. So we just have one quick tip here, for if you are joining a Teams meeting — and it’s a tip that applies to Google calls as well.
Blur the background 🌫️
You don’t want to end up on a bookshelf-rating novelty Twitter account. Get ahead of the problem by pre-setting the option to blur your background slightly: ~Rick Wallace, founder at Tackle Village
Our Final Tips
Keyboard shortcuts aside, we have a few beauty tips as well: You’ll likely want to position yourself with a natural light source shining on you, rather than from behind, and with the camera level with your face rather than pointing up at you. Towel off your face to get rid of excess oil, and you’re good to go. Oh, and turn off the filters. You don’t want to, say, show up at a court appearance looking like a cat.
