Zoom has constantly added new features and improved existing ones to provide meeting participants with a more in-person experience through the years.

One such interesting feature is Gesture Recognition, which lets you provide visual feedback and use gestures such as raised hands and thumbs up to react to conversations. Discover how you can enable the feature on your device and use it in situations such as requesting a question or appreciating a colleague's work, below.

Enable Gesture Recognition in Zoom

To begin using the gesture recognition feature, you need to first enable it via Zoom Settings. Two methods are discussed below: one is for Windows or Mac users, while the other is for iOS users.

1. For Windows or Mac Users

Follow the steps below to enable the gesture recognition feature in your Zoom desktop client application on Windows or Mac. You can enable the feature before a meeting begins and even while it is in progress.

Launch Zoom desktop client.

Click on your profile icon and select Settings.

Click on General.

Head over to the Reactions section and checkmark the box associated with Activate the following emojis based on hand gesture recognition. You can also choose your skin tone for the gestures in the same window.

To disable the feature, follow steps 1-4 again but this time, uncheck the box associated with Activate the following emojis based on hand gesture recognition.

2. For iOS Users

If you are an iOS user, follow these steps to enable the feature during a meeting:

Launch Zoom client and click on the More button.

Click on the Meeting Settings option.

Head over to the Gestures section and turn the toggle on for Raise Hand and/or Thumbs Up.

If you want to disable this feature anytime in the future, simply turn the toggle off for Raise Hand and/or Thumbs Up.

3. For Administrators

If you are an administrator, you can enable the feature for all accounts using the steps below:

Log into the Zoom web portal as an administrator.

Navigate to Account Management > Account Settings.

Head over to the Meeting tab and scroll down to the In Meeting (Basic) section.

Turn the toggle on for Gesture Recognition.

Click Enable in the confirmation prompt.

If you want to prevent other users from changing this feature, click on the lock icon and then hit Lock again to save the changes.

To disable the feature, follow steps 1-5 again, and this time, select Disable in the confirmation prompt.

Begin Using the Gesture Recognition Feature

Once you have enabled the gesture recognition feature, your webcam will automatically detect the thumbs up and hand gestures from your side during the meeting.

Let’s say that you want to raise your hand during the meeting. For this, you will have to raise your hand up straight in front of the webcam for a few seconds. While you do this, you will notice a ‘raised hand’ emoji at the bottom with a circle around it. The circle will gradually fill in, and when it does, you will see a raised hand icon on the top.

To hide the raised hand icon, click on the Lower hand button at the bottom. Similarly, when you will make a thumbs-up gesture, you will notice a thumbs-up emoji pop up at the bottom.

If you use Zoom for talking to your colleagues, friends, or family often, there are a lot of other features that you can make use of to make your Zoom calls productive and fun, like becoming an avatar!

Provide Visible Feedback With Gesture Recognition

In spite of the benefits of online meetings, there is usually a communication gap that prevents one or more participants from getting their message across effectively. Gesture Recognition is working toward minimizing that gap by offering visual feedback that is both quick and effective. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this feature!

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