Showing and hiding your video in a meeting

Zoom offers a variety of features to help improve your video conferencing experience, including the availability to control whether to turn your video on or off and hide or show yourself in your own video display for each meeting.

If your video is on during a meeting with multiple participants, it automatically displays to all participants, including yourself. You can turn your video on and off to control if other participants can see you. If you hide yourself, your own video display disappears from your screen, leaving more room to see other participants on your own screen. If you show yourself, your own video display reappears on your screen, showing how you look to others.

Whether your video is on, off, hidden, or displayed, there are a variety of ways in which you can adjust the layout of all video tiles on your screen.

How to turn your video on and off

In a Zoom meeting, you have the option to show or stop your video feed. If you choose to show your video, all other participants will be able to see you. If you stop your video, participants will no longer be able to see you through your device’s camera.

Turn your video on

1. Start or join a Zoom meeting.
2. In the meeting controls toolbar, click Start Video.
   You’ll see a slash through the camera icon disappear, meaning your video is now visible to all participants . 

Turn your video off

1. In the meeting controls toolbar, click Stop Video.
   You’ll see a camera icon with a red slash through it, meaning your video is no longer visible to other participants .

How to hide Self View on your screen

In addition to turning your video on and off, you can also choose to keep your video on but hide it from your own display, so you’re no longer visible to yourself.

To hide your video from your own display:

1. Start or join a Zoom meeting.
   The meeting automatically begins in Speaker View and you can see your own video.
2. Hover over your video and click the ellipses icon in your video to display the menu, then choose Hide Self View.
   You no longer see the video of yourself, even though others in the meeting can see the video of you.

How to restore Self View on your screen

To restore the video of yourself:

1. In the top-right corner of the video window, Click View. 
2. Click Show Self View.
   The video of yourself is displayed on your screen.

How to troubleshoot video problems

If your video is not displaying properly or you are unable to see your video, take a look at our guide to troubleshooting Zoom video crashes or improving video quality for more information on common video and camera issues. You can utilize Zoom’s built-in meeting features, such as enabling HD video, adjusting for low light, or applying filters and virtual backgrounds in order to enhance and customize your video appearance.

Most of the time, video or camera problems are due to device settings, competing applications, or quality issues. As you work through troubleshooting, you can also test your video to ensure video settings are configured correctly before joining a Zoom meeting.