Video chatting without seeing yourself

April 23, 2017 11:00 PM

My parents want to be able to video chat without the distraction of seeing their own faces on screen. Is there a way to do this on Skype, Facetime or Hangouts--and not by turning off the camera but by somehow having their own images hidden?

The closest thing I have found so far is a in Google Hangouts HTML that might possibly be hideable in a predictable way, but I haven't been able to find an option to auto-hide your own face, or even to provide a window-closing X. Is there really no other way to do this other than a Post-It note or dragging the corner of the window off screen?

Any help much appreciated...my mom won't talk to me on video otherwise!

posted by johngoren to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I have found that in Skype, you can click on the image of you and it reduces it to miniscule proportions such that you cannot even tell it is a person, let alone yourself.
posted by kyla at 8:29 AM on April 24, 2017

Sticky note on the screen?
posted by TomFoolery at 8:58 AM on April 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

With Google chat I think you can drag the window over to the side so it's kind of odd the screen. But for problems like this I agree that the low tech solution of a sticky note is often the best.
posted by andreapandrea at 10:32 AM on April 24, 2017

According to this answer, right-clicking on the video and selecting 'Hide Myself View' should work. May be platform-dependent.
posted by Happy Dave at 11:12 AM on April 24, 2017

When using ooVoo video, I just slide the window off to the side, so the pane with my image disappears - it's still there, just beyond the screen.
posted by Rash at 5:33 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]