


Business Applications Toggle sub-navigation.Working Collaboratively Toggle sub-navigation.Ordering and Purchasing Toggle sub-navigation.NetIDs & Passwords Toggle sub-navigation.Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted. Then you start to talk - and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.” Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds.

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk. Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

(There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.” Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.Īs tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times.
