Ask HN: Video On or Off?

Almost all of my calls these days are with video. When I call with just audio it feels like I’m blind. Even for personal calls, I’ll always video chat. If I’m talking to my parents I want to be able to see how they’re doing, or what they’re currently working on.

I’ll make a ping shot prediction as well that we’ll look back at this article in 10 or 20 years shocked that people would only do audio. I highly suspect that avatars or 3D video will overtake plain webcams for a true feeling of presence that’s similar to the real world.

I've noticed a difference between the US and UK - in the UK it seems much more normal to have your camera on but every time I talk to someone in the US they see it as a weird thing that I've joined the call with my camera turned on. I might be overgeneralising based on a small sample though.

Eye contact and body language over video are a false proxy; you can't actually read expressions as well, and I find it better not to have the signal than to be misled/mislead by it.

Additionally, when teaching online, it's useful to have a way to change the tone; going on camera is really useful for that, and you lose the ability if you start with your camera on.

Most importantly though, being on camera and constantly having to model attention is exhausting; we don't require that people seem so ostentatiously alert in real life, and I think that everyone who ever complains of "Zoom fatigue" is actually suffering from "constantly bright-eyed and enthusiastic on camera fatigure".

Off-camera, you can pay the exact same amount of attention, but also keep moving, engage in other relevant tasks, read something carefully without appearing rude and so on.

Off-camera by default is easier, more pleasant, and more efficient.

For larger meetings with dozens of people, I often don't want to even be there, so I leave it off.

I join all meetings with video off. If it's only one other person and I don't really know them and they have theirs on, I'll turn my video on. If it's a group of people and some have it on and some have it off, I leave mine off. This is true for our stand-ups: we have a mix of off-and-on, and I leave mine off.

I work in an enterprise financial org, and this seems to work well with my cohorts.

If it's a quick question I'll use voice only. For longer discussions I'll turn on video. Sometimes I'll unmute video when I raise my hand. Other times difficult questions are proxied via text to be read anonymously by a co-worker.

It all depends on the size and the vibe of the meeting.

Off. For remote work there is no needs in watching faces of each other to solve tasks related to programming.

Sharing screenshots of working display is enough.

But video on is definitely better for building and maintaining relationships.

But, the problem is that people treat voice calls as an invitation to go walk the dog or do the dishes. There may well be plenty of meetings where that's totally okay and a great use of time—but oftentimes you actually, y'know, need to have everyone paying attention.

I don't know if there's a way to resolve this.

Also someone is almost always screen-sharing, which means having the thumbnails is just taking away screen real estate from seeing what they're sharing.

Other factor is if others have their video on or not.

For my larger team meetings where some of the team is overseas, I tend to leave it off as not everyone has a great internet connection.

I'm always default ON when meeting with people outside our company as well. if anything because I'm used to using body language in conversations and it seems to move things along more naturally than it would with a phone-style meeting.

If it's a general meeting or a long meeting where I won't be speaking much I turned it off and I also mute myself of course. This allows me to do something else. Usually I will use this 30-50 minutes meeting to cook something healthy.

I almost treat the meeting an audiobook and I jump in when I need to react.

It is signalling. Use of signalling without explicit communication is abuse.

I've noticed that leadership tend to have cameras on and non-leadership tends to have cameras off. I don't know what the mindset different is there, but it kinda sucks for someone like me.

I often assume that people with the camera off aren't paying attention, and that's probably not something that you want others to think of you.

I do think that visually seeing people can create a stronger sense of connection than with just voice.

Also, as a hearing-impaired person, reading lips really helps, and if I can't see your lips, my understanding of what you're saying is impaired. So, I guess... consider turning your camera on.

Unless -

* A new person is joining the call * We are meeting another team * I'm presenting * It's one of those meetings where we just casually hangout

I too am disappointed at the amount of "off" responses.

Video: OFF, Audio: ON