Fireworks and Confetti: Apple Video Feature Wreaks Havoc at Meetings

> Dennis Perpetua, a 46-year-old digital workplace experience officer based in Wilmington, N.Y., was on a one-on-one video call with his boss, in Zurich, when suddenly a thumbs-down emoji bubbled up beside Perpetua’s head.

I just realized that I never want to work in a job where me and my boss would not just laugh together at this absurd situation.

I wonder if this is a space where apple (and other webcam providers) would benefit from surfacing some API to the software. To allow an instance to instance control over these confetti features. So context the software is used in, can decide whether the call is a serious business call or family catchup where silliness is allowed. Eg it would be off by default in your orgs Microsoft teams, but on when you skyped friends and family.

On the other hand, it sounds like from the article, that the small gaffes from this technology sometimes help break up what can otherwise be a very impersonal experience. All else being equal, a lot the sensory impressions in a face to face meeting must disappear, in projecting it down into a 2d videofeed. So exaggerating what is left, even if it misses sometimes, maybe makes for a better experience.

It's spreading. If you use the web interface to Microsoft-hosted email, it's replacing certain words like "congratulations" with links that trigger animations like fireworks and confetti.