How to make and maintain eye contact on Zoom
By Zakaria Reziki · · 7 min read
To make and maintain eye contact on Zoom, get the camera to eye level, shrink the Zoom window and drag it right under the lens, hide your self view, and look into that strip while you talk. When you listen, look at faces. Here is how to set each part up on a Mac.
Where should you look on a Zoom call?
Slightly below the camera, not into it. A 2025 Journal of Vision study found perceived eye contact peaks about 2° below the lens (Gao et al.), which is roughly 2 cm at laptop distance. The full explanation and the numbers are in our guide to where to look on a video call. The rest of this article is about getting Zoom to put the things you want to look at inside that strip.
Set your camera height and framing
Eye contact starts before Zoom opens. If the camera sits below your eyes, it looks up at you, and no window placement fixes that.
- Raise the camera to eye level. On a laptop, put it on a stand or a stack of books until the lens is level with your eyes or a little above.
- Straighten the lid. Tilting a laptop lid far back points the camera at the ceiling. Keep it close to vertical.
- Sit 50–70 cm back. Distance shrinks angles. At 45 cm the centre of a 14-inch MacBook screen is about 12° below the camera. At 65 cm it is under 9°.
- Frame head and shoulders. Your eyes should sit about a third of the way down the frame, not in the middle.
- Light your face from the front. A lamp or window behind the screen lets viewers see your eyes. Zoom's video settings also include an Adjust for low light option (Zoom Support).
If you use a MacBook, the camera is at the top centre of the display, and raising the laptop matters more than on a desktop monitor. Our MacBook camera eye contact guide covers laptop height, lid angle and external displays.
Move the Zoom window next to the camera
This is the single most useful change. By default Zoom often fills the screen, so the face you are talking to lands in the middle, around 10 cm below a laptop camera. That is roughly 10° at a normal distance, five times the sweet spot.
- Leave full screen, so you can resize the meeting window.
- Make the window small, roughly a quarter of the screen width.
- Drag it to the top centre of the screen, so its top edge sits just under the menu bar and camera.
- Switch to Speaker view so the window shows one large face: whoever is talking.
Zoom also has a floating thumbnail window that minimises the main window but keeps video on top of other apps. Zoom's help centre notes you can move it around the screen (Adjusting your video layout). Parked under the camera, it keeps faces in the eye-contact strip while you work in another app.
On a desktop with an external webcam, the rule is the same: the Zoom window goes to the top edge of the screen that has the camera, centred below the lens. If your camera is on one monitor and Zoom is on another, you will look sideways, which viewers notice most.
Zoom settings that help eye contact
| Setting | Where | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Hide Self View | Hover over your own video, click the three-dot menu | Your own face is the strongest pull away from the lens. Others still see you. |
| Speaker view | View button, top-right of the meeting window | One large face you can park under the camera. |
| Floating thumbnail window | Minimise the meeting window | Small, movable, stays on top of other apps. |
| Adjust for low light | Zoom's video settings | Brighter video makes your eyes readable. |
Zoom documents Hide Self View as an in-meeting action (Showing and hiding your video), so set it at the start of each call. Gallery view is useful when you need to read the whole room, but it spreads faces across the screen. In a large grid, the face you are answering could be 15 cm from the lens.
What to do while speaking vs. listening
When you speak
Look into the strip just under the camera. You do not need to hold it for every second. Prioritise the moments that carry weight: your opening line, the point you want remembered, a direct answer to a question, and any request you make. Glancing away while you think is normal in person too, as long as you come back.
When you listen
Look at the speaker's face. You need to read reactions, and people expect a listener to be watching them. With the Zoom window parked under the camera, that face is already close to the lens, so even listening looks attentive.
The switch
The giveaway on most calls is the handover. Someone asks you a question, and you answer while still looking at their tile or your notes. Move your eyes up to the camera strip as you start speaking. It takes a moment and changes how the answer lands.
How to glance at notes on Zoom without breaking eye contact
Notes cause the same problem as faces: a document in the middle of the screen is about 10° below a laptop camera. Put them in the same strip as the Zoom window, and keep them short, a few words per point. We cover formats and tricks in how to read notes during a video call.
This is what Cuey for Zoom does. It is a Mac teleprompter that sits under the camera by default, or at the notch, beside the camera, or floating. In Notes mode you step through talking points one at a time. In Follow mode it listens to you and advances as you reach each line, so you never reach for the trackpad mid-sentence.
Common Zoom eye contact mistakes
| Mistake | What viewers see | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Full-screen Zoom, face in the middle | You look about 10° down | Small window at the top centre |
| Camera below eye level | Camera looks up your nose | Raise the laptop or webcam |
| Zoom on a second monitor, 30 cm to the side | About 27° sideways at 60 cm | Move Zoom to the screen with the camera |
| Watching your own tile | Eyes drift to a corner | Hide Self View |
| Notes in a separate window mid-screen | Reading, eyes sweeping | Short notes under the camera |
Zoom eye contact checklist
- Camera at eye level, lid near vertical, 50–70 cm away.
- Zoom out of full screen, small window, top centre, Speaker view.
- Hide Self View at the start of the call.
- Notes in the strip under the camera, not mid-screen.
- Look up to the camera strip when you start speaking.