Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and others are incredible tools – bringing together teams of people separated by continents and allowing work to continue as normal, despite lockdown measures enforced across the globe to the ongoing public health crisis. But let’s be honest, these videoconferencing apps can also be a horror show. We’ve all either witnessed or heard harrowing tales from eye-witnesses of colleagues appearing shirtless, picking their nose, or being interrupted by family members in the background undressing for their morning shower …the list goes on.
These unfortunate incidents are not exactly uncommon. While most of us are accustomed to checking ourselves in the mirror before heading to work, or sneakily making sure there’s nothing between or teeth using the selfie camera on our smartphone before a meeting in the office – there’s a troubling number of people who launch into a video call without the necessary checks.
And that’s where Hand Mirror comes in.
This is a free application for macOS that lives in the menu bar that runs along the top of your screen at all times. Tapping on the icon loads a small rearview mirror that lets you check your teeth, hair, and background or any nude partners, embarrassing family members, cringe-inducing books on the bookshelf, or anything else that might distract colleagues during the Monday morning Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Slack call.
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Click on the Hand Mirror icon again, and the little mirror (which uses the front-facing camera on your iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro to show what your colleagues will soon be able to clap eyes on) vanishes. Simple.
There are a few tweaks available in the Preferences menu, including the ability to change the menu bar icon, the size of the “mirror” that pops up when you click on the icon, as well as how to close the app.
Some video conferencing apps, like Google Meet, show a small preview window of the video from your front-facing camera before you join the meeting, while others, like Amazon Chime, do not. If you want a little more time to check your appearance and background before joining your next video call, this lightweight macOS app could be the answer.
You can download it for free right here.
