How to make eye contact on Zoom (and still read your notes)

By Harshit Maurya, maker of Cued · Updated 31 October 2026

To make eye contact on Zoom, look into the camera lens, not at the faces on your screen, while you make your main points; look at people's faces while they talk. Raise the camera to eye level, drag the Zoom window to the top of the screen right under the camera, and keep any notes in a small strip just below the lens so a glance at them looks like a glance at the person.

Why you look away on Zoom even when you're paying attention

On a video call the camera and the other person's eyes are in two different places. The camera sits at the top of your screen; the face you're talking to sits in the middle of it. When you look at that face, which feels like eye contact to you, the camera sees you looking down. Chernoff Communications, a presentation coaching firm, puts it simply: to make eye contact on Zoom, "look at the camera", the small dot at the top of the screen.

The gap gets bigger with every extra thing you look at: the faces in the middle, your notes in another window, the chat on the right, a slide on a second monitor. Each one pulls your eyes further from the lens, and the people on the call see the top of your head or your eyes drifting sideways.

So eye contact on Zoom isn't really about willpower. It's mostly about layout: put everything you need to look at as close to the camera as you can, and the gap shrinks so much that it stops showing.

The further from the lens, the more it shows.
You look at	What the other person sees
The camera lens	You looking at them
Their face in the middle of the screen	You looking slightly down
Notes in a window beside the call	You looking down and to the side
A second monitor or paper on the desk	Your head turned away

Should you look at the camera or the screen?

Both, at different moments. Look into the lens when you speak, especially for the sentence that matters most: your main point, a question, a price, a thank-you. Look at the person's face when they speak, because you need to see their reactions, and listening to someone's face is what listening looks like on camera too.

You don't need to stare at the lens for the whole call. Chernoff's advice is to look at the camera "most of the time" while noting that it's fine to look away for a moment. Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson's 2021 paper on Zoom fatigue points out that face to face, people don't hold eye contact nonstop: the research he cites finds that two people talking spend substantial parts of a conversation looking away from each other, and when there's something to look at together, they look at each other's face less than half the time.

Bailenson argues that video calls already involve more close-up eye gaze than normal conversation, and that this may be one reason calls are tiring. He is clear that most of the paper's arguments are hypotheses that haven't been directly tested, so treat it as a reason to relax, not a rule. A natural rhythm is: lens for your key lines, faces while you listen, short glances at notes in between.

How to set up your Mac so eye contact is easy

These steps take five minutes once and work for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams alike.

Raise the camera to eye level. Georgetown University's guide to looking better on Zoom says to put the camera at or slightly above your eye level, and to set a laptop on an elevated surface to get there. A stand or a stack of books works. Looking up at a laptop camera on a desk pulls your gaze and your posture down.
Sit back a little. A bit of distance lets your shoulders and hands show and makes small eye movements less noticeable. Your face shouldn't fill the whole frame.
Move the Zoom window to the top of the screen. Drag the meeting window up so the faces sit just under the camera. Don't make it full screen if that puts faces in the middle of a large display.
Try the floating thumbnail. Zoom's help explains that the floating thumbnail view minimizes the main Zoom window into a small video window you can move around the screen. On macOS the minimize icon is at the top-left of the meeting window. Park the thumbnail right under the camera and the person you're talking to is almost in line with the lens.
Hide your own video. In Zoom, hover over your video, click the ellipses (…) and choose Hide Self View. Others still see you; you just stop seeing yourself. Zoom notes it leaves more room for other participants, and it removes the urge to check your own face, which is a common reason eyes drift.
Test it on a call with yourself. Start a Zoom meeting alone and record a minute of yourself talking while you look at the faces area and at your notes. Watch it back. If your eyes clearly drop, move things closer to the camera.

How to read your notes and still look at the camera

Notes are where most eye contact gets lost, because they usually sit in another window or on paper. The fix is the same as for faces: bring them up to the lens. Georgetown's guide suggests a makeshift teleprompter, a Word or Google doc in a small window right below your camera.

Keep notes short: one idea per line, a few words each, so one glance is enough.
Put the first word you'll say at the start of each line.
Make numbers, names and questions stand out, since those are what you'll look down for.
Read in the pauses, while the other person is talking, and look up into the lens when you deliver the line.
If you share your screen, remember a notes window will be shared too if you share your entire screen.

Our guide on how to read notes on a video call goes further into writing notes you can read at a glance and what to do if you lose your place.

Can AI fix your eye contact on a video call?

Some tools redraw your eyes so you appear to look at the camera even when you're reading. They exist, but on a Mac your options are limited, and the main ones are built for Windows PCs.

From NVIDIA, Microsoft and Apple support pages, read on 31 October 2026.
Tool	What it does	What you need
NVIDIA Broadcast, Eye Contact	NVIDIA says it uses AI to make it look like you're looking directly at the camera. When it was added in January 2023, NVIDIA called it a beta and said it transitions back to your real eyes if you look too far away.	Windows 10 or 11 and an NVIDIA RTX graphics card (GeForce RTX 2060 or better, per NVIDIA).
Windows Studio Effects, Eye contact	Microsoft describes it as adjusting your gaze on video calls to simulate eye contact. Standard is a subtle correction; Teleprompter is a stronger version.	A Windows PC with a neural processing unit (NPU). Microsoft lists the Teleprompter option for Snapdragon Copilot+ PCs only.
FaceTime on Mac	Apple's FaceTime guide for Mac lists effects such as Center Stage, Portrait, Studio Light and Presenter Overlay, but no eye-contact correction.	Not available as a FaceTime effect on Mac, per Apple's guide.

Even where it's available, gaze correction is a patch, not a fix. It can look odd when you turn your head or glance far away, and it doesn't change where your attention is. If you're reading a script word for word, people hear it in your voice whether or not your eyes look straight ahead. Short notes near the lens, and looking up for the lines that matter, solve both problems.

A two-minute routine before an important call

Check the camera height. Lens at or slightly above eye level, laptop raised if needed.
Line up the faces. Zoom window or floating thumbnail at the top of the screen, right under the camera. Hide Self View on.
Put notes under the lens. Five or six short lines in a narrow strip below the camera, not in a separate app halfway down.
Pick your lens moments. Decide the two or three sentences you'll say straight into the camera: the opening, the main point, the ask.
Look at the dot once. Before you join, look at the camera for a few seconds so you know exactly where it is. It's easy to lose track of a small dot once faces appear.

Notes right under the camera on a MacBook

On a MacBook with a notch, the closest place to the camera is the notch itself. Cued, a Mac app, shows your talking points there, right under the camera. They scroll by themselves at three speeds and pause when you point at them, so a glance at your notes is a glance at the lens. The notch is hidden from screen sharing and screen recordings, so you can share your entire screen in Zoom, Meet or Teams and nobody sees your notes.

Cued is also an AI note taker: it records calls in Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, FaceTime, Webex and Slack through the Mac itself, with no bot joining, and writes a live transcript, summary and action items on the Mac, offline. Because no bot joins, nobody is told automatically that you're recording, so telling people is up to you. It needs a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later, and it is a one-time payment, not a subscription. The free setup above works without it.

Questions

Should I look at the camera or the screen on a Zoom call?

Look at the camera when you speak, especially for your main points, and at the other person's face when they speak. Constant staring at the lens isn't needed; people don't hold eye contact nonstop face to face either.

How do I make eye contact on Zoom on a MacBook?

Raise the MacBook so the camera is at or slightly above eye level, drag the Zoom window or floating thumbnail to the top of the screen under the camera, turn on Hide Self View, and keep any notes in a small strip right below the lens.

Does Zoom have an eye contact feature?

Zoom's help pages on video and layout that we read don't mention one. AI eye-contact correction exists in NVIDIA Broadcast and Windows Studio Effects, which need certain Windows PCs. Apple's FaceTime guide for Mac lists no eye-contact effect.

Why do I look like I'm looking down on video calls?

Because you're looking at faces or notes below the camera. The camera is at the top of the screen, so anything lower makes your eyes look down. Move the call window and your notes up, close to the lens.

How can I read notes on Zoom without people noticing?

Keep them very short and put them just under the camera, then read in the pauses and look up into the lens to deliver each line. On a notched MacBook, a notch teleprompter like Cued puts them right beside the camera and hides them from screen sharing.

How much does Cued cost?

Cued is a one-time payment, not a subscription: $9 for the first 50 founding members, then $29 with a year of updates.

Try Cued on your next call. Your script in the notch, your call recorded and summarised on your Mac.

Download for Mac