how do i disable reactions?

I am a telehealth provider. Today, balloons went up while a patient was talking about a tragic situation. First, it was inappropriate, insensitive and distracting. Second, it led the client to wonder if the telehealth platform is actually HIPPA compliant. There needs to be a way to turn this feature off permanently. Turning it off every time if you see 5-10 clients a day is not practical. Is there any way to do that? So far the forums seem to be saying no.

Zoom and Google meet use the FaceTime video on OS. I successfully turned off Reactions in FaceTime, but it did not turn off system-wide, as when I'm on either Zoom or Google Meet, I still get totally inappropriate balloons flying by my face when I talk with my hands.

How do you turn off this incredibly annoying feature across all programs?

I am in the same boat as a telehealth healthcare provider. I do not understand how Apple overlooked this for their many professional users - does anyone know if there's a way to change it to opt-in instead of individually opting out?

Needs universal way to turn this off, and should be opt-in at that.

This feature crashes my external (elgato) webcam in every app. If switch to my elgato camera in zoom, browsers (each one is handled independently), etc -- an accidental reaction will immediately freeze the camera. I had this happen when I was trying to make a podcast recording with a guest! I was using a new browser and forgot to disable it in the new browser.

It's turned on for every location independently (each app) until you remember to turn it off. Absolutely beyond annoying, especially in professional settings, and even more so since it is crashing cameras too. Please make this opt-in only.

I'm completely on edge on conference calls because I seem to set off the 🫧 🫧 unexpectedly (and I guess I count with my thumb? I'd never noticed this before, but I keep setting off a shower of bubbles with my "first of all" gesture.)

The idea that anyone would assume that adult humans actually want random cutesy gestures to start appearing in their video calls without warning is just bonkers.

That’s not the issue I was talking about with elgato. Requesting a UNIVERSAL shut off here. As mentioned in my comment “It's turned on for every location independently (each app) until you remember to turn it off.” So turning it off isn’t the issue, I have always been using what is shown in the video. It’s that you have to do that for every single app. Do a therapy session in Firefox and usually use Chrome. Boom. Streamlabs desktop for your first livestream? Boom.

concerned-apple wrote:

I had this happen to me recently, and neither my client nor I (both on macbook airs) realised it was an apple thing. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to turn off reactions, and will tell my client as well, but a UNIVERSAL shut off and opt-in only feature should completely be installed. This is a ridiculous default feature to have on any device.

Tell Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

From the linked article:

To turn this feature on or off, select Reactions in the Video menu which appears in the menu bar when a video call is in progress.

tt2

As above use Product Feedback - Apple to raise this issue. Your particular example presents an obvious case where being able to disable a feature and have that option respected over time is really important.

tt2

I had this happen to me recently, and neither my client nor I (both on macbook airs) realised it was an apple thing. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to turn off reactions, and will tell my client as well, but a UNIVERSAL shut off and opt-in only feature should completely be installed. This is a ridiculous default feature to have on any device.

Today my commercial recording was tottaly ruined because of reactions.

I was recording two video signals from from two cameras plugged.

During 2.5 hours of serious conversation - reaction was appearing on screen but I DID NOT EXPECT THAT THIS IS RECORDED BY RECORDER !!!

I haven't seen green icon in topbar so there was no way to turn it off !!!

Now all my recording of 6 people on meeting is totally unprofessional and devasted by this idiot animations !!!!!!!!

I meant to say "that all adult humans" -- I respect that many people like the gestures. I resent that they were imposed on everyone with no explanation of how to shut them off.

I was getting the same elgato-related crashes. Not sure about others, but reactions was not even an option in the Facetime > Video menu for me. I found a YouTube video that shows this more clearly: it's the display manager in the menu bar where you can disable reactions, which was not at all obvious to me but this did solve my issue.

I would have assumed that turning off the reactions once would have been a sticky option that affected other applications using Apple's frameworks. I don't have any personal experience with these tools to draw on, but it would seem feedback to Apple may be in order. Use Product Feedback - Apple.

tt2

Salamander2024 wrote:

The idea that anyone would assume that adult humans actually want random cutesy gestures to start appearing in their video calls without warning is just bonkers.

And yet, it may be possible that not all adult humans have exactly the same needs and desires that you do.

Tell Apple what you'd like to see here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Meanwhile, as my mother used to say, keep your hands in your lap while you're talking.