How to Set Up a Profile Picture on Zoom

Am I talking to a person or a black hole?

Dear Remote and Virtual students - we get it, you don’t want to show your face in class via webcam all of the time. Maybe you’re slowly slipping into a nap, want to suddenly wolf down a cheeseburger without looks of disgust, or perhaps just need to pick your nose (no judgments passed here). Whatever the case, the rest of us (classmates and teachers) would still like to be reminded of who you are and what you look like, even when your camera is off.

Thus, for today’s tutorial, I will teach you how to easily set a profile pic on Zoom that shows as a substitute for your face whenever you need to turn your camera off for a bit.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to sign into Zoom using a Google Account, your profile pic should be automatically set to your Google avatar. If logged in as a regular email user, however, you should see something like the following:

Notice the avatar on the top-right — the default is just your initials — how utterly basic. Click on the gears icon to enter the settings menu to change this.

Scroll down to and select the ‘Profile’ tab on the left navigation bar.

Click anywhere on the initials avatar to enter the file select menu.

Choose a suitable picture from your computer. Keep in mind your classmates and teachers will be seeing this a lot. So no nudes, please.

Drag the magnification slider to crop your selected photo so it fits within the general avatar shape. Make sure half your face isn’t accidentally cut off or any tramp-stamps are showing. Hit save when you’re satisfied with the result.

And wah-lah! We now have a pictorial representation of ourselves when we’re feeling too shy to appear on camera. They’ll never question our attendance ever again…

Today we learned how simple and easy it is to set a default profile picture on Zoom that displays whenever our cameras are off. I expect to see all your lovely faces on Zoom now (especially if you’re not actually there).