Starting with macOS Sonoma or later on a Mac with Apple silicon, or macOS Sonoma or later on a Mac using Continuity Camera with iPhone 12 or later, Apple has enabled by default a feature called "Reactions". Like Zoom gestures (which are disabled on SecureVideo accounts), these are visual effects that are triggered when your camera detects certain motions. The possible effects are: 

• Hearts: red hearts flying toward the screen, triggered by heart-hands
• Balloons: multi-colored balloons flying up to the ceiling, triggered by a peace sign
• Thumbs Up: a white hand in a gray speech bubble, triggered by a thumbs up
• Thumbs Down: a white hand in a gray speech bubble, triggered by a thumbs down
• Rain: the whole screen gets dark and shows white raindrops, triggered by two thumbs down
• Confetti: multi-colored squares move across the screen, triggered by two peace signs
• Fireworks: the whole screen gets dark and it looks like fireworks go off behind your head, triggered by two thumbs up
• Lasers: orange laser beams move up and down, triggered by making the sign of horns on each hand

The easiest to trigger seems to be the Thumbs Up:

Please see Apple's support article about the Reactions feature for all of the examples of the graphics.

The reaction feature is enabled by default, but can be disabled. 

1. While in a video session, click on the green video icon in the upper right hand corner area of your computer screen.

2. A menu will appear. Near the bottom will be an item "Reactions". If the icon to the left of it is green, the Reactions feature is turned on. Tap on that icon to turn it off. 

3. The icon should turn gray if it's been turned off.

This article was last reviewed by our Support team on November 6, 2023.