How to Hide Your Camera on Skype

By Naomi Bolton

Hide your camera in Skype if you prefer not to video chat with other users.
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The Skype video messaging feature is useful when you want to communicate with someone face to face. There may be times, however, when you might prefer to hide your camera, either for privacy reasons or because you want to reserve video chat to close friends and relatives only. While you could simply unplug your webcam, this is not always possible with laptops that have built-in webcams. Skype does have an option to hide your webcam if you prefer communicating with other users via text or voice chat only.

Step 1

Launch the Skype application and sign in to your account.

Step 2

Click "Tools" on the menu bar, and then click "Options."

Step 3

Click "Video Settings" on the left column, and then click the radio button next to "no one" in the "Show that I have video to" section.

Step 4

Click the "Save" button to commit to the changes.

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