The camera and the avatar

Both open with ⌘K (type "webcam" or "avatar").

The webcam panel

The body of the panel is the image and nothing else. The controls live in the right-click menu, which opens both over the header and over the image:

• Camera: picks the image source. The list holds the cameras macOS can see right now, including the iPhone's Continuity Camera and Desk View. System default leaves the choice to macOS. Connecting or disconnecting a camera updates the list without reopening the panel.
• Mirror the image: flips the image horizontally. Capture is not restarted.

The chosen camera and mirror setting are stored in the panel, and reopening the app restores them. If the chosen camera disappears, the panel falls back to the system default instead of going blank.

One panel in the whole app

There is one webcam panel, not one per project. Opening the webcam in a canvas where it isn't brings the panel there, and capture is not interrupted by the move.

When the camera turns itself off

• During a meeting: the panel releases the camera to the call and takes it back when the meeting ends. See calendar and meetings.
• With the app window closed: the app keeps running without the window, and the camera is released along with it.

The camera only resumes capturing when neither reason is active.

Out of the grid, only the image is left

With the canvas in automatic layout, the header has a Soltar da grade button. Out of the grid and unselected, the webcam panel loses its header and border: only the image remains. In that state it moves by dragging the image itself, and a click brings the controls back.

The permission

macOS asks for camera access the first time. If access is denied, the panel shows Camera access is blocked along with the path to grant it in System Settings. Authorized but with no camera available, it shows No camera found. See the permissions macOS asks for.

By voice

Open the panel, mirror, unmirror, and switch cameras by saying part of the camera's name ("use the iPhone one"). With the panel closed, the command opens it before doing the rest.

Which camera a new panel starts with

In Settings → Webcam.

• Default camera: the camera a new webcam panel opens with.
• Mirror the image by default: whether a new panel starts with the image flipped.

Both apply to the next panel. Neither changes a panel that is already open, which keeps the choice made in it.

The avatar panel

The assistant's face, drawn in characters over an animated background. The drawing runs on a local page inside the app: none of it leaves your machine.

The panel has no controls. What drives it is the voice conversation:

• when the conversation opens, the face condenses out of the background;
• while she speaks, the mouth follows the level of the voice going out;
• when the conversation ends, the face dissolves and the background is left.

The face takes the accent color of the theme of the canvas the panel is in, and changes along when you switch projects. See appearance.

Like the webcam, the avatar is one in the whole app, and it loses its header and border when out of the grid.

For what the assistant does beyond showing up, see talking to Nina.