Why your logo looks backwards on video calls

You set up a background with your company logo, join a call, and the text reads backwards. Nothing is broken, and everyone else sees it the right way round.

What is happening

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Webex all mirror your own video preview by default. It is done for comfort. When you raise your right hand you see your reflection raise its right hand, the way a mirror behaves, rather than the disorienting reversal you would otherwise get.

That mirroring applies to the whole frame, including whatever is behind you. Participants receive the unmirrored camera feed, so they see your logo correctly.

How to check for certain

Join a meeting from a second device, a phone is easiest, and look at yourself as a participant. That view is what everyone else sees. If the logo reads correctly there, nothing needs fixing.

Turning it off

• Zoom: Settings, then Video and effects, then untick Mirror my video
• Microsoft Teams: no reliable setting, and it varies by version
• Google Meet: no setting exists

Turning it off feels strange at first, because you are no longer seeing a reflection of yourself. Most people adjust within a call or two.

Do not flip the image

The obvious fix is to horizontally flip the background file so it reads correctly on your screen. Do not do this.

A pre-flipped background looks right to you and backwards to every single participant, which is worse than the problem you started with. Plenty of people have run flipped backgrounds for years without realising, because their own preview looked fine the whole time.

The only situation where flipping is correct is if you have deliberately turned mirroring off and want your preview to match. Even then it is easier to leave the file alone.

The same applies to anything with text

Shirts with logos, whiteboards, books held up to camera, signs on the wall behind you. All of it reads backwards to you and correctly to everyone else.