Hand gestures on video calls: what to do with your hands.

By the Ace Coach team, built with the best speech coaches · Updated October 28, 2026 · How we write

Why gestures help you speak

Gestures aren't just for the audience. In a classic experiment, people described cartoons to a listener with and without being allowed to move their hands. When they couldn't gesture, their speech about spatial things, like where something moved, became less fluent (Rauscher, Krauss and Chen, *Psychological Science*, 1996). Moving your hands helps you find words.

On a video call, though, the usual framing hides them. If your camera only shows your face, every gesture happens out of shot, and the viewer sees your shoulders twitching. Worse, hands with nothing to do often end up on your face or hair. The face touching guide covers that side.

Frame yourself so your hands show

• Sit back a little. Show your head, shoulders and the top of your chest. That leaves room for gestures in the lower part of the frame.
• Keep the camera at eye level. Then your hands don't loom large in front of a lens that's below you. The camera and lighting guide has the setup.
• Check with a test recording. Raise your hands to chest height and make sure they're in the picture, not cut off at the bottom.

How to gesture on camera

• Chest height, close to your body. Big gestures far from the body leave the frame or blur. Small, clear movements at chest height read well on a small screen.
• Match the gesture to the word. Count points on your fingers, hold your hands apart for “big”, move them left to right for a timeline. A gesture that means something beats constant waving.
• Slow down. Fast movements smear on webcams. Move a little slower than you would in person.
• Rest between points. Let your hands drop to a resting position below the frame when you finish a point, then bring them back for the next one.

Three drills

1. Hands in frame. Raise your hands into view at the start of an answer and keep them in the picture while you talk.
2. Explain with your hands. Describe how something works, like a process at your job, using your hands to show each step.
3. One hand per point. Count your points out loud and move a hand for each one.

With the camera on, Ace Coach reviews each practice call for your gestures, face touches and eye contact, so you can see whether your hands are helping.