Ace 
Why eye contact on camera is worth practicing
On a call, the person you're talking to is on your screen and the camera sits above it, so looking at them reads as looking down. It costs more than it seems. In a 2024 study of simulated online job interviews, the same candidates were rated lower on likability, job ability and hireability when their gaze was skewed down at the screen than when they looked at the camera (Shinya and colleagues, *Scientific Reports*, 2024).
Knowing that doesn't fix it. In the middle of an answer you're thinking about what to say, not where your eyes are. The habit only changes when you see your own pattern, practice the fix, and check it again.
How it works in Ace Coach
- Have a practice call with the camera on. An AI interviewer, investor or audience asks you questions and you answer out loud, like the real thing.
- See where your eyes went. Ace tracks your eyes for the whole call and shows every moment you looked down or away, and whether your eyes were up for your key lines.
- Get one fix. Your coach picks the change that matters most, such as looking up for your opening sentence, and shows you the moment it happened.
- Drill it, then try again. A short eye drill trains the fix, and your next call shows whether it held.
What Ace looks at
Ace reads more than 35 signals across what you say, how you sound and how you look on camera. These are the ones about your eyes and your picture.
Eyes toward the screen
How much of the call your eyes stayed with the screen and the person on it.
Eyes on your key lines
Whether you looked up when you said the lines that matter most.
Look-downs
Long looks down at notes, a keyboard or your phone.
Side glances
Looking off to the side while you talk, which can read as evasive.
Blinks and steadiness
How often you blink and how steady your eyes and head stay.
Camera height and framing
Whether your camera sits at eye level and you're well placed and lit in the frame.
Eye drills
Short exercises you can run between calls, each aimed at one habit:
- Eyes on the screen. Answer a question and keep your eyes with the screen the whole way through.
- Look up for the line. Read your key line, then look up and say it to the camera.
- Glance and go. With notes on the desk, glance down quietly, then look up before you speak.
- Think, then come back. Look aside to think if you need to, then bring your eyes back before you start talking.
Eye contact correction or eye contact practice?
Tools like NVIDIA Broadcast, Windows Studio Effects, FaceTime's Eye Contact setting and Descript use AI to redraw your eyes so they appear to look at the lens. Ace doesn't change your video. It shows you your own habits so you can look up when it counts, on any device and in any app.
| AI eye contact correction | Eye contact practice with Ace | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Redraws your eyes toward the lens, live or after recording | Shows where you looked and trains the habit |
| Where it works | Only on the device and app that has it | Anywhere you speak, because the habit is yours |
| When you look away to think | Can look fixed or glitch when you turn your head | Natural glances stay natural |
| What you need | Specific hardware or apps, depending on the tool | A browser and a camera |
The eye contact correction guide covers each correction tool, and how to make eye contact on video calls has the setup and the three moments to look up.
Questions
Yes. Ace uses the camera you already have in your browser. Raise it to eye level first, so you're not looking down into it.
Yes. Hold or prop the phone at eye level so the camera isn't looking up at you.
Recordings are used to give you feedback and are deleted after 30 days. The privacy policy has the details.
Yes. The glance-and-go drill is built for that: notes are fine as long as you look up before you speak.
What you need
Use Ace in your browser on a phone or computer. Bring a microphone; the camera is optional. Turn it on for feedback on eye contact.