disable Video Reaction (macOS 14+)

[Thrawnium06]

Is there a possibility to disable the new feature in macOS Sonoma *Video Reaction* by default with a profile?

It leads already with us several times to the fact that in an important meeting from the nothing e.g. balloons came. This is not very professional.

Would there also be the possibility that the users (if they want it) can activate this feature again?

Thanks for any advice on how I can disable this.

[PaulHazelden · Accepted solution]

I aquired a script from Macadmins Slack, which is supposed to do what you want. However in the limited testing I have done here it is still working, but I really have only tried it a little bit on one test Mac.

Appologies to the author of the script, I cant remember your name to put here.

# All Applications to disable Sonoma reactions for
allApps=(
    "videoeffects/us-zoom-xos/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/us-zoom-xos/gestures-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-microsoft-teams/gestures-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-microsoft-teams/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-microsoft-teams-helper/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-apple-QuickTimePlayerX/gestures-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-apple-systempreferences/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-apple-controlcenter/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-apple-cmio-ContinuityCaptureAgent/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-apple-Safari/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-apple-QuickTimePlayerX/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-apple-FaceTime/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-apple-Safari/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-microsoft-teams2/reactions-enabled"
    "videoeffects/com-microsoft-teams2/gestures-enabled")

#plist location to edit
plist="Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.secure-control-center-preferences/Library/Preferences/group.com.apple.secure-control-center-preferences.av.plist"

# For each local user disable Sonoma reactions for all specified applications
localUsers=$( dscl . list /Users UniqueID | awk '$2 >= 501 {print $1}' | grep -v admin )
echo "$localUsers" | while read user; do
    user=`stat -f "%Su" /dev/console`
    echo "User: $user"

    for domain in "${allApps[@]}"; do
        result=$(sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set $domain false" "/Users/$user/$plist" 2>&1)
        echo "$domain"
        
        if [[ "$result" == *"Does Not Exist"* ]]; then
            echo "Adding $domain to false"
            
            /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add $domain bool false" "/Users/$user/$plist"
        elif [[ "$result" == *"Error"* ]]; then
            echo "An error occurred: $result"
        else
            echo "Setting $domain to false"
        fi
    done
done

#User Default Template
for domain in "${allApps[@]}"; do
    /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add $domain bool false" "/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/$plist"
done

 As with all scripts, Test, Test and Test again.

I have been busy with other things, so have not had the time to devote to this to see if it works properly.

[Thrawnium06]

Thanks a lot @PaulHazelden 
Will test it :-)

[bcbackes]

Yes, I to got the answer on the MacAdmins Slack Channel. I've tested it on my test device and it works for Teams. NOTE: I had to close the app completely and relaunch it.

Link to the script. 

[Thrawnium06]

After my first tests, it seems to work!

Still found this profile: https://github.com/poundbangbash/community-video-reactions-management
But with the profile, it did not work for us.

[helpdesk_it]

I've tested the above script on multiple computers in our environment running macOS 14 and it works fine, however neither the script or the config profile seems to work on macOS 14.1. Has anyone else run into this issue? reading the .plist before and after i can confirm that the change does apply correctly and the values do change for the .plist parameters, however no change is actually occurring to the gestures or reactions...what gives?

[tboothman]

I am getting the same issue here. Doesn't seem to work on 14.1 

[jfriedel]

I'm on 14.2.1 and tested with both the script and the profile. Unfortunately it's not working. :(
So annoying that there is still nothing like a system wide option to turn this off completely. Lots of serious meetings have already been ruined by this annoying feature. 

[MichielD]

I think if Apple really wants to take Enterprise seriously, as they always say they do, they should think about limiting stuff like this in an MDM enrolled device. But hey, who are we... 

[thlemaire]

Hello. tested the profil and it works on Sonoma 14.3. but once applied, you need to reboot macOS for it to take effect. if you install a new app, you also need to reboot.