Video conferencing and your home setting

With the times we're living we've no doubt all been faced with jumping into a meeting from home at a time we're less than ready. I can't advise you how to put makeup on or do your hair but I can tell you exactly how to blackout your background. Here's how:

MS Teams

Background effects are supported in all types of Teams meetings, including personal video chats, Meet now in a channel, or a call that you set up with another user for testing purposes. You can set background effects through the meeting pre-join screen (Windows client) or after the meeting starts. During a meeting, click the […] in the menu bar and then select Apply background effects (tip: use the CTRL-Shift-P combination to reveal background effects on a Windows PC). You can then select from a set of images:

None (blank).

Blur (same effect as background blurring - recommended option)

One of the set of curated images chosen by Microsoft.

Custom images uploaded by you (see below).

Zoom

Account

To enable the Virtual Background feature for all users in the account:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an administrator with permission to edit account settings.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. In the Meeting tab, navigate to the Virtual Background option (under the In Meeting (Advanced) section) and verify that the setting is enabled.
   Note: If the setting is disabled, click the toggle to enable it. If a verification dialog displays, choose Turn On to verify the change.
4. (Optional) If you want to make this setting mandatory for all users in your account, click the lock icon, and then click Lock to confirm the setting.
5. (Optional) Check Allow use of videos for virtual backgrounds then Save to confirm the change, to grant your users access to video virtual backgrounds. 
6. (Optional) Check Allow users to upload custom backgrounds then Save to confirm the change, to grant your users access to upload their own virtual backgrounds in addition to the backgrounds currently uploaded.
7. (Optional) Click Manage virtual background to upload default background images available for users.

Note: Users must have client/app version 5.1.1 or higher to see the background images you upload.

Google Meet

In a meeting:

On the bottom right, click More Customize and control Google Chrome

Click Turn on background blur .

Before a meeting:

Go to meet.google.com and then select the meeting.

On the bottom right of your self view, click Turn on background blur .

Click Join Now.

Something important to consider here is that the background setting has a direct impact on performance. If you're using a low bandwidth connection or the connection happens to be slow that day, you need to keep this in mind. This is also why I highly recommend the blur rather than any of the other settings because it is likely to have the least impact. Images and animations may appear fancy and fun but it will cost you.