How to blur the background in Microsoft Teams
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Microsoft Teams has a feature where you can blur your background, putting you in the focus, and concealing everything behind you. Here’s how to use it.
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- Before a call: You should notice a purple slider next to the video icon. It will be the second one from the left. Click this slider to turn on the background blur feature
- During a call: Hover your mouse over the bottom middle part of your screen and click the “…” icon. You’ll want to choose the blur my background option.
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Applies to All Windows 10 Versions
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Sometimes when you’re on a call in Microsoft Teams the unexpected can happen, especially when working from home. Someone might barge into the room and interrupt your call, or you might just be in a weird setting where you might not want others to see what’s happening in the background. No need to worry, though, as Microsoft Teams has a feature where you can blur your background, putting you in the focus, and concealing everything behind you. Here’s how to use it.
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There are two ways you can set up background blur in Microsoft Teams: Before a call, and during a call. We’ll be starting first before a call. To do this, you’ll want to start a meeting or join a call. On the join now screen where you choose your audio and video settings, you should notice a purple slider next to the video icon, it will be the second one from the left. You’ll want to click this slider so it’s on. Keep in mind, that you’ll only see this option during scheduled meetings, it might not work otherwise.
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Now, for the option to turn on background blur during a meeting in Microsoft Teams. With this method, you’ll want to hover your mouse over the bottom middle part of your screen. You should then see a “…” icon. You’ll want to click that and choose blur my background. You can always toggle this on and off as you see fit.
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It is worth noting that background blur is only supported on the web and MacOS for now. The feature also might not be available for your specific device yet either. If you don’t see the toggle switch for it, your device probably won’t support it. Microsoft also has a warning and mentions that background blurring might not always prevent sensitive information from being visible to other meeting members and participants.
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Blurring the background is just one cool trick in Microsoft Teams to help clean up or hide background messes during calls. As announced in March 2019, Microsoft is also working on a feature that lets you set a custom background during a call. The feature isn’t yet available for all Teams users, but recently, Microsoft employees who have been working from home have been spotted using the feature internally. The backgrounds are fairly goofy, ranging from an air-field to Star Wars and Star Trek.
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This all is included in our list of tricks and tips on how you can get the most out of your meetings in Teams. We’ve also got other guides and how-tos, and news articles relating to Microsoft Teams, so feel free to check it out and let us know if you’ve found the background blue feature useful by dropping us a comment below.
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