Learning how to change your Zoom background is a must in today's world of digital meetings.
The days of being "camera shy" during virtual conferences are long over. In fact, one worrying study found that 92% of executives think people who don't use cameras during meetings probably don't have a long-term future at the company.
While you don't necessarily need a virtual background to participate in a Zoom video meeting, it's hard to deny the visual flair these images bring to a meeting. Plus, if your home office or co-working space is a little messier than you'd like, a virtual background looks much better than a blurred screen.
So, how do you change Zoom background images and effects? Read on for the complete guide.
An Introduction to Zoom's Virtual Backgrounds
When apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams first launched video conferencing into the spotlight during the pandemic, they didn't give you many "background altering" options. Usually, the best you could get was a simple background blur feature.
Now, we're in an entirely new world, complete with high-definition virtual background images, videos, and even background animations. With Zoom, you can replace your background with a pre-set image (chosen by Zoom), upload your own pictures, or even use looping videos for your background. You can also use the "background masking" feature in the Zoom web client.
While you'll still get the best results if you have a green screen lying around, you don't need one. All you need is a decent camera and the right computer performance specs.
How to Change Zoom Background Effects: Prerequisites
Any Zoom customer can use virtual backgrounds on the platform, regardless of whether you're a paying user on a plan like Zoom One or you're using the free app. However, you will need to ensure that virtual backgrounds are enabled on your app.
Enabling Zoom Backgrounds: The Guide for Admins
If you're a Zoom admin, you can enable virtual backgrounds for all users on your enterprise account, or you can simply give the feature to select groups of employees. To allow backgrounds for everyone, sign in to your Zoom web portal as an administrator and choose Account Management, followed by Account Settings. Next:
- In the Meeting tab, click on Virtual Background under the Meeting (Advanced)
- If the feature is disabled, click the toggle to enable it.
- If you want to make virtual backgrounds mandatory for everyone, click the Lock.
You can also enable a range of optional settings, such as:
- Allowing the use of videos for virtual backgrounds.
- Allowing users to upload their own custom backgrounds.
- Requiring users always to use a virtual background
The process is relatively similar if you only want some people in your team to use virtual backgrounds. Instead of going to the Account Management page, click User Management followed by Groups, then select the group name for which you want to enable backgrounds. Click on the Meetings tab, followed by Settings, and check virtual backgrounds are enabled.
Once again, you'll be able to implement all the optional extras mentioned above, such as allowing users to use custom or video backgrounds.
Managing Virtual Backgrounds (for Admins)
Admins can also use the Manage virtual background option on Zoom to upload virtual backgrounds for all users in an account or group to use. Just click on Manage virtual background, then Choose Files to select the images you want employees to use.
Notably, this feature does require you to have a Pro, Business, Education, or Enterprise account. If you're using the free version of Zoom, you won't be able to manage custom backgrounds.
Enabling Zoom Backgrounds: The Guide for Users
As an individual user, you can also enable the virtual background feature for yourself. All you need to do is sign into the Zoom web portal and click Settings in the navigation menu. Go to the Meetings tab and scroll to the Virtual Background option to check it's toggled on.
If the option is greyed out, this means that virtual backgrounds have been locked at an account or group level, so you'll need to reach out to your administrator.
As a user, you can also choose between leveraging existing Zoom backgrounds or uploading your own images and videos (if your administrator allows it).
There aren't any size restrictions for uploading photos for virtual backgrounds, but Zoom does recommend cropping images to match your camera's aspect ratio. You'll also need to ensure your images are 24-bit PNG or JPG/JPEG format.
If you want to change Zoom background videos, you'll need an MP4 or MOV video file with at least a resolution of 360p and a maximum resolution of 1080p.
