How to Blur the Background in Teams Meeting? [Desktop & Mobile]

Microsoft Teams can also access your webcam to enable video presentations and virtual conferences. Because of this, it becomes imperative to ensure that anything that the meeting attendees see looks decent and professional. One of the things that most people get conscious about during a video call is the background.

Many times, the walls of the rooms the organizer and/or the invitees are using during the session might not be well-maintained. This is the main reason why everyone using the app must learn how to blur the background in Teams.

With that said, the following sections explain how to blur the background in Microsoft Teams on a computer, cellphone, and tablet.

• Part 1: Blur Background on Teams on a Windows Laptop Before or During a Video Call
• Part 2: Blur Background on Teams on a MacBook Pro Before or During a Video Call
• Part 3: Blur Background in Teams Mobile App Before or During a Video Call
• Part 4: FAQs about Blur Teams Meeting Background
• Part 5: How to Blur Video Background on Teams Recorded Video?

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Part 1: How to Blur Background on Teams on a Windows Laptop Before or During a Video Call?

Microsoft Teams allows you to blur the background of the webcam footage before you start or join a video call, during an ongoing session. The methods of getting this done on the laptop computers are explained below in detail.

The following sections explain how to blur the background on Teams both before and during a video call while working on a Windows laptop. The step-by-step instructions are given below:

Method 1: Blur Background on Teams Before Video Call

If you have a meeting scheduled at a particular time but don’t know what to do with that homely background that wouldn’t go with the professional ambiance, luckily Microsoft Teams lets you blur it quite conveniently. The process is described as follows:

Step 1: Initiate a New Meeting Session

Launch Microsoft Teams, and make sure that the Chat icon is selected in the left pane. From the top of the Chat pane, click the New Meeting (Camcorder) icon, and click Start meeting.

Step 2: Check the Devices

On the Meeting with box, make sure that the Video and Audio switches present under the preview screen are enabled. Turn them on if they’re disabled. Next, click the Background effects (Person) icon from under the preview screen.

Step 3: Blur the Background before video call starts

From the Background settings pane that appears next, and click to select the Blur tile. After this, you can safely click the Join now button to start a Teams video meeting with the blurred background.

Note: While using other operating systems/laptops like Linux, Chromebook, etc., the process of blurring the background before a video call is identical. This means all you need to do is, initiate a new video meeting, click the Background effects (Person) icon from under the preview screen, and select the Blur tile before clicking the Join now button.

Method 2: Blur Background on Teams During Video Call

If you started or joined a Teams meeting without blurring the background, and want to do so during an ongoing call, you can follow the instructions given below to learn how to blur background in Teams while in a virtual conference session:

Step 1: Open the Background settings Pane

During an ongoing video call, click More actions from the upper-right area of the meeting window, and click Apply background effects from the menu that comes down.

Step 2: Blur Background during the video call

When the Background settings pane opens on the right of the window, click to select the Blur tile.

Step 3: Save the Changes

From the bottom of the Background settings pane, click Apply to blur the background. Optionally, you can click Preview to see how the screen would look upon blurring, and apply the changes only when you are satisfied with the output.

Part 2: How to Blur Background on Teams on a MacBook Pro Before or During a Video Call?

As it is with Windows laptops, even MacBooks allow you to blur the background both before and during a video call. Both the methods are explained below:

Method 1: Blur Background on Teams Before Video Call

The steps that are given below explain how to blur background on Teams before initiating a video call:

Step 1: Initiate a New Meeting

Launch Microsoft Teams on your Mac computer, make sure that the Chat section is selected in the left pane of the main interface, click the New Meeting (Camcorder) icon from the top-right area of the Chat pane, and click Start meeting on the Meeting name box that opens next.

Step 2: Blur the Background before the video call starting

On the Meeting with box, from under the preview screen, turn on the Video and Audio switches if not already enabled. Click the Background effects (Person) icon present next to the Video and Audio switches, and click to select the Blur tile from the Background settings pane that appears on the right.

Step 3: Start or Join the Meeting

Once the above configurations are done, click Join now from under the preview screen to start or join a new video call with the blurred background.

Method 2: Blur Background on Teams During a Video Call

In addition to blurring the background before initiating a video call, even the Mac version of Microsoft Teams lets you get this done when you are in the middle of an ongoing meeting session as well. The process is given below:

Step 1: Start or Join Video Call

Use the method explained earlier to get to the Meeting with screen, and click Join now to start a new meeting or join an existing one.

Step 2: Get to the Background settings Pane

During a video call, click the More actions icon from the top-right area of the screen, and click Apply background effects from the menu that comes down next.

Step 3: Blur the Background during a video call on Mac

When the Background settings pane appears on the left, click to select the Blur tile, and click Apply from the bottom of the pane. Optionally, you can also click Preview from the bottom to see how would the blurred background look to the attendees before applying the changes.

Part 3: How to Blur Background in Teams Mobile App Before or During a Video Call?

At the time of this writing, the Microsoft Teams mobile app allows you to change the background only during a video call and that too only on the iOS platform, be it iPhone or iPad. If you’re using the Android phone or tablet, you may not blur the background on Teams video call. You can learn how to blur the background in Microsoft Teams while using an iOS device (iPhone X is used here for illustration) by following the steps given below:

Step 1: Start a New Meeting

Launch Microsoft Teams on your iPhone or iPad, ensure that the Chat icon is selected from the bottom of the interface, tap the Instant meeting (Camcorder) icon from the top-right corner of the screen, and tap Start meeting from the bottom of the box that appears next.

Step 2: Get to the Background Effects Screen

On the next screen, tap to enable both Video and Audio functions from the bottom, tap the More actions icon, and then tap Background effects from the box that comes up.

Step 3: Blur the Background

On the Select background screen, tap Blur from the options available in the box at the bottom, and tap Done from the top-right corner to apply the changes.

FAQs about Blur Teams Meeting Background

Q1) Why can’t I blur my background in Microsoft Teams?

A1) If you’re unable to see the ‘Blur’ tile or the ‘Background settings’ option altogether, probably your PC doesn’t have Advanced Vector Extension 2 (AVX2) graphics. While Microsoft is still working to make the ‘Blur’ option enable for all the devices, no official statement from the organization has been released to date.

On the other hand, if your computer has AVX2 and you still cannot see the option, you can try a couple of things, and see if any of those works for you. For instance, you can:

• Sign out of Teams and then sign back in
• Check for and update the webcam driver
• Check for and install the most updated version of Microsoft Teams
• Restart your computer

Q2) Can I blur the background in the Teams Business version?

A2) Yes, you can. Microsoft Teams (Free), Microsoft 365 Business Basic, and Microsoft 365 Business Standard versions allow you to blur the background with ease. You can find more details on the features and compatible programs on the (https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams-options) link.

Bonus: How to Blur Video Background on Teams Recorded Video?

If you have recorded the Teams video call during the meet and want to blur the background, you can try Wondershare Filmora, which allows you to blur videos in several ways.

Import your video to Filmora track, and then go to Effects – Utility, you will find tilt-shift linear and tilt-shift circle. Here I will choose the tilt-shift circle effect to blur the background.

Double click the video in the timeline, and go to video effect, here you can adjust the intensity, position, and size.

What’s more, if you want to remove the background and replace it with a new one, you can try the Human Segmentation under AI Portrait. This feature works even the background is not a green screen.

Check the video below to find out more creative usage of the Human Segmentation effect: