But you should be able to tell in a flash if the results are acceptable. How well Zoom distinguishes you and applies the background correctly appears to be both a function of your webcam and your computer’s processor: The better they are, the more accurate the result. The Zoom client does a pretty good job of distinguishing my navy-blue sweatshirt from the dark background, too. Zoom will arrange your available backgrounds beneath the video window. (As you might expect, video files have a small camcorder icon in the corner.)
But if you click one of the images below your video window, you should see what’s behind you replaced with either a static image (the Golden Gate Bridge is a favorite) or else a slowly looping video background, like the northern lights or Zoom’s beach scene. By default, Zoom turns on your webcam, and you should see what others in your chat will see: you, and your background. The gear icon hides Zoom’s Settings menu. This opens up a wealth of options, but the relevant one for us is the Virtual Background option. The first thing to do is to click the Zoom Settings gear in the upper right-hand corner. When the Zoom main screen opens up, you’ll see the Zoom main page.
Virtual backgrounds are also available for iOS (with an iPhone 8, 8+, or X, or an iPad Pro and the 5th and 6th-gen iPads) but support for Android isn’t listed. This is all simple enough that it will either work, or it won’t. If you don’t know what you have, don’t worry.
A PC with a supported microprocessor: a quad-core 6th-gen Core i5 (except a U-series chip) a quad-core 4th-gen Core i7 or any 3GHz processor with 8 cores or more.
Zoom has a rather complex list of minimum requirements that you’ll need to enable custom backgrounds, but here’s what they boil down to: That changed last year, when the Zoom desktop app became smart enough to distinguish you from the objects behind you. Custom backgrounds don’t seem to work on the Zoom web client, though. Historically, Zoom required a “green screen” to enable custom backgrounds-yes, the literal green backdrop traditionally used by movies to enable a canvas for computer-generated special effects.
How to turn on custom backgrounds within Zoom We’ll also show you how to select your own background video to replace Zoom’s basic options. But there’s more: Zoom offers background video, too-a looping video that can replace the Zoom’s static background image. We’ll show you how to enable that option and take advantage of Zoom’s built-in backgrounds. Zoom’s AI-generated backgrounds are pretty seamless with a good PC. After enabling that background, the only thing the camera will see is your face, like this: Mark Hachman / IDG
But Zoom, like Microsoft Teams, can use custom backgrounds that completely obscure all that background clutter. Normally, a webcam shows just what it sees: you, your kitchen table, maybe an unkempt desk in the background. Many companies have ordered employees to work from home, schools and colleges have been moved online, and cities have shut down large gatherings.It’s as easy to make a custom Zoom background that’s silly to mess around with your friends and coworkers, as it is to make a serious Zoom background for business meetings. As the virus continues to spread in the US, an increasing number of measures are being taken to "flatten the curve" and prevent coronavirus' escalation. Zoom, like many remote workplace and video-calling apps, has surged in popularity amid the outbreak of COVID-19, the coronavirus disease. It's a look that's been popular since Hollywood's Golden Age, and photographers have tried to mimic the look with low-tech hacks, such as covering a camera lens with Vaseline or pantyhose. The Zoom effect, as first pointed out by The Cut, is essentially a built-in skin-smoothing filter favored by beauty vloggers that makes your face look more polished and unblemished.
The filter helps to "smooth out the skin tone on your face, to present a more polished looking appearance," according to Zoom. Zoom has a feature available that lets you continue to rock your work-from-home aesthetic, while still looking nice enough to tune into a business meeting or college class. I'll admit it's already become incredibly difficult to convince myself to make an effort to get ready and dressed for another day of working from home.