

Generally speaking bigger is better in terms of the results. To load up an image of your own choosing, click the “+” above Add image and select any photograph or other graphic on your computer. I know, the proverbial grass is always greener on the other side of the fence… I really like this visual effect and, of all things, wish I could use something similar in Zoom. To blur all that out, simply click on “ Blur” in the “Choose background effect” area. In my case, the stairs and a coffee picture on my wall. Definitely check out your settings overall, then when you move into this area, you can see what other participants would see.

I’ve already jumped into “ Audio & Video” which you’ll want to do once you’ve poked around on some of the other settings and options. You can, of course, also just go to “Preferences…” off the Skype menu on the very top, but I prefer the three-dot menu because it’s short and simple.Ĭhoose “ Settings” (or use the keyboard shortcut Command-,) and you’ll find that there are a staggering number of different possibilities:

” link on the top right of this window.First off, launch Skype and there’s no obvious way to change your background – or even preview y0ur background, for that matter:Įxcept there actually is a way to test and preview both your audio and video. Let’s just jump in and have a look at how it works.
#GET DARK BACKGROUND SKYPE FOR MAC PRO#
But I had it working just fine on my MacBook Pro so hopefully your system will support it too.
#GET DARK BACKGROUND SKYPE FOR MAC PC#
What people don’t realize, however, is that Skype not only has virtual backgrounds but it also has a really helpful ‘blur background’ feature which you might appreciate even more! There are some hardware constraints with all of this, however, so if you have an ancient old PC that can barely launch Skype at all, you might lack the CPU oomph to have all this work properly. I wrote about using virtual backgrounds with Zoom if you want to check that out. Not sure what I’m talking about here? It’s when you can superimpose a photo, drawing, or even video behind you in a video chat. I think Zoom is more popular because it was adopted by schools and gained lots of visibility quickly, but to be fair, Zoom’s designers also had a chance to learn from Skype’s design and add some fun features to differentiate from the business video meeting tool. Though it doesn’t get much love, Skype is still a great video conferencing, chat and meeting tool used worldwide.
