How to Blur Video Background in Skype

Instead of always turning off video chat whenever you need to hide the background while having a call, Skype now allows you to change your background while having a video call. With the feature, can easily blur out the background or just change the background with an image.

You can have the setting set while having a video or you can set it for all the video calls, in which you won’t need to manually change it in every call. The feature is currently in only desktop apps only that are Windows, Mac, and Linux so you are not able to use it on mobile just yet.

How to Blur Video Background in Skype

You can blur the video background for only the current call with the following steps:

Note: If you can’t find the options described in the steps, you will need to update your Skype desktop application to the latest version. Skip to the last section for details on how to update your Skype application

1. While on the video call, hover the cursor over the video call to display the bottom options menu
2. Click on the More icon at the bottom right corner and the and the click Choose background effect

   

3. Select Blur from the list of backgrounds and it will be applied to the call

   

To set blur background for all videos by default, follow these steps:

1. From the Skype chat screen, click on your profile picture and then navigate to Settings
2. Move to Audio & Video settings
3. Under the Choose background effect section, select Blur

   

Updating Skype to Get the Blur Background Feature

Here are the methods on how you can update Skype to the latest build to make sure you have the blur background feature.

For Windows 10 users:

1. Open Microsoft Store and search for Skype in the search bar
2. Click on Skype from the results and then click Update then be patient until it finishes.

For Mac users:

1. Open Skype app
2. Click on Skype from the top toolbar
3. Click Check for updates and then click update

For Windows 7 & 8 users:

1. Open Skype app
2. Click on Help from the toolbar. If the toolbar is not visible, press the ALT keyboard button and it will the toolbar
3. Then click on Check for updates manually and then update