- People are using video conferencing apps more than usual during the recent months.
- Skype introduced new custom backgrounds for video conversations.
- You could soon access the new feature and Microsoft provided the feature to its Teams earlier this month.
You may be using Zoom, Houseparty, Hangouts, Group FaceTime, or any other video conferencing app for different purposes during these times. A lot of the people are using these video conferencing apps more than usual during the lockdowns. There might be different reasons for using a specific video conferencing app instead of any other similar app. The main reason that people are using video conferencing apps more than usual is that most of the corporate networks have asked their employees to work remotely and these employees use video conferencing apps for communicating with their corporate networks and colleagues.
Zoom’s custom background feature proved to be a massive hit as a lot of people are using this feature in clever ways while working from home. The world has seen an explosion in the popularity of video conferencing apps and Zoom has gained much more popularity among other similar apps as it is user friendly and supports up to 100 participants at a time for a group video conversation. It seems that Microsoft is not going to stand back as it has been introducing new features to Skype to make it more compelling to use. Among these competitive efforts, Skype introduced a new ‘custom-background’ feature for video conversations in its latest update. The users will be able to use a background of their own choice while video conferencing which will make the Skype app more interesting and fun to use. Microsoft has also published a dedicated support page for Skype background customization.
The new feature is introduced for desktop calls in the updated Skype version for Windows, Mac, Linux, and the web. You can find the custom background feature for video conversations in the ‘Audio and Video settings’. You can choose a background that will make it look like you are video conferencing from the likes of Pride Rock or the Iron Throne while in reality, you may be sitting on your couch or a chair. Users will be able to use the custom virtual background feature even if they don’t have a green screen.
The custom background feature will not work if you have the Microsoft Store version of the Skype app. If you want to use the custom background feature for Skype, you will have to download the ‘.exe’ file from the official Skype website. The web version of Skype service available on Windows 10 also supports the custom background feature.
Previously, you could blur the background during a video conversation while using Skype. So, it may not have been difficult for Microsoft while creating the new custom background feature for video conversations. The Thurrott suggests that it may not have required too much work to create custom background function for video conversations. Earlier this month, Microsoft brought the custom background images feature to its Teams service.
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