How to Change Background on Zoom – Ultimate Tutorial

Do you want to host a Zoom meeting in a jungle? You could also host a meeting underwater or on top of a volcano. Your imagination is the limit on where your next Zoom meeting will be.

If you’re you looking to add some excitement to your Zoom meetings, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’re going to show you how you can change background images on Zoom.

Ever since the lockdown began across the world, a great majority of workplaces have continued to work remotely. This has been possible because of the large number of tools we have now. Meetings happen almost on a daily basis at workplaces and Zoom has allowed those meetings to continue almost uninterrupted.

While Zoom is undoubtedly a professional tool for business-related meetings, it can also be useful in providing some much-needed socialization with our friends and family. A lot of people are stuck in their homes in different parts of the world and small breaks like these can really cheer people up.

Let’s now get into the details of how to setup a virtual background.

How to change the background on Zoom?

There are essentially two ways you can get to the Virtual Background setting.

The first method is to open a Zoom meeting and click the arrow on top of this button.

Then click on the Choose Virtual Background option.

You will now be presented with the settings menu where you can upload pictures of your choice and use them.

To upload a picture, simply click on the + button on the right side and the file explorer will open allowing you to choose an image from your Desktop.

To get the best possible results out of your image, make sure they are cropped to 16:9 and are either 1920 x 1080 pixels or 1280 x 720.

The other way to get to the Virtual Background setting is by clicking the green encryption icon in the top left of the screen.

This will open the settings menu and from there, click on Virtual Background and you will see the same menu.

What do I need for a Zoom background?

To get the best result out of your background image, it’s recommended that you have a green screen.

You don’t have a green screen? It’s okay. You can still get great results if your background is of a solid color.

A solid-colored background is something that has one color all over it and doesn’t have any patterns. This means that any standard wall will do just fine.

You should also have adequate lighting in the room to make sure you don’t disappear in the background.

Where can I get free Zoom wallpapers?

Are Zoom background images free? Yup! There are numerous websites that offer free stock photos that you can use anywhere you wish. Some of these include Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pikwizard.

There are also premium stock photo sites like Shutterstock which offer exceptional quality images.

Our advice in this regard would be to always use the free sites. While having a nice Zoom background might be fun, it’s just not worth paying actual money for.

Can I use my own photo for Zoom backgrounds?

You definitely can. Any photo will work as a background on Zoom as long as it fits the required dimensions of 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720.

Whether it’s a family picture or some photo from your vacation down in Switzerland (pre-pandemic times), it will work just fine.

We’ve also compiled a list of some different kinds of backgrounds and our top picks in each of them. If you end up choosing them, do let us know in the comments!

Creative Zoom backgrounds

We browsed those free stock photo sites mentioned above and selected these creative Zoom backgrounds. Show off your creative side by using any of these backgrounds in your next meeting!

Tiles shape texture

Acrylic painting

Vintage texture

Creative patterns

Abstract background

Zoom backgrounds for teachers

Are you a teacher who’s looking for something to add to their online classes? You should definitely check these backgrounds out then. These backgrounds can possibly remind students to sit attentively like they would for classes.

Classroom background

Educational background

Blackboard background

Funny Zoom backgrounds

You could use these backgrounds to make your conversations with friends and family much more entertaining. If you download all these, you could keep changing them in between and give them something new to look at.

Sofa background

Winter background

Office Zoom backgrounds

Here are some subtle backgrounds that you can use to give your meetings an office-kind look. These are best if you want to keep things professional and different at the same time.

Blue office background

Simple professional background

Meeting room background

Whichever background you choose, just be sure to crop them to the required aspect ratio!

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