Gone are the days when one has to frantically tidy up his room or home office and make it less embarrassing before the scheduled video Skype call.
Video conferencing giant Skype is rolling out an update to their desktop apps that subtly blur your background in real-time while video chat is underway. It's an experimental feature made possible by Microsoft's proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) trained to detect human forms like hairs, hands, and arms.
Skype's background blur ensures the communication from both parties are as frictionless as possible, free from distractions (read: laundry all over the place) and little surprises (kids), ultimately saving you from the embarrassment in the process.
Here's How To Enable Background Blur On Skype
- Ensure you have the most recent copy of your Skype app. Go check your app and see for updates.
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Every time you receive or initiate a video call, hover around the Skype video button and toggle "Blur my background".
You can optionally set this in the app settings if you want to globally apply it in future video calls.
While Skype's background blur experimental feature is as promising as it can get, the video conferencing giant emphasized that it is still in its infancy and that its AI may not always work as expected.
"We do our best to make sure that your background is always blurred, but we cannot guarantee that your background will always be blurred."
See Skype's official announcement here.
