New Skype update introduces background blur for video

Have to attend an interview call but your room is in a mess? Worry not, as Skype has introduced a new feature that can save you from the embarrassment.

The video conferencing service has introduced a new feature called ‘Background blur’ that, as the name suggests, blurs the background when a video call is in place.

The feature is similar to the background blur which was introduced in Microsoft Teams in September last year. The company stated that background blurring uses artificial intelligence to detect hair, hands and arms to identify a user and blur everything else in the background. It works more like the popular ‘portrait mode’ on modern smartphone cameras but for videos.

Users can activate this feature by hovering over the Skype video button and clicking on ‘Blur my background’ toggle. The software will then slowly blur everything else in the background and “takes the stress out of turning on your video and puts the focus where it belongs — on you!”.

The feature is only available on the desktop and laptop application. There is no word on the availability of this feature on the mobile version of the service. Users can use this feature only if they have updated the software to its latest version.

Although this feature sounds amazing, Skype has also posted a disclaimer at the bottom stating that they cannot guarantee that the background will always be blurred. But that should not stop you from trying this new feature from Skype. Better to blur something rather than nothing right?