How to blur your background in Microsoft Teams

To blur your background in Microsoft Teams, click the three dots in the meeting toolbar, choose Effects and avatars, then select Blur at the top of the Video effects list and click Apply. You can do the same thing before joining, from the pre-join screen under your camera preview.

Menus checked September 2026.

Blurring before you join

This is the option worth learning, because it means nobody ever sees your real room. On the pre-join screen, under your camera preview, open Effects and avatars and pick Blur. Then join. Teams remembers the choice for your next meeting on the same device.

Blurring once you are already in

Click the three dots (More) in the meeting toolbar, choose Effects and avatars, pick Blur, then Apply. There is a second or two of lag while it starts. If your camera is off, use Apply and turn on video instead.

Blur or a custom background?

Blur is the safer default and the cheaper one. It costs less processing power than a full background replacement, it never looks absurd, and there is nothing in it for anyone to read.

A custom image is better when your real room would genuinely distract, or when the meeting is the kind where a background is part of the fun. It is worse when your machine is struggling — a replacement background is the single most demanding video effect Teams offers.

Interview or client call: blur, or a very plain image.
Internal stand-up: whatever you like.
Weak laptop or a long call: blur, every time.
Bad lighting: blur hides a multitude of edge problems that a hard-edged image would expose.

When the blur option is missing

Three causes, in the order they actually happen. You are using Teams in a browser rather than the desktop app — the web version has supported blur for some time but not on every browser and build. Your organisation has turned video effects off with an admin policy, which you cannot work around from your end. Or your device has been judged too low-powered and Teams has quietly hidden the effects, sometimes mid-call.

Why the edge around you looks wrong

Blur does not know where you end — it guesses, from the camera image, many times a second. Anything that makes you harder to tell apart from the room behind you makes the guess worse.

The fix is almost always light rather than software. Put a lamp in front of you, not behind. Avoid sitting with a bright window at your back. And if you wear glasses or have textured hair, expect the edge to wobble more than it does for a clean silhouette — that is a limitation of the method, not something you have configured wrong.

Common questions

Can I blur my background in Teams on a phone?

Yes. In the Teams mobile app, tap the three dots during a call and choose Background effects, then Blur. The mobile app offers blur and the stock images but not custom uploads on every version.

Does blurring the background slow down Teams?

It uses noticeably less processing power than replacing the background with an image, but it is not free. On an older laptop, blur is the effect to keep and a custom background is the one to drop.

Can other people turn off my blur?

No. Background effects are applied on your own device before the video is sent, so what other people receive is already blurred. A meeting host can disable effects for everyone, but they cannot selectively unblur you.

Why can I blur but not add a custom background?

Custom uploads need the Teams desktop app, and they can be disabled by admin policy separately from blur. Blur working while Add new is greyed out is the normal signature of an organisational policy.