How to change your background in Google Meet before or during a meeting

• You can change your Google Meet background if you want to hide your surroundings or simply make the meeting more fun.
• Your background can be changed before you join the meeting or during the meeting by clicking on the icon in the bottom right corner of your self view.
• Google Meet has a library of backgrounds to choose from, but you can also upload your own image, or blur your camera image background.
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Google Meet has become more popular than ever for everything from corporate meetings to elementary school classes. The option to change your background is a great way to hide your messy bedroom or home office and replace it with a more fun image. 

While this is a basic option offered through Google Meet itself, there are some prerequisites to using it:

• If you’re using Google Meet on an iOS device, you must have an iPhone 6s or newer, with iOS 12 or above. 
• If you’re using Google Meet on an Android, your device must have Android version P or above, 3 Gb of RAM, at least 4 CPU cores, at least 1.6 GHz CPU clock speed, and ARM64 Architecture. 
• If you’re using Google Meet on a Mac, you can only access the “change background” option in Chrome. 
• If you’re using Google Meet on Windows, MacOS, or Linux, your Chrome version must be M84 or above. 
• If you’re using Google Meet on Chrome OS, your Chrome version must be M86 or above.

If you don’t have the option to change your background on Google Meet, check which version of Chrome you’re using to see if that’s the issue.

How to change background on Google Meet before joining the meeting

You can change your background before joining the Google Meeting, before anybody can see your actual surroundings. 

1. Open Google Meet and sign into your meeting.

2. In the bottom right corner of your self view, click on the "Change Background" icon. It's the one that looks like a head with lines behind it.

3. In the "Change Background" menu that shows up, a number of background options will appear.

• To blur your background, select the second or third squares (each containing an icon of a person surrounded by dots). 

• To upload your own background image, click the square with a plus "+" icon. This will pull up access to your computer's files. From there, simply find the file you want to load and click on it.

• You can also select an image from Google Meet's library of stock background images - click the square of the image you want to use.

• After you've selected a background image, you can click the first square (containing a circle with a line through it) to undo any background selections you've made. 

4. Whichever icon you click on will automatically change your background.

How to change background on Google Meet after joining the meeting

You can also change the background on Google Meet after joining the meeting by accessing this exact same menu.

1. Click on the three vertical dots in the bottom right corner.

2. Scroll up to "Change background."

3. This will bring up a sidebar menu to change your background during the call.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to raise a hand in Google Meet to help prevent people from talking over each other in a meeting
  

• How to cast a Google Meet video call from your computer to a TV screen

• How to present in Google Meet to share your computer or phone screen with meeting members

• How to chat in Google Meet on a computer or mobile device, and communicate with meeting members using the messaging feature

• How to use Google Meet on your iPhone to start or join a meeting, and access special features during a meeting