Best Format & Image Size For Virtual Backgrounds: Zoom, Teams, & Google Meet

Today, the corporate world uses virtual meeting tools for communicating with other organizations, clients, colleagues, and shareholders. Many virtual meeting organizers change the background to something more professional so meeting participants aren’t distracted by clutter, windows, kids at home, or a boring wall. You’ll need to know the best image size for Zoom background and formatting steps to change the background.

Customized Backgrounds During Virtual Meetings

Customizing your virtual meeting background takes a few minutes to set up. Each virtual meeting tool, like Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet, has steps you need to follow to change and format the background. You can benefit from using customized backgrounds once you figure out the formatting process.

Create a Professional Space

The most popular reason users put on a virtual background during business calls is to appear more professional. Since the early days of the pandemic, more people work from home. Home offices are sometimes messy or filled with personal items, such as pictures of kids and pets. A virtual background can instantly transform a cluttered bedroom into a professional-looking office.

Incorporate Your Brand Identity

Another benefit of using virtual backgrounds is how they help you incorporate your branding and corporate identity. If your business uses specific graphics or logos on marketing materials, you can use the same branding in your virtual background. This helps your team appear more cohesive and continues to develop your brand identity when meeting with organizations or potential clients. Branding with virtual backgrounds may also benefit your team during the recruiting process.

Best Overall Format & Image Sizes for Virtual Backgrounds

There are different ways to set up your virtual background to appear seamless and look natural during your meeting. First, you need an image that works well with your virtual meeting program. You also need to look up the Zoom virtual background's image size and ensure it is compatible with your chosen image file.

Best for Zoom

Zoom is one of the top software programs people use for business and personal virtual calls. The best images for Zoom are files that are less than 5MB. Image files should be formatted as JPG, PNG, or GIF. The size of the image for the zoom virtual background should be 1920 x 1080 pixels and a resolution of at least 1280 x 720 pixels.

Best for Teams

Microsoft’s Teams program has gained traction as a virtual meeting tool in the last two years. For Teams, you want to use an image with a neutral look. Avoid orange, brown, or yellow backgrounds to get more contrast. The recommended image size for the Teams background is a minimum of 1920 x 1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:9.

Best for Google Meet

Google Meet’s image size recommendations are similar to Zoom and Teams. With Google Meet, you can use a larger file size, up to 16MB. Google Meet requires that the image has no watermarks or proprietary image features.

Formatting Your Background

For each virtual meeting software tool, you will need to access the settings to change your background. In Zoom, you simply go to Settings and then Virtual Backgrounds. In Teams, the setting you need to change is in Background Effects. For Google Meet, go to Apply Visual Effects. You need to upload your image in each tool to set it up as a background.

Changing your virtual background during an online meeting is one way you can make your message more impactful. Whether you want to hide your kids’ toys in the background or create a uniform branded image for your meeting, virtual backgrounds can elevate the meeting experience.