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People are changing their Zoom backgrounds to spice up remote calls

Might as well go to the beach virtually.

Chloe Bryan

on March 16, 2020

People are changing their Zoom backgrounds to spice up remote calls

As more and more people begin to work and attend class remotely due to coronavirus, the switch from in-person meetings to constant Zoom calls has been pretty jarring. Luckily, there is a way to add some fun into the mix — or whatever passes as "fun" in these times, anyway — by changing your Zoom background to something weird.

Zoom's virtual background feature allows users to display a picture or video behind their floating head in lieu of their normal, boring living room. This has several advantages: It's way more interesting to look at a video of a roller coaster than the blank, beige wall of your apartment, and also it lets you off the hook from before every meeting, lest anyone see the squalor in which you have self-quarantined. (You don't have to clean anyway, of course, but a lot of people would.)

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But what should you choose as the background that will make all your coworkers or students laugh, cementing your position as the funniest person on the Zoom call? Naturally there's already a database of high-res images to choose from, courtesy of the sales management platform Ambition.