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I proposed Zoom vs Jitsi Meet the other day for a virtual hangout with a group of friends. They initially wanted to try Zoom... because of the virtual backgroun

I proposed Zoom vs Jitsi Meet the other day for a virtual hangout with a group of friends. They initially wanted to try Zoom... because of the virtual backgrounds. Yup, that is what they wanted. I shall suggest Jitsi Meet again soon ;).

g_delgado14 7y ago
I mean .. the ensuing hilarity from uploading funny background images doesn't get old
vikramkr 7y ago
I just looked up virtual background and that is insanely cool and I totally get where your friends are coming from. I've got to give that a shot sometime - the kinds of features people can build are just so cool
- tiborsaas 7y ago
  We have a slack channel dedicated to screenhots of these backgrounds, It's a lot of fun. :)
pugworthy 7y ago
Honestly the backgrounds are goofy and non-essential, but it's been a huge positive icebreaker for the adjustment to all online meetings.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  Yup, just a resource drain
- vikramkr 7y ago
  I'd be far more willing to turn the video on in my calls of people weren't going to see the messy room in the background, and the calls I'm in have an awful lot of blank screens that would be better if people turned on there video for some face-to-face communication. I think it's less non-essential than you might imagine, this is a really well thought-out feature, and probably pretty technically challenging to implement too.
  - FireBeyond 7y ago
    We moved from GTM to Zoom. One thing I like/miss from GTM is the camera options: "Everyone / Who's Talking / Active Cameras / No-one".
eagsalazar2 7y ago
It isn't just a gimmick, it is a legit feature when working from home and you don't want everyone to see your messy kitchen or bedroom. Sadly the chrome app version you have to use for ChromeOS doesn't support that feature anyway :(
- jacurtis 7y ago
  Confirming that it isn’t a gimmick. I have been working on distributed WFH Teams for the past 5 years now (long before COVID19) and this has been a consistent point of embarrassment and/or trouble with video conferencing. I can’t begin to tell you how many times we have had people that need extra time to prepare for a meeting because of the background. As a manager, I have had lots of personal conversations with employees who legitimately stress out about getting the computer into a place with a good background. Zoom and GoToMeeting offer the option for for these backgrounds without needing to do a green screen or anything. Yes, the backgrounds are insanely silly. Like a stock photo of a beach, outer space, a meadow, etc.. I don’t know why one of these companies isn’t smart enough to just put a picture of an empty room as one of the backgrounds. Yes you can tell that the user is using a background still, and it occasionally clips the background wrong for a few seconds, especially during sudden subject movement, but it does largely protect employee’s embarrassment which is a legitimate reason to offer it. The absolute best implimentation of this background thing is Microsoft Teams’ video chat platform. It does a “blur” background that actually looks pretty good. It is an extreme blur that makes it almost impossible to tell what is in the background, but it looks sort of like a high end camera with low depth of field. Obviously it isn’t going to fool anyone into actually thinking it is real, but it is the least-distracting and most appealing option I have seen yet. Kudos to Microsoft for that one. Here is what the Microsoft Teams one looks like: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/blur-your-background-in-a-teams-meeting-f77a2381-443a-499d-825e-509a140f4780 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/blur-your-backgroun... (I have no dog in this fight, just sharing experience. I don’t work for Microsoft. Use whatever you guys want. I am just offering my 5 years of experience fighting with employees about video conferencing. I have heard all the problems with it, but the embarrassment of their background is always the biggest and most common one. Other common ones include wardrobe malfunctions (from employees getting dressed really quickly before a meeting), Significant others saying or doing embarrassing things on camera unknowingly, employees saying embarrassing things while thinking they are on mute, and so on. But the most common complaint is the stupid backgrounds.

g_delgado14 7y ago

I mean .. the ensuing hilarity from uploading funny background images doesn't get old

vikramkr 7y ago

I just looked up virtual background and that is insanely cool and I totally get where your friends are coming from. I've got to give that a shot sometime - the kinds of features people can build are just so cool

tiborsaas 7y ago
We have a slack channel dedicated to screenhots of these backgrounds, It's a lot of fun. :)

pugworthy 7y ago

Honestly the backgrounds are goofy and non-essential, but it's been a huge positive icebreaker for the adjustment to all online meetings.

hanniabu 7y ago
Yup, just a resource drain
vikramkr 7y ago
I'd be far more willing to turn the video on in my calls of people weren't going to see the messy room in the background, and the calls I'm in have an awful lot of blank screens that would be better if people turned on there video for some face-to-face communication. I think it's less non-essential than you might imagine, this is a really well thought-out feature, and probably pretty technically challenging to implement too.
- FireBeyond 7y ago
  We moved from GTM to Zoom. One thing I like/miss from GTM is the camera options: "Everyone / Who's Talking / Active Cameras / No-one".

eagsalazar2 7y ago

It isn't just a gimmick, it is a legit feature when working from home and you don't want everyone to see your messy kitchen or bedroom. Sadly the chrome app version you have to use for ChromeOS doesn't support that feature anyway :(

jacurtis 7y ago
Confirming that it isn’t a gimmick. I have been working on distributed WFH Teams for the past 5 years now (long before COVID19) and this has been a consistent point of embarrassment and/or trouble with video conferencing. I can’t begin to tell you how many times we have had people that need extra time to prepare for a meeting because of the background. As a manager, I have had lots of personal conversations with employees who legitimately stress out about getting the computer into a place with a good background. Zoom and GoToMeeting offer the option for for these backgrounds without needing to do a green screen or anything. Yes, the backgrounds are insanely silly. Like a stock photo of a beach, outer space, a meadow, etc.. I don’t know why one of these companies isn’t smart enough to just put a picture of an empty room as one of the backgrounds. Yes you can tell that the user is using a background still, and it occasionally clips the background wrong for a few seconds, especially during sudden subject movement, but it does largely protect employee’s embarrassment which is a legitimate reason to offer it. The absolute best implimentation of this background thing is Microsoft Teams’ video chat platform. It does a “blur” background that actually looks pretty good. It is an extreme blur that makes it almost impossible to tell what is in the background, but it looks sort of like a high end camera with low depth of field. Obviously it isn’t going to fool anyone into actually thinking it is real, but it is the least-distracting and most appealing option I have seen yet. Kudos to Microsoft for that one. Here is what the Microsoft Teams one looks like: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/blur-your-background-in-a-teams-meeting-f77a2381-443a-499d-825e-509a140f4780 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/blur-your-backgroun... (I have no dog in this fight, just sharing experience. I don’t work for Microsoft. Use whatever you guys want. I am just offering my 5 years of experience fighting with employees about video conferencing. I have heard all the problems with it, but the embarrassment of their background is always the biggest and most common one. Other common ones include wardrobe malfunctions (from employees getting dressed really quickly before a meeting), Significant others saying or doing embarrassing things on camera unknowingly, employees saying embarrassing things while thinking they are on mute, and so on. But the most common complaint is the stupid backgrounds.