Top 5 Ways to Fix Google Meet Background Blur Not Working Issue

With the background blur turned on, Google Meet will emphasize your face by blurring the background. It’s like the portrait mode of cell phones these days, but for video calling. So if your surroundings are messy or don’t want to reveal your surroundings, you can scramble it.

But for that, the feature has to work. Let’s see how to fix background blur not showing in Google Meet.

1. Restart the computer

“Did you try to turn it off and on?” If you don’t see the background blur option or it isn’t working properly, restart your PC once. Then try again. You should also try to close the Google Meet tab in your browser.

2. Follow the correct steps to enable background blur

You need to follow the right steps to enable background blur for your Google Meet meetings. There are two ways to turn on background blur. You can do this before joining a meeting or during a call.

Here are the steps for both:

Method 1: turn on background blur before joining a meeting

Launch meet.google.com and sign in with your Google account. Create a meeting, enter a meeting code, or click a meeting link to join a meeting. You will be taken to the participation screen, where you will see a preview of your video. Click the Enable background blur icon in the lower right corner. You can also click on the three dots icon at the top and select Enable background blur.

Method 2: turn on background blur during a meeting

Once you’ve joined a meeting, you can still turn on the background blur feature. To do this, click on the three dots icon at the bottom and select Enable background blur.

3. Check the requirements for the background blur to work

Google Meet’s background blur feature doesn’t work on all computers, browsers, or accounts. There are certain requirements that your PC must meet for Background Blur to work properly. Those are:

Use the Chrome browser

Background blur works on Chrome browser (versions M84 or higher) only on Windows, Mac and Linux. You cannot use it through Firefox, Safari or other browsers.

Note: Background blur works on M86 and later versions of Chrome OS.

64-bit version of Chrome

Also, on a Windows PC, the background blur will only appear on the 64-bit version of Chrome. If your Chrome is 32-bit, you won’t be able to use this feature. To check your Chrome version on a Windows PC, open chrome: // version /. The bit version will be mentioned.

Browser must support WebGL 2.0

To find out whether your Chrome browser supports WebGL 2.0 or not, open https://webglreport.com/?v=2. No should be mentioned next to the major performance warning. You will also see a message on the page saying: “This browser supports WebGL 2.” If your browser does not support it, you will need to enable hardware acceleration, as shown below.

Hardware acceleration must be enabled

In order for Google Meet’s background blur feature to display and work properly, hardware acceleration must be enabled in Chrome settings.

Note: Background blur works for both personal and G Suite accounts. However, users who join a meeting without signing in to their Google Account can only change their background once during the video call. The same goes for people who need to knock to join a meeting.

4. Enable hardware acceleration on Chrome

To enable hardware acceleration for Chrome on Windows or Mac, follow these steps:

Step 1: Launch Chrome and click on the three-dot menu icon at the top. Select Settings.

2nd step: Click Advanced in the left sidebar, then click System.

Step 3: Enable the toggle next to “Use hardware acceleration when available”. The toggle should turn blue. Click on the Relaunch button.

Your browser will restart. Open Google Meet and use the background blur as shown above.

5. Update the Chrome browser

Since this new feature only works on M84 and higher versions of Chrome browser, make sure you are using the latest version of Chrome.

To view and update Chrome, go to Chrome settings from the three-dot icon. In the left sidebar, click About Chrome. If an update is available, you will be notified. Follow the onscreen instructions to update Chrome. If the browser is already updated to the latest version, you will see “Google Chrome is up to date”.

PC slows down

Enabling background blur may slow down your PC depending on its configuration. Other applications may run slowly or take longer to start. You might even experience call quality issues in Google Meet. If this happens, turn off the background blur.