Do you cringe every time you have to attend a Zoom meeting because of your “natural” background?
You might not want to share the view of your kitchen after lunch. Or your webcam may give other meeting attendees a look at your bedroom or your family photo wall.
You can add some privacy (and some pizazz) to your meetings with wallpapers. Customize your Zoom meeting background by using one of Biteable’s home scenes, or with Canva’s adorable designs.
Pick a free background from Unsplash or Pixabay and upload it to your meeting room. Or check out the options at Twitter’s #zoombackgrounds. Choose one of the background photos in our list, then follow the instructions below to add it to your next Zoom meeting.
Pop Culture
Do you want to be on the set of American Idol, or sit at Captain Holt’s desk at Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Or maybe Love Island will be a preferred pretend getaway. Download the background photo from Twitter. CBS has backgrounds for you to enjoy if you are a fan of Star Trek Picard or Discovery, or Why Women Kill. Even BBC jumped in with backgrounds from Dr. Who. And we would all like to share some cheesecake in the kitchen of the Golden Girls.
Holy bat cave, Batman! DC Comics places you in the storyboard when you download these awesome backgrounds. Marvel also has a line-up of scenes for you to choose from. Be a part of the Up, Brave or Toy Story scenery at Pixar. And you might not be able to visit Disneyland in person right now, but you can pretend you are there with these photos from Disney Parks.
Is Game of Thrones your thing? If you rather go G-Rated with your screen, try out Nickelodeon’s backgrounds, or take a trip down Sesame Street. If you have a happy-go-lucky meeting crowd and want to lighten up the meeting, learn how to turn yourself into a potato for your next online gathering or download the the Simpson’s living room. Other screen-worthy backgrounds include:
- Hallmark Channel
- HBO Shows
- Jersey Shore
- Love Island
- Mattel
- Modern Family
- Netflix
- Parks & Recreation
- RuPaul’s Drag Race
- Saturday Night Live
- Schitt’s Creek
- Star Wars
- The Bold Type
- The Good Place
- The Office
- Tiger King
Oyster Bay Roosevelt Garden diorama
Museums, Arts & Theatres
The American Museum of Natural History will place you in the middle of some its favorite dioramas, including the Oyster Bay diorama that includes more than 50 species of birds. If you miss the sights of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they’ll take you there, virtually. Let it go when you download the Frozen the Musical backgrounds.Or continue the Circle of Life as you blend into the landscape of The Lion King.
Here are more options for your theatrical musings:
Travel
TravelYour travel plans tanked, but your background can make it look like you are lounging in the living room of Airbnb Homes. You can visit one of our beautiful National Parks, or choose from a substantial pack of free Shutterstock images. What zooms in Las Vegas stays there, and love blooms in Paris. Georgia is on your mind, or hang in Hawaii. Go to Austin or Boston, California or Charleston. Here are more places to “travel”:
- Indiana
- Miami
- Nashville
- New Hampshire
- New Orleans
- New York City
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
Sports
Sports Go to Birdland with these Baltimore Orioles scenes. Whether you are a Red Sox, New York Yankees, or Colorado Rockies fan, you can find a background to show your pride. Here are more baseball team scenes that knock it out of the park:
- Cleveland Indians
- Kansas City Royals
- MLB Stadiums
- Minnesota Twins
- Philadelphia Phillies
- San Diego Padres
- San Francisco Giants
- Washington Nationals
- If soccer is more your league, Cincinnati helps you cheer the Orange and Blue. And other soccer teams have jumped into the background, such as FC Dallas, Nashville SC , and Orlando City SC.
- Check out these teams, too:
- Philadelphia Union
- Portland Timbers
- Seattle Sounders
Don’t think basketball is sitting this one out. The Charlotte Hornets are in the game, as are the Chicago Bulls and the Dallas Mavericks , New Orleans Pelicans , and the Oklahoma City Thunder .
The National Football League offers touchdown backgrounds with these teams in play:
- Baltimore Ravens
- Buffalo Bills
- Carolina Panthers
- Chicago Bears
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Detroit Lions
- Denver Broncos
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Minnesota Vikings
- New England Patriots
- New Orleans Saints
- New York Giants
- New York Jets
- Philadelphia Eagles
- San Francisco 49ers
- Washington Redskins
It might be warming up outside but you can still hit the ice with your favorite hockey teams any time of the year:
- Anaheim Ducks
- Buffalo Sabres
- New York Islanders
- New Jersey Devils
- San Jose Sharks
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Winnipeg Jets
You can also hit the wallpaper by adding these NASCAR scenes to your folder:
College Athletics
Roll Tide! Alabama is here in Zoomland. Many colleges are sharing the love with their fans by offering backgrounds for Zoom meetings. Share your love for Appalachian State , Cornell, or San Diego State while online. Check out this long list of colleges with digital cheering sections:
- Arizona State
- Auburn
- Boise State
- Brigham Young University
- Cincinnati
- Clemson
- Colorado
- Duke
- East Carolina
- Florida
- Fresno State
- Georgia
- Houston
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa State
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisville
- Louisiana State University
- Maryland
- Miami University
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Mississippi State
- North Carolina State University
- Nebraska
- New Mexico
- Northwestern
- Ohio State
- Oklahoma
- Ole Miss
- Penn
- Penn State
- Pitt
- Purdue
- Richmond
- Seattle
- Stanford
- Texas Christian University
- Tennessee
- Texas Tech
- University of Central Florida
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- University of Southern California
- Utah
- The University of Texas at El Paso
- Virginia
- Virginia Tech
- Washington
- Washington State
- West Virginia
- Xavier
- Yale
How to change your Zoom background
Sign in as a user to Zoom’s portal as usual.
Click on Meeting Settings, and go to Virtual Background on the tab. Make sure that setting is enabled. If it isn’t click on “enable.” You may see a verification box pop up. If so, click on “turn on” to keep the changes. If you can’t turn it on, you may have to notify the Zoom administrator to receive permission to change your setting.
Once you have made the change, you will need to log out of the room and log back in to make the new changes take effect. For more detailed instructions, visit the Zoom help page here. Go here for more tips and tricks for better Zoom meetings.
