How to Blur Your Background on a FaceTime Call on Mac - MacRumors
Skip to Content

How to Blur Your Background on a FaceTime Call on Mac

by

In macOS Monterey, Apple brought several enhancements to FaceTime on Mac, including new visual and audio effects to improve the video call experience.

macOS Monterey FaceTime Portrait Mode
One of the new visual features is Portrait mode in calls. With this mode enabled, you can blur your background so that the focus is on you rather than what's behind you.

The feature is commonly used by other video conferencing apps like Zoom and Teams to obscure untidy domestic scenes and other sources of distraction or embarrassment. Here's how it works in ‌‌FaceTime‌‌ on macOS Monterey‌.

  1. Launch FaceTime on your Mac.
  2. Click the Control Center icon in the menu bar.
  3. Select Video Effects -> Portrait Mode.

FaceTime

Once you've done that, you and the person on the other end of the next call will see your environment faintly blurred, just like in a Portrait mode photo.

Related Forum: macOS Monterey

Popular Stories

iPhone Handoff Feature

iOS 27 Introduces New 'iPhone Handoff' Feature

Wednesday September 2, 2026 12:35 pm PDT by
Apple has added a new "iPhone Handoff" feature to iOS 27 that will allow you to switch between two iPhones while using the same phone number on each device. This functionality was briefly mentioned during the WWDC 2026 keynote in June, on a slide that listed hundreds of new features coming in iOS 27 and corresponding software updates, but Apple never shared any further details at the time. ...
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Prices Estimated Ahead of Apple Event Next Week

Thursday September 3, 2026 3:41 am PDT by
Less than a week before Apple debuts new iPhone 18 Pro models, research firm TrendForce has estimated the prices of the devices based on the latest hardware cost environment. TrendForce's price estimates compared to last year's models look like this: Model Starting Price Model Starting Price Change iPhone 17 Pro $1,099 iPhone 18 Pro $...
Apple Foldable Thumb

iPhone Ultra's Very High Price and Features Revealed in New Report

Thursday September 3, 2026 7:33 am PDT by
Ahead of Apple's event on Wednesday, September 9, where it is expected to unveil its first-ever foldable iPhone, Taiwanese research firm TrendForce today outlined the device's estimated price range, features, and some other key details. In the U.S., TrendForce estimated that the foldable iPhone will have a starting price of $2,099 to $2,299 and said the highest-end configurations could...