Background blur, backgrounds and noise removal
When you go live from the browser, you choose what viewers see behind you: your own room, the room blurred, or a picture. AI noise removal takes typing, fans and other sounds around your voice out of the microphone. Both are set up in the studio before you go live, and can be changed while you are live.
Everything runs in your own browser. Your camera and microphone are processed on your computer or phone before anything is sent, so no picture or sound goes to a server for it. Viewers get the stream as it already looks, with the background in place, and your voice without the noise.
A stream from OBS sends what OBS makes: set up backgrounds and filters there instead.
Choosing a background
In the studio of the stream, turn on your camera. Under it, Background offers:
- None: the camera as it is.
- Blur: the room blurred, you sharp.
- The pictures the site offers (Setting them up).
- Add your own picture, where the site allows it (Your own picture).
A choice applies at once to your preview. Your browser keeps it, and your video calls on the site share it, so the next stream starts with the same background.
When you press Go live, the stream waits a few seconds at most for an effect still loading, so it goes out with the effect from its first frame.
Effect settings
Once the blur or a picture is on, Effect settings tunes it for your room:
| Setting | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Outline | Tighter | Wider |
| Edge | Sharp | Soft |
| Steadiness | Quick | Steady |
| Blur strength (with Blur) | Light | Strong |
Reset puts them back. Even light on your face and a plain wall behind you help most. If your picture stutters or your device gets warm, turn the background off.
Your own picture
Where the site allows it, Add your own picture lets you pick a JPEG, PNG or WebP from your own device, under 40 MB. It stays in your browser and is never uploaded to the site. Remove this picture takes it away. A browser that keeps no site data, such as a private window, keeps it until the page is closed.
AI noise removal
Under Sound, Noise has AI noise removal. With it on, your microphone carries your voice without the typing, fans and other sounds the browser leaves in. If your voice breaks up or your device gets warm, turn it off.
It is for speech. With Original sound, for music (Sound) the microphone goes out as it hears, so AI noise removal is off.
While you are live
Effects in the bar under the picture opens the background and the noise removal. Everyone watching sees and hears each change at once.
Setting them up
The effects are not part of the plugin. An administrator downloads them to the site once, from WordPlus Cloud, in Live Stream → Appearance → Studio effects, and the studio offers them from then on:
| Row | What it does |
|---|---|
| Background effects | Downloads the blur and the pictures behind the host. Until then, the studio offers no background. |
| AI noise removal | A download of its own. Until then, the studio offers no noise removal. |
| Built-in backgrounds | Pictures from WordPlus Cloud for hosts to choose. Each one picked is downloaded to the site. |
| Pictures of the site | Your own pictures from the Media Library, offered after the built-in ones. Wide pictures work best, at least 1280 by 720. |
| Pictures of the hosts | Lets hosts pick a picture of their own device as the background (Your own picture). Nobody on the site sees it before viewers do, so turn it on only for hosts you trust. Off at first. |
Each host then turns the effects on in the studio. Better Messages shares these settings, so its calls offer the same.
What they need
- A browser with WebGL 2 and WebAssembly SIMD, which current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari have.
- For the blur and the pictures, a device with at least four processor cores. Where a device cannot run an effect, the studio says The effect could not start on this device.