Any video, on a loop
Use your own clips or pick from Photos. MP4, MOV, H.264, HEVC, any length. Backdrop Cam keeps its own copy, so nothing breaks if you move the file.
A menu-bar app for macOS
A video background
for every call on your Mac.
Google Meet, Teams and FaceTime only let you use a still image. Backdrop Cam puts a looping video behind you, in Meet, Zoom, Teams, FaceTime and any app with a camera picker. It cuts you out on your Mac with hair-level detail.
Free · macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon · nothing leaves your Mac
Works with
…and any app that lets you choose a camera. Pick Backdrop Camera.
Pick a video. Keep talking.
Switch backgrounds mid-call: a green room, a server room, a fireplace lounge, a machine that never stops. Backdrop Cam cross-fades and keeps you crisp in front, down to your glasses and every strand of hair.
No green screen.
No ring light.
Just you.
Drag the slider. On the left is what your webcam sees; on the right, what everyone in the call sees. The cut-out runs on your Mac's Neural Engine at 30 frames a second, keeping curls, glasses and waving hands.
Your camera
With Backdrop Cam
Everything a background should be
Feels like macOS
A picker modelled on the Mac's own Background menu: a grid of tiles, hover to play, drag and drop to add, one click to switch, live.
Works in every app
Backdrop Cam adds a real camera, Backdrop Camera, to your Mac. Choose it in Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, Slack, Discord, OBS or the browser.
Private by design
Everything happens on your Mac. No accounts, no uploads, no cloud. Your real room never leaves your computer.
Camera only when you're on
Your webcam turns on only while an app is using Backdrop Camera, and off again the moment you leave the call.
Recovers on its own
Unplug a camera, close the lid, lose your iPhone's Continuity Camera: Backdrop Cam falls back, tells you, and switches back when it can.
Your app probably can't do this on its own
Most video apps stop at blur or a still image. Here's what each one does natively, and the guide for using a video background in it.
| App | Your own video, natively | With Backdrop Cam |
|---|---|---|
| Google Meet | No | Yes |
| Microsoft Teams | No | Yes |
| Zoom | Yes | Yes |
| FaceTime | No | Yes |
| Webex | Yes | Yes |
| Slack | No | Yes |
| Discord | Partly | Yes |
| No | Yes | |
| OBS | Partly | Yes |
| Browser apps | No | Yes |
Checked against each app's own help pages. Full table with sources →
Up and running in a minute
-
1
Add a video
Open Backdrop Cam from the menu bar, click the background thumbnail and add a clip with + or by dragging it in.
-
2
Choose “Backdrop Camera”
In your app's camera setting. In Meet: ⋮ → Settings → Video → Camera → Backdrop Camera. Turn off the app's own effects.
-
3
Talk
You're live in front of your video. Switch backgrounds anytime; everyone sees the change instantly.
Choose your cut-out
Three techniques, one switch. Best is the default and still light on battery.
Best Default
Robust Video Matting, re-tuned for the Neural Engine. Full-resolution matte, real hair strands, steady edges frame to frame.
~10 ms a frame · ~8% of one CPU core
Balanced
Apple's own person segmentation with edge-aware refinement. A solid all-rounder.
~14 ms a frame
Efficient
Google's MediaPipe selfie model. The lightest option, for long calls on battery.
~2 ms a frame
Measured on an M3 Pro across eight stock clips: curly hair, glasses, headsets, several people, backlight and fast motion.
Your room stays in your room.
Backdrop Cam never sends a frame anywhere. The cut-out, the compositing and the virtual camera all run on your Mac, using the GPU and Neural Engine. There's no account, no telemetry and no network access needed. Privacy policy
Questions
Doesn't Google Meet already have backgrounds?
Meet lets you upload still images and offers a few animated backgrounds of its own, but you can't use your own video. Neither can macOS's built-in Background effect: colours and photos only. Backdrop Cam fills that gap.
Which apps does it work with?
Any app that lets you choose a camera: Google Meet in Chrome, Safari, Arc or Edge, plus Zoom, Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, Webex, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, OBS, Photo Booth and QuickTime. Pick Backdrop Camera.
Which video apps support video backgrounds on their own?
Zoom and Webex accept your own video files; Discord does for Nitro subscribers. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, Slack and WhatsApp don't. Backdrop Cam adds video backgrounds to all of them.
What do I need?
A Mac with Apple silicon running macOS 15 Sequoia or later. On first launch, macOS asks you to allow the Backdrop Camera extension and camera access; the built-in setup guide walks you through both.
Which videos can I use?
MP4 and MOV files with H.264 or HEVC, any length, from Finder or from Photos. Backdrop Cam keeps its own copy and loops it seamlessly behind you.
Will it drain my battery?
The camera and the cut-out only run while a call is using Backdrop Camera. The default Best quality costs about 8% of one CPU core for the cut-out on an M3 Pro, and Efficient is lighter still.
Is it private?
Yes. Everything runs on your Mac: no account, no uploads, no telemetry. Backdrop Cam doesn't need network access.
How do I remove it?
Settings → Uninstall. It removes the camera extension, turns off Open at Login and moves the app to the Trash.
Get Backdrop Cam
Free for Mac. A signed download and the Mac App Store are coming soon; in the meantime, you can build it from source.
git clone https://github.com/yosit/backdrop
cd backdrop && scripts/install.sh