Camera background, minimizing the game and device load

The camera background is a blur or a picture behind you. It loads the device, so it's off by default on a phone, and the game turns it off by itself when the device can't keep up.

What it is and where to choose. The background is a camera effect: a blur of what's behind you or a picture behind you, a ready-made one or your own. Open “Video Settings”: the arrow by the camera button, then the gear (on a phone, tap “⋮” first). In the “Effects” section there are “Blur effect” and “Remove effect”, and in the “Backgrounds” section there are ready-made pictures and the “Upload image” button (JPEG, PNG or WebP up to 20 MB). The preview shows what others will see. To keep your choice, press “Done”. The first time, the background takes a few seconds to turn on while the files it needs load. If the browser can't process a background, the effect buttons are inactive.

Why the background may be off.

• On a phone and tablet the game starts without a background: the effect heats the device. Whoever wants it turns it on themselves.
• The game watches whether the device keeps up. If not, it first lightens the effect, and when that's not enough, it turns the background off and shows the message “Background effect turned off: this device cannot keep up with it”. It doesn't turn it back on by itself: if you want it, choose a background again.
• Video quality is changed in the same place: an icon with the resolution (for example, 360p) opens the choice. If the connection is unstable or the device overheats, the game lowers the quality by itself and brings it back when things get better.

Overheating. The whole game heats the device, not just the background: the camera, other people's videos, the screen. But the background is the easiest thing to turn off. In Safari and on iPhone and iPad, the game notices that the system has been slowed down because of heat (on iPhone, Low Power Mode triggers the same reaction). Then it shows the message “Your device is overheating. Turn off the background to lighten the load” with a “Turn off background” button (once per game, if the background is on) and lowers the video quality. When the device cools down, the quality comes back.

A minimized game and a screen that goes dark. While you're in a room, the game asks the phone not to turn off the screen: at night nobody touches anything, and a locked iPhone pauses the camera, the sound and the connection to the game. This doesn't work everywhere (for example, in an app added to the home screen of an iPhone with an older iOS), and then the screen goes dark according to your phone's settings.

If you minimize the game on a phone, others see the same placeholder as when your camera is off, instead of your video. When you come back, the camera turns on by itself; if it doesn't, the game says “Couldn't restore your camera”, and you need to turn it on with the camera button. On a computer, the camera in a background tab stays on.