Microsoft is rolling out the new custom background effects in Teams, the tech giant announced in a blog post. Custom images and other background effects are only available for scheduled Teams meetings, Microsoft says.
According to a blog post, “When joining a Teams meeting, you want the focus on you—not that messy bookcase behind you. Last year, we introduced background blur to help everyone preserve privacy and keep their attention on their teammates. Our design team also created a collection of preset images that range from professional (a modern office) to pretty silly (a cartoonish beach scene). Today, we’re expanding these options so you can customize your background by uploading your own images or choosing one of the collections of backgrounds now available online.”
“No need for a green screen, or even a blank wall. Teams uses a highly trained model that differentiates the subject from their background and can impose a custom background over everything else, making it easy and fast to start expressing yourself in all your meetings.”
In addition to the custom images, Microsoft also rolled out some new features for free users of Teams, including the ability to schedule meetings and send out invites instead of just using the “Meet Now” option. Free users of Teams also can now add live captions to their calls. And Microsoft says it’s adding Pride-themed images to its collection of custom Teams backgrounds, which will begin rolling out June 16th.
