Microsoft Teams is an excellent tool for working together and videoconferencing. Teams are a lot like Zoom and Skype in that they let you do more than talk with your friends. You may also utilise the Teams app, which is available on most desktop PCs and phones, to exchange media files, movies, and images during these calls. The most moving parts of something are sometimes the ones you have to look a little further for.
Believe it or not, you can change your background while you’re on a Teams call. Not only is this trick easy to pull off, but it also gives your talk a lot of personality. Here are the steps you need to take to do it for both the PC and mobile versions of the Teams app.
Preparing for a meeting by changing the wallpaper (on a mobile device)
Getting Teams ready and waiting for the meeting to start? You can now change your background!
Step 1: To begin, open your Background Effects. You can see this icon to the right of your microphone switch before you start a Teams video. A small person sitting in front of a blank scene makes it look like that. If you don’t see this choice on your device, go to Settings and look around more.
Step 2: On the right side of your screen, a new window should appear. This has everything you need for the background. The first choice, the “ban” icon, lets you change your screen back to its original image if you want to. The second choice at the top is a blur effect, which blurs your background and hides everything but your face using AI. A quick and easy way to change your background is to turn on Blur. This is great if you don’t care about the background much and want some privacy or to hide a mess.
Step 3: Change the background. If you don’t like the way blue looks and would instead choose a picture, scroll down the Background Effects window to see them all. There are a lot of different scenes, from real life to dreams. Many of them are just plain white rooms that won’t get in the way. To examine how it will appear on your computer, click the Preview button located at the bottom of the page if you like one.
You can also add your pictures as backgrounds and use them. Tap the plus sign to start adding a picture from your phone or computer. Also, make sure the file type is PNG and JPG. BMP.
Step 4: Click “Apply” when you find a background you like. This will change the background of your meeting.
Making changes to the background during a meeting (on a computer or phone)
If the live meeting has already begun, don’t stress! You can still add a background effect whenever you want; the way you do it is just a little different.
Step 1: Look at the screen’s Control Bar to find Teams. It has icons for the mic, camera, and other things. To get to more choices, click the three dots.
Step 2: When you see the extra choices, look for the one that says “Show Background Effects.” Pick it. This will bring up the same side window that we talked about in the last step.
Step 3: The third step gives you the same choices, including the choice to blur the screen. The Preview button is more important than ever now that the video meeting has started, especially if other people are in the meeting. You don’t have to change backgrounds during the video call if you use Preview to go through the backgrounds you like until you find the right one. Pick the one that works for you and click “Apply” to use it.
Altering the desktop image in preparation for a meeting
The Microsoft Teams PC app makes it just as easy to change your background as the Microsoft Teams mobile app. Some settings are called different names on the PC build.
Step 1: To begin, open the Microsoft Teams app on your computer. Next, go to Effects and Characters and click on Video Effects.
Step 2: To blur the background, choose Blur. You can also choose a background from Teams to use in your feed.
Step 3: You can also add your pictures (only PNG, JPG, or BMP files will work). Click More movie effects > Add new to do this.
A computer-based method of altering the meeting’s backdrop
Step 1: Go to the top of the meeting page and click on “More.” Then, click on “Effects and avatars.”
Step 2: Pick the effect you want to use, either a team picture or your picture. Click Preview to see what the change will look like in the meeting. Click “Apply” if you’re happy.
