Microsoft Teams Update

With so many people working remotely, it's no surprise that Microsoft has fast-tracked some of their planned updates for Microsoft Teams. This week has brought two exciting updates:

Backgrounds

You might be familiar with Teams' 'blur background' feature - great for keeping focus on the presenter and avoiding embarrassment due to unaware partners, flatmates, or children. Teams now has additional support for background images, so you can not only hide your messy office, but present from a selection of exciting locations.

To apply a background:

• Video call someone on Teams
• Once in the call, select the three ellipsis (...) in the menu/tool bar at the bottom
• Select 'blur background'
• Select your background from the list

Great for a sun-safe day at the beach!

Custom Backgrounds

Although a bit of a 'hidden' feature, it is only a few clicks to add your own custom photos and images to the selection:

• Copy and paste %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Teams into a windows explorer window, or into your Windows 10 search bar at the bottom left, and press enter
• Navigate into, or create, the folders Backgrounds > Uploads
• Paste or save your images into that folder

For when you're missing the office:

Or want to do a quick tidy of the spare room:

More simultaneous videos

This month Microsoft is rolling out the ability to have up to nine simultaneous active webcams during group calls.

This update is being staggered across tenancies, so you may already have the functionality, or it may be applied to your tenancy later in the month.

Harness the power of Teams

Microsoft Teams brings together communications, collaboration, files, and information. Users love it, but without a deliberate approach to design and governance, Teams can quickly grow and create new silos of information.

Our iWorkplace Teams framework helps you manage Teams to unlock the promise of collaboration.