Microsoft Teams Public Preview adds a way to decorate your background in video meetings

A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced that a number of new features would be rolling out shortly for its Teams online meeting and collaboration tools. One of the features mentioned was a way to change and decorate a person's background when they were on camera during an online meeting. Today, the company announced that feature is now rolling out for Microsoft Teams Public Preview and Microsoft 365 Targeted Release users.

In a post on the Microsoft 365 Insider blog, Microsoft stated:

As a Teams Premium user, you now have the option to leverage AI to augment your real-life surroundings and create a personalized atmosphere for your meetings when using camera.

If you want to change and decorate your background either before or during an online video meeting you can select the Effects and Avatars option. You can then pick the  Video effects selection and then you can click on the Decorate button.

You should see the Background settings pane. You can pick a theme from the pane, and then click on the Generate backgrounds button. Pick one of the backgrounds, and then click on the Apply and save background button so your custom background is available for others to see in the meeting.

At the moment, this new feature is available for Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted Release users. Admins must set up their Teams clients to accept public preview features. They must also have a paid Teams Premium license and they have to use the new Teams app for Windows or Mac.

Microsoft has already announced that the new custom background decoration feature will be generally available for Teams Premium users sometime in early 2024. Other new features, including using avatars in virtual immersive spaces meetings, will also roll out generally for Teams users in the early part of next year.

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