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Microsoft Teams: How to change your background to whatever you want

Just like in Zoom meetings, you can add your own custom background for a video chat in Teams.

Clifford Colby Managing Editor
Clifford is a managing editor at CNET, where he leads How-To coverage. He spent a handful of years at Peachpit Press, editing books on everything from the first iPhone to Python. He also worked at a handful of now-dead computer magazines, including MacWEEK and MacUser. Unrelated, he roots for the Oakland A's.
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Alison DeNisco Rayome Managing Editor
Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
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Clifford Colby
Alison DeNisco Rayome
2 min read
microsoftteamsbackgrounds.png

Use your own custom images with Microsoft Teams videoconferencing calls.

 Microsoft

If you'd like to be somewhere else, at least digitally, you can now add your own background of a tastefully decorated room, for example, or a Minecraft farm to Microsoft Teams video chats. Designed for business and education, Teams includes group chat, video calling and collaboration tools, and has seen a spike in use since more people began working from home as a response to the spread of the coronavirus. With the update to Microsoft's collaboration tool, you can now pick a custom image as your video chat background. (The Zoom video chat service also lets you pick your own custom background images for calls.) Here's how to set it up.

Watch this: Telehealth will be the new normal after the pandemic

How to change your Microsoft Teams background

You can now customize your background both before and during a video chat.

1. To update your background before joining or starting a Teams meeting, navigate to Background effects.
If you're already in the middle of a video chat, go to the bottom of the screen and click or tap the three dots to go to your Meeting controls. Select More actions > Show background effects. 

2. Either select Blur to blur your background, or choose from the available images to replace it. You can even create your own images, upload them to Teams, and then select them as a background image for your video chats. Just select Add new.

3. You'll be able to preview your background to see how it looks. If you like it, hit Apply. That's it!

You can have video chats with up to 250 people in Microsoft Teams, and if your workplace or school has access to Office 365, you already have access to it. You can also check out a free version of Microsoft's communication tool.

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