Microsoft adds animated backgrounds in Teams meeting

San Francisco: Microsoft has announced that it has created a new and large collection of animated backgrounds (or virtual backgrounds) for Teams that have started rolling out worldwide.

The company said this is the biggest update to the virtual backgrounds in Teams since the original collection launched in 2020.

"Featuring all-new images, the re-imagined visual library for Teams has been thoughtfully designed to represent the people that use them and how they work best," Microsoft said in a blogpost on Friday.

The tech giant has added six new categories to Teams backgrounds to cater to millions of different users.

"By mapping out a series of user needs and meeting types, the Teams crew applied a fresh lens to craft and organise the new backgrounds into six categories," Microsoft said.

The new six categories of Microsoft Teams backgrounds include -- ones that focus on wood and light, others that have contemporary backgrounds, and some that are colourful clouds or mountains.

"We aim to drive progress for everyone, and we're excited to create more avenues for representation and allyship in our products,a said Director of Global Brand Marketing Aleksey Fedorov.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has rolled out 'Avatars' in public preview for its proprietary business communication platform Microsoft Teams.

"Avatars for Microsoft Teams offers an alternative to the current binary option of video or no video," the tech giant said in a blogpost.

"Avatars for Teams gives you that much-needed camera break, while still allowing you to collaborate effectively."

Users can represent themselves the way they want with customisable avatars and reactions.