Working in our home environments can be a challenge. As we adapt to working in our new spaces one of those
challenges is how we appear when on video calls, or rather how our backgrounds appear. Some of us are working from kitchen tables, bedrooms, attic spaces or pretty much anywhere we can find a corner to connect with our customers! We want to look professional, but it is not easy if our background is not sympathetic to our cause.
At INNOVATE we have created customized backgrounds which allow our staff to be comfortable in their surroundings, wherever that may be, while on a video call. Microsoft have cleverly given some samples to use as backgrounds, but customized backgrounds are very simple to produce and a good way to showcase your company branding.
We asked our design company, We Do Media to give us some sample backgrounds that would work for our team. Just to note the dimensions for the background are 1920×1080 pixels. When choosing a background, you have to remember that everyone's home setting is different and how these templates look can be determined by how busy or not someone's space is, as well as the colour of their walls. Therefore, our samples include white based backgrounds and black based backgrounds.
How to upload a custom background in Microsoft Teams:
- On your PC open the File Explorer.
- In the address bar type %AppData% and hit enter
- Open the Microsoft folder. Do not go to the Microsoft Teams folder by mistake.
- Open the Teams folder within the Microsoft folder.
- Open the Backgrounds folder.
- Open the Uploads folder.
- Save the image within the uploads folder.
The backgrounds folder will only show in File Explorer if you have previously used a background in Microsoft Teams.
How to set a custom background in Microsoft Teams
- Whether you're setting a background from an image you've uploaded, or one of the images that's built into Microsoft Teams, the process is the same.
- Within a video call, select the More actions button (three dots).
- Select Show background effects.
- Scroll down and select the image you've uploaded.
- Select Preview to preview how your background will look (optional).
- Select Apply or Apply and turn on video if your webcam is currently off.
