Microsoft Teams has a privacy feature that lets you blur the background behind you when using your camera.  It also allows you to replace your background with an image.   When the background option was first implemented, it did not allow them to easily upload custom backgrounds and most users were limited to only using the ones provided by Microsoft.  But, Microsoft has updated Teams to allow users to upload their own images to the application quickly and easily which can be used as backgrounds. 

To use background effects or upload your own images to Teams, you will need to follow the steps below:

  • Open Microsoft Teams and enter a meeting. Before you click 'Join Now', toggle 'background effects' on the bar just below.
    teams toggle.png
  • You will now see a panel open up on the right side showing different backgrounds including the option to blur backgrounds
  • If you want to add your own images, click on '+ Add new' on the top of the panel and navigate to the image on your computer
  • Once you have selected and added the image, you can scroll down to the bottom of the panel to see the image you just uploaded 
  • Click on the image and it will be set as the background for this meeting

Currently, Microsoft supports only JPG, PNG, or BMP files as background images. 

To turn on background effects during the meeting:
  • During the meeting, click on the three dots (...) in the meeting controls and click on 'Show background effects'
    teams ellipse.png
  • This will open up the same background effects panel on the right side of the screen
  • You can either select an existing background or upload your own image using the '+ Add new' option
  • Once selected, click 'Apply' to save the new image as your background.
teams backgrounds.png

Here's a trick.You can open up a meeting that has already ended to play around and test background effects.  
Go to your Teams chat window and scroll down to find a past meeting.  Click on it and then click Join in the top right of your Teams window and you will be in the right place to experiment. 
When you are done, just click the Close button in the top right. 
Have fun with it.