Microsoft announced at its Ignite conference this week a new series of updates for Microsoft Teams, including background blurring to make video calls less embarrassing.
Technically, with this new feature, the background can be completely blurred whenever you join a video call, thus removing distractions and focusing on the actual conversation.
“Sometimes working from ‘anywhere’ is ideal. So now you can blur background in Microsoft Teams. It keeps your team focused on the conversation, not the cat doing parkour behind you,” says Microsoft.
Additionally, Microsoft Teams is getting support for recording, so meetings can be viewed later, with additional functionality from the transcripts created by Microsoft Stream. Transcripts allow for better meeting management, enabling search capabilities with specific keywords.
Finally, Microsoft is adding new cloud video enhancements to Microsoft Teams, including support for a bunch of new services.
Background blurring and recording capabilities are available today, while Cloud video support for Pexip and BlueJeans will be released in late October. Polycom CVI is also available today.
Microsoft also announced a number of smaller updates, such as calling support for all VOIP-enabled customers (previously, this feature was only available to those with Calling Plans), as well as screen sharing in a private conversation.
"To share your screen during a private conversation, simply click the open sharetray icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select one of the available window options," says Microsoft.
Microsoft claims that Microsoft Teams is the fastest-growing application in its history, with more than 329,000 organizations and 87 Fortune 100 companies using it.
