Users with a plain background are now shown more clearly during a video conference in Microsoft Teams.

Today you can blur your entire background in Microsoft Teams or set your own background to camouflage your private situation or busy background. This feature does the job, but you often find that the contours of your face, especially your hair, aren’t always properly “cut” to the virtual background.

An additional disadvantage: the virtual background often hides objects that you want to show during the video meeting. You often have to turn off this background to avoid the annoying flickering around your hands.

To make that a thing of the past, Microsoft Teams is testing the “green screen” function today. If you have a plain background with no smudges, you can enable the feature. All you have to do is specify the color of your wall in Teams. For the time being, the function only works on PCs with an Intel chip. Mac devices with an Apple chip or PCs with an AMD chip have to wait a little longer.

More stable image

Together mode doesn’t work yet, but other Presenter modes will show you bright, clear, and most importantly, sharper lines. This can be particularly useful for professional presentations or events. You can also choose your own background. According to Microsoft, you appear with much less flicker around your hair, hands and profile. Holding and displaying objects also works with this function.

Organizations that allow employees to try Teams public preview can start using the “green screen” feature starting today. Everything else will have to wait for the completion of the testing phase. Microsoft does not say when that would be exactly.

Just last week, Microsoft Teams launched 3D avatars that appear on screen without turning on the webcam. At the same time, Microsoft Teams 2.0 saw the light of day, a new version that is faster, lighter and more economical. Read here how you can test the new version.