Snow on the mountain tops, a frozen lake, a quiet snowy forest: with these winter backgrounds you bring the feel of the cold months to your Teams meetings or your desktop. Below you'll find the images, how to set them in the new Teams, and a few tips to look good on camera.
Set a background in the new Teams
- Right-click an image further down and choose Save image as.
- Before the meeting: in the pre-join screen, click Video effects and settings. During the meeting: click the arrow next to Camera > Video effects and settings.
- Under Backgrounds, choose Add new and select the saved image.
- Click the new background. You see the result right away in the preview.
Teams remembers the background for your next meetings. You can also choose to use it by default for all meetings. The exact button names sometimes differ slightly between versions.
Winter backgrounds
Tips for a great result
- Size: a landscape image in 16:9, ideally 1920 x 1080 pixels. Smaller images look blurry, portrait photos get cropped.
- A calm centre: pick a photo with little detail where you'll appear. A mountain or horizon behind your head works better than a busy pattern.
- Light: make sure your face is well lit, preferably from the front. Teams can then separate you from the background better, with fewer "floating" edges around your hair.
- A plain wall: a calm real background behind you helps the software too.
- Mirrored: you see yourself mirrored, the others don't. Text in a background looks reversed to you, but reads correctly for everyone else.
- Blur: in doubt, choose Blur. It's always professional.
On your phone or tablet
In the Teams app for iOS and Android, tap the three dots during a meeting > Background effects. There you choose blur, a default background or a photo from your gallery. So save the image to your photos first.
For admins
In the Teams admin center a meeting policy decides whether users may blur or replace their background, and whether they may upload their own images. With Teams Premium you can also publish organisation backgrounds, such as a winter version with your company logo, that everyone sees in the list straight away. Handy for a consistent look during client calls in the holiday season.
As a desktop background
Right-click a saved image and choose Set as desktop background, or go to Settings > Personalization > Background. Choose Slideshow there and a folder with all the winter photos, and your desktop changes picture every day.
May I use these photos?
The photos come from Unsplash. You may use them for free, also at work, without asking permission. Crediting the photographer isn't required but always appreciated. Search Unsplash for "winter" and you'll find thousands more.
More themes? Also see the Christmas backgrounds and the New Year backgrounds, or read how to use your own image as a background.