Zoom can do it. Teams ought to be able to do it too. At first glance, it can’t. But there is a way….
The workaround depends on the fact that there are some basic animated backgrounds already present, which can be nudged into showing something of your choice with a little tweaking of filenames.
Note: This is unsupported by Microsoft and this workaround may be ended at any time.
Steps to follow:
- Find the folder that contains the default animated backgrounds:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe \LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams\Backgrounds
- The default animated backgrounds are MP4 files, and they have names beginning with ‘feelingDreamy’:
- Rename one of these files’ extensions from .mp4 to .old.
- Copy your preferred (royalty-free, non-commercial) MP4 video background file into this folder.
- Rename it to match the original ‘feeling dreamy’ filename, complete with MP4 extension.
- Open Teams, join or start a call, and select the appropriate background – note, as shown below, that the selection window does not update the image of the animated background from the default to what it will now look like. However your preview window will now show your custom MP4 instead. Here I am apparently joining a meeting while accompanied by some Highland coos. 😉
Custom animated background