Background blur in GA on Microsoft Teams on Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365

Microsoft

UPDATE on 6/29:

If you do not see the UI for Background Effects in Teams on AVD, install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable on your client machine running the Remote Desktop app and try again.

 

UPDATE on 5/19:

Microsoft Teams background effects is now generally available on Azure Virtual Desktop! Refer to this blog post for more details!

 

UPDATE on 5/17/22:

Our investigation has concluded, and we have finished validating the new release. Background effects (background blur & custom background images) are rolling out this week in addition to multi-window. Stay tuned to new blog posts.

 

UPDATE on 2/25/22: 

We discovered an issue when rolling out background blur in GA. We have paused the rollout for further investigation. We will provide updates in the coming weeks. 

 

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We are happy to announce that background blur is rolling out this week to the public on Teams on Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 for Windows endpoints! One of the top customers asks, background blur helps users avoid unexpected disruptions and create a more private environment during video meetings.

 

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Use background blur on Teams on Azure Virtual Desktop

To use this feature, please install Windows Desktop Client version 1.2.2924.0 or later. Please refer to Change your background for a Teams meeting on how to turn on background blur. 

 

Note: We are working to support background images. Please stay tuned for the release timing!

 

48 Replies
Hi there, thanks for the update. I'm on 1.2.2924 Insider, but don't see the blur option - I presume you're making backend changes - is there a specific Teams for VDI version? I'm on 1.500.2164 which I believe is the latest.
Any news on pop out chat for VDI, which for my users is more of a priority?

thanks,

Paul.
Hi Paul,

It usually takes about a week to roll out to all customers. You should expect to have the blur option by Friday (2/25). There's no requirement for a specific Teams for VDI version.

For multi-window (pop out chat), it's a top customer ask. We're busily working to bring it to VDI but no dates to announce yet.

Yun

@Yun_Liu Do you have any idea when this feature will start rolling out again?

@gr33nman 

 

The team is investigating the issue. Not ETA on the release date yet. We will update on the main post when we have more information.

@Yun_Liu Teams on VDI is really turning out to be depressing rollout for all of our users.   Users (and me frankly) cannot understand how an application from a 2 trillion dollar company can be this archaic and unrelaible.   

 

Funny enough, Zoom on AVD works 20 times better than Teams.  Whoever is managing Teams for VDI should be more transparent with us on the ongoing quality and reliability issues and what is being done to fix them and a timeline.   Your partners are facing the customer feeling highly embarassed and in the position to cover for Microsoft's failure on this product.   

 

Its really disgraceful. 

We understand the frustration and apologize for not communicating as much. We are doing the due diligence to ensure when we release things will be better. No specific dates to announce yet but seems to be aligning to the first half of April.


The first half of April will soon be here. Is there any news on the subject?
We have a fix in hand and are doing our due diligence to test it across all clients and host VM configurations. We've engaged Teams leadership on an accelerated release plan to get these features out the door asap. In addition to background blur, we'll be adding support for background replacement at the same time. We've also laid out a release plan for additional Teams on AVD features that will be delivered alongside background blur and background replacement. We'll share more about these plans towards the end of next week. Thank you for your patience.

@Yun_Liu Hi, is there any update on potential dates for roll out of these features? Thank you! 

Any update? Its almost end of april and we have hundreds of users complaining about feature parity.
We have cleared all blockers for rolling out background blur and been testing a fix this week. We will have more extensive testing next week to ensure everything is ready to ship early in May. Along with background blur and background image replacement, we will also ship multi-window, which provides users the option to pop out chats, meetings, calls, or documents into separate windows to help streamline their workflow.
Thank you for the update and the quick responses! Any ETA on the give and take control for screensharing? That I believe is the next biggest hurdle, other than the overall audio and video stability.
Give and Take control is currently on track to ship in Q2.

@Yun_Liu Hi, any update on when these features are rolling out? Thanks!

I would say that 90% of Teams running in Azure Virtual desktop will be optimized on Windows 10 multi-session image. Whats the road-map to get it working in this scenario?

@Yun_Liu I believe the update is trying to come through, but it's not updating. I've restarted Teams multiple times, logged out and back on within Teams and restarted the VDI. I continue to get this message. 

 

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Please file a bug using Help ->Report a problem on the left corner of Teams main window and let me know the case number.

@Yun_Liu Thanks for your response. But I don't have a "Report a Problem" option. See below. I selected "Give Feedback" but nothing happens. 

 

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Sorry about the confusion. "Report a problem" is not enabled for all users yet. Please file a support ticket through customer support.