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

[Yun_Liu]

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.

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!

[#2]

Hi, Any update on this? We are now half way through May and no sign of this being released? Thanks

[#3]

@gr33nman Same here, been telling all of my clients to keep waiting, and they keep asking why Zoom works perfectly and has these features on AVD, but not Teams.  Many users leave AVD and use Teams on the local desktop, kind of defeats the whole purpose but what can I say?

[#4]

Background effects (background blur & custom background images) are rolling out now. Please look for new release posts later this week.

[#5]

@Yun_Liu - thanks. just to be sure. machine based installations (installed according to microsofts teams on avd documentation) will receive those too, correct?

[#6]

Yes.

[#7]

Thanks for getting this over the line, Pop out windows now has appeared, but background blur, whilst showing in the sidebar, does nothing when I click 'apply'. Same for the other background effects. Anyone else had this? If people see the feature and it doesnt work, it will cause more support tickets than if it wasn't there in the first place.

[#8]

Same here

[#9]

Hi there - any news of when background blur & custom backgrounds are coming to VMware or Citrix VDI users?
We now have the new meeting experience which is much better, good job there :)

[#10]

Thanks for the feedback. We found and fixed an issue late last week during the Background Effects rollout that effected a portion of the population. The fix is already rolling out and should be 100% by end of week. The fix is on the backend so there is nothing for the user to install. If you still cannot use Background Effects by end of week (5/27), do let us know. We are here to help.

[#11]

We are working with Citrix on supporting background effects. Not ETA yet.

[#12]

@Yun_Liu 

That's cool - would be great if MS could get it on the roadmap site (presumably for vmware horizon as well as citrix) as something that is being worked on :)

[#13]

@Yun_Liu this is now working for me so the fix must have rolled out.

Brilliant to finally have this feature in AVD. Caused a lot of issues with our user base that the feature was missing.

Also, the multi-window support is another great plus!

[#14]

@Yun_Liu Is support for Background Blur on WVD media optimized session hosts on the horizon or is this not even on the roadmap?

Thanks

[#15]

support for Teams Optimized session would be fantastic, please add this feature.

[#16]

@David_Tutas @pcluskey is background effects working for you now?

[#17]

@GGreeneTROUTE @lets_tech_about_it 

Media optimizations for Teams are available across Windows, Mac and IGEL (Linux) clients when configured correctly - Microsoft Teams on Azure Virtual Desktop - Azure | Microsoft Docs

Background effects is available on Teams on AVD (new name for WVD) on Windows. Background effects support on other platforms (Mac and Linux) is on the roadmap.

[#18]

Thanks, @Yun_Liu - I believe the question is if the Background Blur feature will be supported on an AVD environment that has already been configured with Media Optimizations.

We are trying to determine if we should now disable media optimizations for our clients to allow users to be able to use Background Blur. If you don't anticipate Background Blur supporting AVD session hosts with Media Optimization in the near future, we will start testing disabling media optimizations to see if end user experience suffers at all.

Thank you

[#19]

Hi,

Not really sure what you mean?

This feature is for AVD clients. What are you talking about disabling media optimisation to allow background blur?

In order to properly use Teams on AVD you have to have media optimisation. This latest update enables multi-window support and also the background effects.

I think you are really over complicating this.

James

[#20]

James,

This is where the confusion originated.
The article here (which was linked in a previous post) has not been updated: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-your-background-for-a-teams-meeting-f77a2381-443a-...
You can see on the bottom it states "Background effects won't be available to you if you're using Teams through optimized virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)."

Also, an MSI link in the bulk deployment page has not been updated yet.

[#21]

Hi,

I understand this but they commented under the main post about enabling it in AVD so it’s a bit of a moot point.

They even ignored Yun-Liu’s comment that is was supported.

It 100% works on AVD team with media optimization. I guessing they will remove (or update the main background effect doc page at some point)