Microsoft is testing a new feature in its video conferencing platform, Teams. The feature, animated backgrounds, is designed to refresh and revamp the meeting experience in Teams with sleek ...

The aforementioned avatars -- a part of Microsoft's Mesh platform-- allow users to choose customized, animated versions of themselves to show up in Teams meetings, a bit like Zoom's virtual avatars.

Similar to Zoom's virtual avatars, Team's versions are a part of Microsoft's Mesh technology, which lets users select personalized, animated representations of themselves to appear in Teams meetings.

Other updates for Microsoft Teams in August 2023 include a new chat hover menu design, Spatial audio support in Teams Rooms, and Task lists sync in Microsoft Loop, among many others.

Microsoft thinks new digital meeting tools — which include Mesh avatars that reduce the pressure of being on camera for video calls and AI that summarizes meetings — are worth the extra cost.

Microsoft Teams Premium is a new feature set for Microsoft’s collab app. It’s designed to improve meetings with intelligent recaps, real-time live translations, and more.