Microsoft Teams phones gain custom backgrounds and call transferring

What you need to know

• Microsoft Teams phones gained several new features this month, including support for custom backgrounds.
• Support for transferring and adding calls also came to Teams phones.
• One-to-one calls on Teams phones can now show live captions.

Each month Microsoft gathers together a list of all the new features for Teams phones. These dedicated devices allow people to use Teams through hardware like the Lenovo ThinkSmart View. Some of the new features this month bring functionality to Teams phones that were already available on Microsoft Teams for smartphones, tablets, and PCs, such as adding or transferring a call to a device. Microsoft outlines the new features in a Tech Community post.

Support for transferring and adding calls to devices rolled out this month. If you're on a call on another device, your Teams phone will prompt you to transfer or add the device to the call. This functionality was already supported by the Teams apps for phones and computers, so it's a nice addition to Teams phones.

Another popular feature from the Teams apps, background replacement, also made its way to Teams phones this month. You can now select prepopulated backgrounds to replace your surroundings within a call.

Creating a contact within Microsoft Outlook will now have a person's details appear within the People app on a Teams phone interface. Only phone numbers appear at the moment.

Teams phones also gained the ability to caption conversations live in one-to-one calls this month. Devices can detect what's being said and present it as text on the screen in real-time.

Pre-call screening can now work with dial pads, which is a handy addition in early media scenarios.

Several other improvements rolled out to Teams phones in June, including an improved experience for interacting with contacts and the addition of a screen letting people know if they don't have any voicemails.