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Posted by Andy Brown on 02 February 2021
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Having fun with online Teams meetings
Want to spice up your Teams meetings? Here are a few ideas!
Applying Snapchat filters
I never knew you could do this!

Anyone with children will be familiar with Snapchat filters!
It's so easy to do on a laptop. Just download Snapchat Camera (for some reason I had to unplug my Ethernet cable and use wi-fi to get the download to work, but I suspect this is just my problem) then install the software. Then just change your device's settings:

Click on this menu option.
You can then choose the Snap camera:

Except on my laptop this happened automatically - I didn't need to do anything.
Any filters that you set are applied automatically!
One thing to watch out for: make sure you know how to turn filters off again. You wouldn't want to be stuck as a potato throughout an entire meeting, would you?
Changing your background picture
Why not change your background picture to a customised one?
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Choose this option ... | ... then add a picture. |
What picture to add? You could try this one:

You'll need to position that knife (or yourself) carefully.
Another nice idea is to choose this test card picture, then cover up your webcam:

If you cover your webcam, you'll just see the test card.
You could have a cat theme:

Bit scary, this one.
Unfortunately what you can't do - not yet, anyway - is have an animated GIF or video as your background.
Sending stickers
I must admit I never realised you could send animated GIFs and stickers in the chat window in Teams:

Click on these icons to send an emoji, an animated GIF or a sticker in the Teams chat window.
A well-chosen sticker can spice up even the dullest meeting:

Well, I did say well-chosen ...
One other idea: the ultimate way to improve your online meetings would probably be to pre-record your attendance as this very watchable video demonstrates, so that you can do something better with your time instead! Unless your Teams meeting is an online Wise Owl training course, of course, in which case there IS no better use of your time.