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Standard Group Chat Pictures Instead of Avatars
The announcement in message center notification MC717970 (last updated 4 April 2024) that Microsoft is introducing “custom avatars for group chats” is not what you think. No mesh avatars are involved. Microsoft 365 roadmap item 119305 clarifies the situation by saying that the avatars referred to in MC717970 are no more than the profile picture for group chats.
What’s happening is that any member of a group chat (including guest accounts) can choose from a set of “pre-selected illustrations” (no doubt selected to communicate what happens in typical group conversations) or one of the 1,800 emojis available in Teams. And if they can’t find a suitable picture, they can upload a file and use that instead. Apparently, pictures add “a layer of inclusivity and expression” to group chats.
The update began rolling out in mid-March and should be complete worldwide by mid-April. You probably have it now but don’t realize that the facility exists.
Adding a Group Chat Picture
Until now, group chats get a default picture generated from the profile pictures of the participants (or their initials, if no pictures exist). Figure 1 shows a typical example. Note that this group chat has already been renamed to clearly communicate the intention of the chat. Using appropriate names also makes group chats easier to find in the chat list because you don’t end up with a bunch of chats named after the chat participants.
The problem with the generated group chat pictures is that they don’t stand out in the chat list. One generated picture looks much the same as the others, which makes it difficult for users to scan the list and find a specific group chat quickly.
To add a picture, click on the existing picture to reveal the set of 36 pre-selected illustrations (Figure 2) and select a picture to use.
Alternatively, click the Emojis button to pick from the full set of emojis available in Teams or use the upload button to select a custom picture file (JPEG or PNG format of up to 4 MB in size). Be careful with custom pictures as it’s easy to choose a photo that loses all detail and definition when reduced to the small thumbnail size used for a group chat picture.
Teams Client Display of Updated Group Chat Photos
After selecting the picture, remember to save your selection. This action forces Teams to update the metadata for the group chat and post a message into the chat to tell participants that the group picture changed. Saving the picture sometimes results in the desktop client displaying the chosen picture. Mostly, the new picture doesn’t show up in the desktop client for a while, possibly due to caching. The same behavior doesn’t happen in the mobile and browser clients where picture updates appear the next time the group chat is accessed.
Eventually something happens in the bowels of the desktop client, and the intended picture appears in the chat list. No doubt Microsoft will tweak the desktop client to make sure that things happen as planned.
An Innocuous Feature
Adding the ability to add a custom picture to a group chat falls into the category of innocuous but slightly useful features. Those who don’t update group chats are unlikely to update group chat pictures either. Those who might be interested in updating a group chat picture might struggle to find a suitable picture in the set chosen by Microsoft. I guess the biohazard emoji might come in useful, but I wonder if anyone would notice if I set a group chat to have that picture?
So much change, all the time. It’s a challenge to stay abreast of all the updates Microsoft makes across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Subscribe to the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook to receive monthly insights into what happens, why it happens, and what new features and capabilities mean for your tenant.