There’s bad news coming for Microsoft users who like a sneaky day working from home, or an equally sneaky day working in some far-flung corner of the office where they can’t be found and disturbed. Teams is about to start snitching on you.
A Teams update will now report on your whereabouts, so your boss can find you. “When users connect to their organization’s Wi-Fi,” Microsoft says, “Teams will automatically set their work location to reflect the building they are working in.” Clearly, if you’re not connected to your company Wi-Fi, it will show that as well.
The better news is the update is delayed. When I first reported on this in October, we expected it to start rolling out in December. But it’s now delayed and you can relax through the holidays. Microsoft now says “rollout starts January 2026.”
So, the days are numbered for virtual backgrounds masking the sofa, the bedside table or the Caribbean beach that’s really behind you. It won’t work any more.
Windows Central describes this as “a productivity booster, meaning you’ll no longer have to manually look for your counterparts at the office or even give them a call; you can easily pinpoint their location via Teams as long as they are connected to the office’s WiFi network.” I’m not sure people will see it that way. But time will tell.
This follows Microsoft’s rollout earlier this year of “your workplace presence in Teams automatically being set to the building level.” It will be “will be off by default,” but it’s for admins not you to “decide whether to enable it and require end-users to opt-in.”
Windows Reports says that “once released, it will be available for Teams users on both Windows and Mac worldwide.” There is literally no escape.
Good luck, everyone. You may need it.