Microsoft Teams: 12 New Virtual Meeting Features
These are the new features Microsoft is adding to Teams to enhance virtual meetings.
August 5, 2020
![Microsoft Teams Mobile User Microsoft Teams Mobile User](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt652fb93e98dbbf53/652458432b1f3d1e5c9712b7/Microsoft-Teams-Mobile-User.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Microsoft
Together Mode is a major break from the typical video call where everyone appears in a grid of boxes. Using video segmentation and artificial intelligence, Together Mode renders participants into a virtual space. Initially, options include auditoriums, meeting rooms or coffee bars. Microsoft does not see Together Mode as a gimmick, but rather a way for people to feel more connected.
A separate version of Together Mode for educators provides virtual K-12 classrooms or university lecture halls. In the fall, Teams will let teachers create virtual breakout rooms for students to work in small groups. It will also enable students to virtually raise their hands and for instructors to take attendance. Microsoft has fine-tuned many of the other new features with classroom-specific capabilities.
Microsoft doesn’t expect all organizations will want to use Together Mode, and even some who do might opt to utilize it selectively. Another configuration set to appear in August is Large Gallery View, which will let up to 49 meeting participants simultaneously see each other on one screen. It will also include virtual breakout rooms that will let a meeting organizer create separate virtual rooms and subgroups. Ultimately, Microsoft Teams will allow up to 1,000 participants. It will also allow up to 20,000 participants in a view-only model.
Dynamic View gives meeting organizers more control over the appearance of the meeting room layout, such as how content is organized and the placement of specific participants. According to Microsoft, Dynamic View uses AI to allow meeting organizers to personalize the layout and create more interactive experiences.
New video filters let users adjust lighting levels and focus the camera to customize their appearance.
Meeting participants will soon be able to use emojis to react to a presenter, which Microsoft believes provide a way to share sentiment without interrupting a meeting’s flow. It’s a feature offered with PowerPoint Live Presentations, designed to give presenters immediate feedback. Microsoft will later bring PowerPoint Live Presentations to Teams.
Adding on to the existing Microsoft Teams captions, the company is adding speaker attribution to give participants a better sense of who is speaking.
Later this year, Microsoft Teams will generate a transcript as a file after each meeting. Teams will automatically save the transcript as a tab linked to the respective meeting. Microsoft noted that when a participant joins a meeting from a conference room system, the transcript will identify the room, not a specific person. That is also the case with live captions.
Microsoft plans to improve the Whiteboard in Teams app with various new features such as sticky notes and support for drag and drop. It will also enable text entry. The new features are for meeting participants who don’t have a device with a touchscreen or a Surface Hub. Microsoft is also promising its whiteboard will load faster.
If you thought Microsoft had put its Cortana voice assistant on ice, that is not the case. The software giant is rolling Cortana into Teams to enable key features such as making a call, joining a meeting and dictating chat messages. Microsoft is touting Cortana as an enterprise-grade service that supports Microsoft 365 privacy, security and compliance. The company has added Cortana to the iOS and Android mobile Teams apps and is set to start rolling it out to Microsoft 365 enterprise customers, initially in English.
As workers return to the office, Microsoft is adding capabilities that reduce or eliminate the need for meeting participants to touch equipment in conference rooms. A new remote user interface will let users mute or unmute a room, adjust volumes and turn cameras on and off. Microsoft is also adding wireless casting to allow quick meeting setups. And later in the year, meeting participants or organizers can use Cortana to issue voice commands to join or leave a meeting.
New types of dedicated Microsoft Teams displays are small device-for-home environments that will allow users to make or receive voice calls or join video meetings. The first Microsoft Teams display will come from Lenovo. The company has integrated Teams into its ThinkSmart View all-in-one personal communications device. Built with a touchscreen display, people can use Teams chat and file-sharing. Users can control it with Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant. Set for release in September, it will cost $349. Yealink is also expected to roll out a Microsoft Teams display.
New types of dedicated Microsoft Teams displays are small device-for-home environments that will allow users to make or receive voice calls or join video meetings. The first Microsoft Teams display will come from Lenovo. The company has integrated Teams into its ThinkSmart View all-in-one personal communications device. Built with a touchscreen display, people can use Teams chat and file-sharing. Users can control it with Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant. Set for release in September, it will cost $349. Yealink is also expected to roll out a Microsoft Teams display.
Together Mode for Microsoft Teams is now available. This is one of many new features designed to make virtual meetings feel more natural.
The Microsoft Teams road map called for many of the features to roll out last month, or in the near term. But use of Microsoft Teams Meetings has increased exponentially since the beginning of this year.
After COVID-19 left millions of people working at home, virtual meeting capabilities in Microsoft Teams became a lifeline. Usurped only potentially by Zoom, usage of Google Meet, Cisco WebEx and numerous others has also surged.
While some workplaces have started to reopen, many workers throughout the world continue to work remotely. Many companies haven’t determined when – and in some cases if – they will bring all their employees back. Google this week said it will keep its employees’ home for another year. No one knows when risk of infection will subside, but few would dispute its enduring impact on how people work.
It took little time for Microsoft to conclude that the sudden shift to virtual meetings has resulted in “meeting fatigue.” In its latest research, the company found that work and home lives are intertwined. People are having more meetings and more frequently than before, outside of normal business hours.
Keep up with resources for supporting partners and customers during the COVID-19 crisis. |
Based on use of Teams, Microsoft found that people are working earlier in the morning and later in the evening. Teams chats have increased from 15% to 23%, and by more than 200% on weekends.
“We see this blending of work and life as a durable workplace trend with potential for technology to help ease some of the challenges that come with it, according to a blog by Microsoft corporate VP Jared Spataro. “You’ll see us continuing to innovate in the areas of organizational analytics and employee wellbeing in the near future.”
Scroll through the slideshow above to see how new Microsoft Teams features aim to improve the virtual meeting experience.
Read more about:
AgentsAbout the Author(s)
You May Also Like