In the latest episode of UC Today‘s Microsoft Teams News Show, experts Tom Arbuthnot, Ryan Herbst, and Josh Blalock delve into the significant updates and developments surrounding Microsoft Teams.
The discussion covers Microsoft’s recent earnings, AI-powered features, and Teams Rooms and devices enhancements.
Here’s a rundown of the key insights from the show.
Microsoft’s Strong Performance and Copilot’s Growing Impact
The show started with Microsoft’s quarterly results, which revealed impressive growth across the board.
“Copilot and AI were the top of the agenda,” Arbuthnot said, highlighting that Copilot was mentioned a staggering 42 times during the earnings call.
The earnings revealed that over 77,000 organisations are using Copilot, a number that has surged by 180% year on year.
Moreover, 50,000 organisations have used Copilot Studio to create custom Copilots, showcasing the growing adoption of AI tools within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Microsoft Teams, while not as heavily featured on the earnings call as in years gone by, was given more attention than in previous quarters.
Teams Premium has reached over 3 million users, marking a 400 percent increase year on year.
“Three million is a good number, but it’s less than 1% of the active users,” Arbuthnot said, indicating that there’s a vast potential market still untapped.
Teams Rooms and AI-Powered Features: A Game Changer?
One of the most exciting updates discussed is the new AI-powered feature for speaker recognition in Teams Rooms.
Our panel said this feature, which has been in the works for a while, represents a significant leap forward in meeting technology.
Arbuthnot said: “Microsoft has moved that recognition technology to being cloud-processed, which means any Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows, any of the hardware, will now enable that capability.”
This is a significant enhancement as it eliminates the need for specific hardware, making the feature accessible to a broader range of users. It also brings the feature to organisations that have invested in high-end meeting room technology without access to intelligent speakers.
In addition, Blalock underscored the accessibility and inclusivity that this feature brings.
“From an inclusive standpoint, when you think about live transcriptions, that’s an accessibility feature,” he said.
“It is a collaboration feature, but it’s also accessibility for the hard of hearing, etc.”
“Being able to open that up across all organisations that may need that capability is hugely impactful.”
Herbst pointed out that the ability to use intelligent speaker on more hardware makes it even more important to consider the layout of meeting room tech.
“You even more so need to think specifically about the placement of microphones, having enough microphones, the right quality of things, particularly as you get into larger spaces,” he said.
“It may have been that you could get away with one ceiling mic before that was not perfect… I think particularly as you get into some specialty spaces, you’ve got to think about it [for intelligent speaker to be effective].
Enhancements in Meeting Layouts and User Experience
The panel also discussed the updates to the Teams client, particularly the new meeting gallery layout.
This dynamic layout adapts to the activity within the meeting, prioritizing active speakers and those with their hands raised.
“One of the really nice things is when a room joins, it automatically gives the room a double-width box.” Arbuthnot said. “It makes more sense because if there are more people in the room, they should get more screen real estate.”
This feature makes it easier for remote participants to stay engaged and follow the flow of conversation, especially in meetings with large groups.
Blalock pointed out the importance of accurate representation in the meeting room.
“When the people that are right in front of your eyes are re-shifted because they’ve lifted their hands up, I think that’s going to be super useful for those people not getting ignored and letting that feature get used better.”
This improvement ensures that everyone in the meeting has a chance to be seen and heard, regardless of their physical location.
Teams Devices: New Features and Upcoming Changes
The discussion also touched on the latest updates for Teams devices, particularly Teams Phone.
A range of new features is being rolled out, including explicit recording consent, private line notifications, and a revamped people app for better contact management.
Arbuthnot also highlighted the impending deprecation of the legacy chat notification service, which will impact older Android devices.
Older Android clients use this service to ping them for messages. The implication is if a business is running the older, unsupported Teams phones (Android 8.1 and Android 9), those will stop working at the end of September.
“It’s a big one if you’re running these phones, which I think, in fairness, have been out of support for a while, but it is one of the realities of Android and in this world we’re in,” Herbst said.
“This one doesn’t have a lot of alternatives from a customer perspective. This isn’t something [where] it’ll keep working and you could kind of be comfortable out of support. You’ve got a hard deadline that you’ve got to deal with.”
End of Support for Teams Displays
Microsoft has also revealed that Teams Display devices will hit end of support in September last year.
Teams Displays were introduced at the height of the first pandemic in 2020 as personal, all-in-one devices for Teams meetings.
Our panel agreed that, while these are nice devices, they never quite clicked with their target market.
“This doesn’t come as a big surprise to me,” Blalock said. “I think Microsoft and the OEMs that had them did a good job of articulating the use cases… but what I kept running into with end customers was ‘I just don’t get it; I just don’t see it as part of the day to day.”
Herbst, meanwhile, highlighted that the devices can be useful, even post-support.
“These devices were also kind of born out of a vision during the pandemic of what return to work would look like, and that didn’t necessarily materialize exactly the same way.
“It was well intended around the idea of what would be needed, but it was somewhat speculative.
“I think, fortunately, most of these devices have a path to Teams Room on Android.
“It’s essentially an all-in-one device that you could pull out of a box and go sit in a focus or really small huddle room. I think that that’s a use case that is popular and growing.”
