During this year's Ignite event, Microsoft promised everything from enhanced user experience to the arrival of a new walkie talkie feature. For those using Teams phones as their preferred hardware, some excellent updates are arriving here too.
In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced that it’s working hard to make sure that it’s as easy as possible for teams to stay connected with the Phones application. The latest selection of features allows users to transform their experience with home screens that match their schedule, automatic meeting acceptance options, and customizations for user experience.
All of the updates to Microsoft Teams Phones focus on strengthening user experience and overcoming the hurdles to productivity and workplace efficiency.
Here are some of the latest updates.
A Home Screen That Matches Your Schedule
Every day in the workplace comes with its collection of notifications, updates, alerts, and meetings to prepare for. Microsoft is making it easier to keep track of everything by redesigning the home screen. Now, users can see reminders of upcoming and current meetings, and do things quickly, like join a meeting, or play a voicemail.
With more clicks, users can access more detailed information about calendars, history, people, and more. For users who want to limit the amount of information showing on their home screen, there’s the option to change notifications under the Settings tab.
You can even disable the home screen entirely if you prefer to stick with the original interface, including just the calls, time, address book, voicemail, and calendar. This might be a good choice for people who feel more comfortable using the familiar Microsoft Teams Phone app without any enhancements.
Access to Apps and Calls
Microsoft also wanted to ensure that the tools most essential to users were easy to access, that’s why the company now offers customisation for your quick-access apps. You can change your phone's default view by adjusting the icons that appear in the bar at the bottom. Users who spend most of their time on calls can set the screen to show only the voicemail and call apps, while also moving the calendar and people tabs into “more options”.
Microsoft knows that everyone works differently, and the best interface for one person might not be the best for another. Users with devices without a keypad, for instance, might prefer to have a dial pad that’s always on, while others prefer speed dial as default. You can modify your default view for calls in the Settings tab under Calls and Call views.
Updating the Meetings Experience
Microsoft Teams will now provide the option to accept meeting requests automatically for scheduled conversations. This allows someone to join a meeting immediately, even without having to “accept” the call. This creates a seamless, hands-free engagement experience.
One use case for this could be in the healthcare environment, where care teams can check on a patient at a scheduled time, without having to activate a meeting. To maintain security and privacy settings, auto-accept settings are enabled only when:
