There has been a lot to talk about over the last two months in Microsoft Teams.
Teams introduced collaborative annotations in meetings, intelligent chat translation, an enhanced front row experience, Power Platform and PowerPoint updates, newly certified devices, and more.
Microsoft is now gearing up for its annual conference, Microsoft Ignite 2022, which introduced some big features last year, including Microsoft Mesh, Dynamics Voice, Microsoft Loop, and more.
Tom Arbuthnot, UC Solutions Architect, MVP, spoke through the September Teams news with UC Today’s Rob Scott:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFNlv9H6pKw&t=1s[/embed]
Teams Meetings
The Teams application is compatible with Apple silicon Mac computers. The new optimisation will significantly improve performance, even with high-res monitors in calls and meetings, also enabling more efficient use of devices.
Cameo in PowerPoint Live now integrates the camera feed into a presentation. The feature allows you to choose where you appear on the slides and provides layout recommendations.
The Microsoft Whiteboard is powering collaborative annotations in Teams meetings, letting everyone annotate on shared screens. Notes, text, shapes, and reactions can all be added to help express yourself.
Language interpretation lets interpreters translate the speaker’s words without needing to interrupt the speaker.
Select Together mode makes meetings feel more real by making participants appear on-screen next to each other with a range of backdrops to choose from theatre seats to round tables in a tropical setting.
Channel members who have not been directly invited to a meeting can now be pre-assigned to breakout Rooms by the meeting organiser.
Transcription is automatically created during recordings. Admins will need to enable transcriptions for the company and meeting organisers must choose the ‘Record automatically’ option.
‘Ranking’ is a new type of poll for gathering information. Recipients must put their answers into order by clicking an up or down arrow or dragging and dropping their selections.
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Notifications have been moved to the top centre for meetings to stop them from overlapping with other notifications. The notifications can also be set to snooze in the same way as chat bubbles.
Informational messages in meetings for iOS and Android have been updated to include a notification drawer for in-meeting messages. These allow you to interact with notifications with a single tap from mobile devices.
With one click, users can exit a meeting from all devices by clicking on the down-facing arrow on the ‘Leave’ button and selecting ‘Leave on all my devices’.
Transcriptions can now be initiated during Teams meetings for iOS and Android, which are viewable when the meetings have finished.
Citrix and VMWare users can now use background blur effects. There are a number of images and colours to choose from.
A new feature provides support for Human Interface Devices (HID) in Teams on VMware virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
Microsoft Word or PDF survey or quiz can be converted into Microsoft Forms in one click.
When started from the Calendar, instant meetings has the same functionalities as Teams meetings.
Teams Calling
Music is available for calls being transferred or placed on hold. Administrators can upload their own music or select Microsoft’s default songs.
Organisations can stay compliant more easily by integrating compliance recording solutions with Teams compliance.
Inbound federated VoIP calls can be blocked while you are working to reduce interruptions. Previously only inbound calls from specific numbers could be blocked.
Teams Phone VoIP Calls supports the same functionalities as Teams meetings, including tabs, in-meeting dialogue, bots, and meeting stage.
Teams Chat and Collaboration
Users can now choose the default download location where downloads in the Teams desktop client will be saved.
A new intelligent chat message translation feature asks Teams users whether they would like text to be translated into their preferred language. Teams detects if they have been sent messages in another language. The second time the feature is activated, it will offer users the ability to automatically translate future messages into their preferred language. These preferences can be changed in the translation settings page.
Teams Rooms on Windows Devices
Front row experience for Teams Rooms on Windows devices now maximises the content space by decreasing the top bar and video height and updating the default to a single panel on displays smaller than 21:9.
