Microsoft is introducing the function to join meetings set up by third-party services, including Zoom and Google Meet, directly through their Teams calendar.
The solution simplifies the process of joining meetings organised across multiple conferencing platforms, with Teams potentially serving as a hub application from which to join other vendors’ services.
Microsoft’s official 365 Roadmap wrote:
If any organizer creates a Zoom/Google Meet/ any third-party meeting application from Outlook or OWA, meeting participants will be able to join that meeting from inside Teams calendar.”
Although there is little explicit detail on how exactly the feature will work, it likely involves being able to launch a Zoom or Google Meet call through their calendar invite.
The update will roll out in general availability this August and will be usable via Desktop or Mac.
An Olive Branch to Competitors or a Shrewd Business Decision?
Why not both? The options aren’t mutually exclusive.
The feature signals encouraging cooperation between several of the most prominent UC vendors and perhaps a willingness to put users’ needs first across multiple platforms and applications. It could be a game-changing update that streamlines users’ workflows and improves productivity.
It could also be shrewd to offer this feature as it preserves users within the Teams ecosystem throughout the workday. There potentially could be no need to separately start the applications for other services or platforms as they could launch (and then close) meetings directly from Teams, reinforcing Microsoft’s UC platform as a market leader.
Meanwhile, the openness to collaborate with chief competitors in the UC and collaboration space — and their amiability in return — is a positive PR move for every business involved, illustrating an ambition to reduce unnecessary admin for users juggling multiple conferencing solutions.
A Busy Month for Teams
The past few weeks have seen several key Teams announcements, signalling little summer slowdown for the service as it approaches the launch of the new Teams client later this year, billed Teams 2.0.
Speaking of Teams 2.0, known internally at Microsoft as Teams 2.1, it intends to improve upon Teams’ firm foundations as a premium UC platform.
“It’s faster, lighter, built from the ground up, and generally better, as said by various marketing terms,” explained Tom Arbuthnot, Microsoft Teams Expert and Co-Founder of Empowering.Cloud. “But, genuinely, the perception is that it’s true. It is better.”
The new app aims to use 50 percent less memory, be less taxing for the CPU, and lead to better battery life for laptops.
Microsoft has tentatively suggested it’s looking towards October for the general availability of the new Teams, but that doesn’t mean that every customer will have to switch instantly. However, there are several approaches for customers who want to prepare for the new Teams client.
Among the recent announcements for new Teams features is the introduction of spatial audio for immersive meetings.
Spatial audio empowers users with either a wired stereo headset or built-in stereo speakers to experience attendees’ “spatialised” voices across Gallery’s view’s meeting stage.
Spatial audio brings a next-generation immersive soundscape to Teams meetings (…) This new audio experience spatialises the voices of attendees across the visual meeting stage in the Gallery view,” Steven Stein, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, wrote in an accompanying blog post. “his helps make conversations more natural, increasing the sense of audio presence, and making the conversation easier to follow when multiple people are speaking together.”
Among other specific Teams features added in recent weeks are refined chat capabilities, a user toggle to signal whether they’re working on-premises or remotely, and customisable captions.
Other Teams news this month included the significant progress made by Teams Rooms on Android in catching up to its Windows counterpart regarding its feature suite.
“I think what’s happening is Android is getting a lot of the fundamentals, ticking all the boxes that your typical user would want most of the time, and certainly in those smaller and medium spaces, and maybe even some large spaces,” Arbuthnot said.
Microsoft Inspire Takes Place This Week
The vendor’s 400,000-strong partner network members will join forces at this year’s Microsoft Inspire. They can explore ideas, discuss new Microsoft tools, and celebrate the “Partner of the Year” awards.
This year’s two-day digital event will take place on July 18 and 19, providing partners worldwide with an opportunity to discover new ways to grow as a business. The experience promises complete access to live keynotes and sessions, an on-demand video catalogue, a speaker directory, and session scheduler tools. Furthermore, Microsoft will offer interactive session chats for networking and downloadable resources.
Keynote and dedicated speaker sessions will constitute most of day one at Inspire. Attendees can expect to hear from Satya Nadella (CEO), Judson Althoff (CCO), Nick Parker (President of Partner Sales), and many other leaders.
