June has seen a number of Microsoft Teams updates, releases, and events news from within Teams and its broader ecosystem.
Empowering.Cloud has launched to provide regular and up-to-date Microsoft Teams insights, advice and training resources for IT professionals.
Microsoft updates surround Teams’ meetings, calling, meeting room devices, collaboration and approvals, frontline workers, and government.
UC Today discussed the latest Teams updates with Tom Arbuthnot, Microsoft MVP:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpRYOeNzuNk[/embed]
Arbuthnot mentions some updates not included in Microsoft’s monthly updates post, including Teams chat with self in preview, AI-based speech enhancements and noise reduction for Mac and iOS, and a new Viva module for Viva Sales.
Meetings
A multi-language meeting invite control has been added to allow admins to show the information in meeting invitations in one or two languages for all email platforms.
A multitasking panel has been added to the Teams mobile experience for iPad users. There is now a collapsible panel on the right-hand side, allowing for chats during meetings, quicker roster views, and other capabilities.
Meeting chat bubbles are available on iOS and Android. The chat bubbles appear on the mobile screen and enable the user to preview the last two messages. They can be turned off by clicking on the snooze button.
Up to ten meeting attendees can be designated as co-organisers. Co-organisers will have many of the same controls as the organiser, such as Meeting Options management. They will not be able to manage or create breakout rooms, download or view attendance reports, and more.
Admins can now disable chat write access for unauthenticated or anonymous users joining Teams via a shared link. This capability adds security to conversations with a clear use case in finance.
Captions from a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) can be viewed by web users in the Teams meeting window, as opposed to a secondary window. Users can then follow what is being said more easily and watch both the captions and the presentation in the meeting window.
Live captions and transcriptions are now available in 27 languages for web users in Teams meetings. Users will be able to see the speaker at the same time as the captions and transcriptions both during and after the meeting. Six more languages have been added, including Czech, Hebrew, Portuguese, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
Transcriptions are available on VDI for Azure Virtual Desktop, and VMware and Azure Windows Desktop users will also be able to give and take control of the presenter’s shared content while they are screen sharing. The presenter can retake control at any time.
Android users are able to collapse, preview, and clear notifications with a single tap, allowing users to free up on-screen space during video calls.
Calling
Agents can now use a call queue phone number as their caller ID to make calls from the Calls app.
As a result, the call can be identified by those receiving the calls, which will be placed in a queue when they call back, instead of calling directly into the agent’s phone.
Meeting Room Devices
For all Teams devices with Teams buttons, users are able to use the raise hand function by clicking and holding down the Teams button.
Yealink’s MeetingBoard 65” collaboration display has been certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms. The videoconferencing and whiteboarding device includes a computing unit, touchscreen display, microphones, 4k camera, and Teams Rooms on Android.
Biamp’s Tesira FORTÉ X and Devio SCX have been certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms for large and medium room spaces. According to Microsoft, this is the first fully automated conferencing system which maintains high audio standards while adjusting its settings to any conference room environment.
The Poly Studio R30 USB video bar has been certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows for small and focused meeting rooms. The R30 has a dynamic camera that keeps all participants in the frame and removes background noise.
The Poly Studio P21 personal meeting display has been certified for Microsoft Teams. The P21 has an enterprise-grade display, stereo speakers, a 1080p webcam, a microphone which connects via a USB cable to a PC, and more.
Dell’s UltraSharp 32 4K Video Conferencing Monitor has been certified for Microsoft Teams. The monitor utilises IPS Black panel technology, and it includes an intelligent webcam.
The EPOS EXPAND 40T Bluetooth speakerphone has been certified for Microsoft Teams. The speakerphone has three microphones, and it can be easily integrated into Teams using a one-touch activation button.
