Currently, both companies and schools are giving priority to remote working (remote working or distance learning) to ensure the safety and well-being of their employees and students. This requires tools to stay connected through video conferences, calls and chats. Teams is one of the best-known tools and is currently presenting new functions in Microsoft Teams and other updates. In this post, we will only go into the new meeting functions.
9 new functions in Microsoft Teams for meetings and calls
1. Take advantage of the increased number of participant videos displayed
Microsoft Teams increases the number of participants that can be viewed simultaneously at the Team Meeting Phase from 4 to 9. Activate the video feature to enjoy this new, positive experience. Microsoft places the remaining audio-only participants below the meeting phase. To provide the best possible audio and video quality, Microsoft teams place the layout based on user bandwidth. This means that you will see a change in the videos displayed so that you always see the highest quality video material.
To give you the best possible audio and video quality, a new feature from Microsoft Teams places the layout based on user bandwidth.
2. Raise your hand
You would like to speak up, but you don’t want to interrupt anybody, because you are used to polite manners? Here, new functions in Microsoft teams, for example, allow you to “raise your hand”. If you use this function, meeting participants can recognize that you want to speak. This simplifies active participation, especially in large meetings. Each participant sees this visual indication from you and can give you the space to participate in the present meeting.
3. improve your appearance with background effects
Does the background in your room look untidy or distract the other participants from the essential topic? No problem – Microsoft Teams builds on the very popular feature of blurring video backgrounds with background effects. With this new feature in teams you can customize your video background from a list of pre-selected images. Microsoft is continually improving this new feature so that you will soon be able to upload your own custom images. We see a great potential for meetings that are not held in-house: If all employees appear to the outside world with a uniform background, we believe that this greatly supports the recognition effect in terms of a uniform corporate design.
Optimize your background with background effects so that participants are not distracted.
4. You can now use background blur on iPhones and iPads
This frequently used background blur feature is now also available for iOS.
5. Live subtitles are also available mobile
Do you have loud background noise in a meeting or do you suffer from hearing loss? Does your meeting consist of participants with different language skills? New features in Microsoft Teams make live subtitles available in English on iOS and Android mobile devices.
6. Increase of the Microsoft 365 Live Event limit
Microsoft 365 Live Events temporarily increases the standard limits for live events hosted in teams, stream and yammer until July 1, 2020, helping customers meet rapidly changing communication needs. The following increases will be introduced:
- Attendee limit: Events can support up to 20,000 attendees
- Simultaneous events: 50 events can be held simultaneously for one tenant
- Event duration: The event duration has been increased to 16 hours per transmission
7. Share system audio in Team Live events
With “Share system audio in live events” your participants will hear the audio content you share on your screen. This feature works just like sharing system audio in team meetings and is great for sharing audio and video experiences. This feature is only available for presenters and producers of a live event that joins via the Windows Desktop Team Client.
8. End the meeting for all participants
New features in Microsoft Teams now allow meeting organizers to end meetings at the touch of a button. In the meeting control bar, only meeting organizers will see an item labeled “End meeting”. All participants are forced to leave the meeting if you as organizer select this button. A good example of a relevant scenario is training: In some situations it is useful that class meetings do not continue after the end of the lesson without supervision by the organizer.
Optimize your background with background effects so that participants are not distracted.
9. Start 1:1 call recording
Now you can easily record your 1:1 calls in teams, just like you can already do for meetings. Just select the option to record. All participants are notified on their screens that a recording has begun.
We expect that further new functions will be implemented in Microsoft teams in the future. If your company does not yet use teams, you can find more basic information about the modern workplace and MS Teams here