New functions in Teams – Did you know that…?

It’s that time again: new features are available in Teams!

Learn more about new functions in Teams in the blog post. – These are presented individually and are the continuation of two previous updates from March & April 2021.

1. New grid view

When presenting a PowerPoint deck from the Teams desktop or web app, the new grid view for presenters gives you the option to skip specific slides (or go back to one). To use Grid View in a meeting, select the PowerPoint option when you want to share content. When you’re in a presentation, select Go to Slide at the bottom left of the presentation (or type G) to view a thumbnail of each slide. Select the thumbnail and choose the slide you want to share.

Thumbnail view of the PowerPoint slides

To share your screen in a meeting, select the ”Share Content” button in the meeting controls. Then choose whether you want to present your entire screen, a single window, a PowerPoint file, or a whiteboard.

Presentation selection

2. Do you want to meet right now? – Through the new function of teams; no problem!

With the new feature in Teams, you can now create an instant meeting by using the ”Discuss Now” button at the top of the calendar. – So to start a meeting – and get a shareable link to it – select Meet Now. Give the meeting a unique name (to make it easier to find the meeting chat later), and then select Get Link to Share or Start Meeting. If you select ”Start Meeting”, you’ll jump right into a meeting that you can invite others to.

Immediately start a Teams meeting from Outlook
Instant meetings have also made their way into Outlook for Windows. Just like in Teams, open your calendar in Outlook, where you’ll find the “Discuss Now” option at the top of the ribbon. Select it to open a Teams meeting and get a meeting link or invite other participants.

Instructions – From your calendar:

Go to the Calendar Meetings button on the left side of Teams, then select the Discuss Now button in the upper right corner.
You have the option to set up a few things before you start your meeting. Give the meeting a title, choose whether you want to use video, and your preferred audio source.
When you are ready, click “Join now”.

Your meeting is now started – you just need participants to join you. – This is how you invite people:

Enter the name or phone number of the person you want to invite in the field under People in the upper right corner. Select them when they appear in the list and they will be called immediately.
Another option is to copy the meeting link and send it to everyone you want to meet, and they can join by selecting the link. Just select “Copy joining info” and paste the link into their message.

If you don’t have a way to schedule meetings in Outlook or Teams, starting an instant meeting is a good option. Just like scheduled meetings, everyone who joins the meeting will still have access to the meeting chat, recording, and everything the participants share in the meeting (like files and meeting notes) after the meeting ends.

To join the same meeting again at any time, find the meeting chat in your chat list and they can now join again through the new ”Join” Teams feature.

Instruction – In a teams channel:

Go to the “Teams” button on the left side of the app. Select the channel where you want to meet from the list.
In the ”Contributions” tab, look for the ”Discuss Now button” in the upper-right corner. Select the “Discuss Now” option from the drop-down list.
Give your meeting a title and choose whether to include a video.
When you are ready, click “Join Now”.

Your meeting has now started and anyone in the channel can attend.

How to invite people:

Enter the name or phone number of the person you want to invite in the field under “People” in the upper right corner. Select them when they appear in the list and they will be called immediately.
You can also invite people by copying the meeting link and sending it to the people you want to meet. Just select the Copy joining info option and paste the link into a message.

Let’s recap…
Teams now provides a summary of Teams meetings so that attendees – and those who couldn’t attend – can review a completed meeting. A summary, which includes the meeting recording, transcript, chat, shared files, and more, is automatically shared on the meeting’s chat tab and can be viewed on the ”Details” tab of the meeting invitation. Organizers can also find the attendance report here.

Reference: Meeting recordings and transcripts are only available when activated by a meeting participant. Currently, the transcription is available in English only

3. Share an email to teams from Outlook

When viewing an email in the Outlook desktop app, select ”Share with Teams” in the ribbon. In Outlook on the web (and the new Outlook for Mac), select the ”More Actions Microsoft Teams icon” and select ”Share with Teams”.

To share a copy of an email (including attachments) with a chat or channel in Teams:

1. Step: While viewing an email in the Outlook desktop app, select “Share with Teams” in the ribbon.

In Outlook on the web (and the new Outlook for Mac), select the “More Actions” button and choose “Share with Teams”.

Anzeigen der E-Mail in MS Teams, New functions in teams

Viewing the email in MS Teams

In Teams, a preview of the email is displayed as a message in the chat or channel you sent to. If this is your first chat with the recipient, a new chat is created. To open and view the full content of the email in Teams, you can select the email preview in the message sent to the chat or channel conversation.

You can also find a copy of the original email in the ”Files” tab in that chat or channel. In channels, the emails are stored in the ”Email Messages” folder on the ”Files” tab.

4. Choose your notification style

When using Teams on Windows, you now have the option to choose between Teams built-in (purple) desktop notifications or your PC’s Windows desktop notifications. The Windows notification style gives you more control, such as muting notifications while in Focus Assist mode.

To change your notification style, select Settings -> Notifications. Select the arrow next to Notification Style in the menu, and then finally select Windows.

Reference: Make sure that Notifications for Teams is enabled in the Windows settings, otherwise Teams will not be able to send you desktop notifications.

5. New lobby settings for people you invite

We have added a new lobby setting that allows people invited to the meeting to bypass the meeting lobby. You can find this setting in the meeting options. In the drop-down list next to “Who can bypass the lobby?”, select the “People I invite” option.

Everyone who receives an invitation, including a forwarded invitation, attends the meeting directly. This does not apply to distribution lists – people must be invited individually. To prevent forwarded invitations, Deactivate: Allow forwarding in Outlook when you schedule the meeting.

New participant microphone settings in meetings
There are also two new updates to the way meeting organizers and presenters can manage their attendees’ audio output.

With the first update, you can unmute participants even if they do not raise their hands (previously required).

The second update helps organizers and presenters reduce distractions by preventing certain participants from unmuting during a Teams meeting. Open the list of participants, select the Microsoft Teams ”More Options” icon next to a person’s name, and then select ”Don’t Allow Muting”.

Before the meeting:

After scheduling the meeting and sending out the invitations, the meeting organizer can mute the microphones so that participants cannot mute themselves during the meeting. All participants (but not the presenters) are muted directly when they join the meeting.

Go to Calendar and double-click on the meeting.
Select Meeting Options at the top of the screen.
Deactivate the Allow participants to unmute toggle box and select Save.

Remeber: even if all participants are allowed to unmute at the beginning of a meeting, you can still disable a participant’s microphone and prevent them from unmuting at any point during the meeting.

During the meeting::

The organizer and presenters can unmute any participant’s microphone at any time during the meeting.
Currently, organizers and presenters joining from Teams meeting room devices cannot prevent participants from unmuting.

To disable the microphones of all participants at once, select the Microsoft Teams ”More Options” icon next to ”Participants”, and then select ”Don’t Allow Participants to Mute”.