Why We Love These Latest Updates to Microsoft Teams

04 Sep, 2020

Technology

As our employees continue to work remotely, Microsoft Teams has been essential to our continued collaboration and connectivity. The recent updates to the Teams platform includes several major upgrades which have allowed us to feel more connected, despite working from home.

New Meeting Experience 

Microsoft Team’s new meeting experience features gives users greater control over how they interact with the Teams platform while in meetings and calls on the Teams Desktop App. By turning on this new feature, you enable the following features:

1. Separate Windows: With this update, our employees no longer waste time switching back and forth between their meeting screen and their files on the Teams app they may need to access during the meeting. When joining a meeting or a call, a separate window will pop open designated specifically to the meeting screen. This frees up your Teams App for easy use while your call is in progress.
2. Meeting Controls: The meeting controls have been moved from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen and no longer disappear when not in use. Our employees can now much more easily change their meeting settings, such as muting, screensharing, chatting, and other view settings.
3. Large Galley View: Not every meeting needs the same view layout. The update introduces a variety of new viewing options including a large gallery view for up for up to 49 attendees, virtual breakout rooms for smaller group sessions, and more to come. Our employees can now see everyone at once!

The New Meeting Experience feature is currently available on the Teams desktop app and can be turned on in the Settings. (The Teams platform will need to be restarted after update is enabled.

Live Captions with Speaker Attribution  

Microsoft Teams already offers live captions during virtual meetings; however, a future update to this feature will provide speaker attribution for captioning. This means that users will know exactly who is speaking and what they are saying during meetings. With the speaker attribution feature, Teams provide even greater accessibility to the platform for those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. We already love the greater inclusivity that this feature promotes for all Teams users and are excited for the new update!

Together Mode

We recently used the new Together Mode feature for our Friday morning All-Employee meeting and our employees really enjoyed using it! Mode places meeting attendees in a single, virtual frame to give users the sense that they are in the same shared space. Although our employees have been physically distant these past few months, this feature encourages more effective discussions and brainstorming sessions and helps our employees feel more connected, even when we are apart.

Our employees at eBiz Solutions have loved these recent updates to the Microsoft Teams platform. These updates have increased our efficiency while using Teams and have promoted improved collaboration between team members and across our business.

If your business is looking for a more effective collaboration and communication platform, Microsoft Teams is the one for you! Contact us today to learn more about adopting Microsoft Office 365 into your current business strategy.