We are at the end of the first month this year, an eventful one, especially for Teams users as Microsoft has been unpacking a host of new capabilities and features designed to enhance the tool’s meeting experience. Here’s everything you need to know:
Meetings
First up is the added capability that lets both course facilitators and students access video recordings as well as attendance inside LMS via the Teams Meeting LTI app.
Microsoft has also incorporated a new feature that adds navigation controls below the Video Gallery, this way if you happen to be in a meeting and not all participants can fit in the scene all at once, you can use these quick navigation tools to check out the rest.
What’s more, Microsoft has enhanced the Meeting toolbar in Teams with a dedicated button for raising hands and switching between view modes thus making it easier for the users to transition to the next meeting.
And finally, you can now live stream Team meetings to Meta Workplace Live directly using the new Workplace Live app integration. This has made it easier for users to catch up with work as they can now refer back to recordings on Workplace.
Calling
Teams has now made it easier for users to initiate group calls with federated users outside the organization over an internet connection without incurring any additional PSTN usage charges. Video and screen sharing are also inclusive.
Chat and collaboration
Microsoft will now show you the full context history of a chat when you click on a message search result option. This is regardless of how far back the message was sent.
Teams Rooms and Devices
Teams Rooms users on Windows can make use of their consoles to show or hide chat on the front-of-room display alongside meeting participants and/or content when in Gallery, Large Gallery, or Together mode. You can access this capability via the View Switcher on meeting room consoles.
Microsoft is also making in-meeting notifications for Teams Rooms on Windows similar to those on the Teams desktop client. However, important notifications that call for the user’s attention will still appear on the front of the room screen. The company also indicated that there were plans underway to revamp Teams Rooms on Windows with a refreshed UI.
The integration between Teams and Microsoft Whiteboard will now all users to “start a Microsoft Whiteboard in Teams meetings using the one-touch in-meeting share content function from meeting room consoles” to further enhance the meeting experience.
Management
Developers can now access, edit, or delete event updates on messages in user:bot chats. Users will also be able to view details of files uploaded within the Power Automate portal in the window of an approval request within Teams. And finally, through Intune admins will be able to tell the type of content a user gets to see in a notification on their mobile device is locked.
That’s it for the month of January folks! While we only hit some of the key features released this month, there are still plenty of features that we didn’t highlight in this post like the certified devices and more. Be sure to check out Microsoft’s TechCommunity post for more details.
