Microsoft has announced a new addition to its Microsoft 365 roadmap, featuring an enhancement for Microsoft Teams. This update, Feature ID 162171, is set to provide meeting organizers with valuable engagement data in the Teams Attendance Report (Premium).
Starting from October 2023, individuals who organize meetings through Microsoft Teams will be able to view engagement details, such as the total number of reactions, instances of raised hands, and the status of participants’ cameras (i.e., whether they are on or off). This information will be displayed in the ‘Attendance’ tab following the meeting.
It can help organizers identify the most engaging parts of the meeting. Moreover, they can identify trends in participation and learn from successful meetings to make future ones more engaging.
This feature will be available on the Desktop and Mac platforms, and it is expected to roll out in two phases: General Availability and Targeted Release. The deployment will cover Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) and GCC cloud instances.
Advantages aside, downsides include pressuring attendees to contribute more than they’re comfortable with, leading to less genuine participation, and potential misinterpretation of engagement data. For example, a lack of reactions or raised hands might not necessarily indicate disinterest. Still, it could be due to technical issues or shyness.
Overall, this update aims to provide users with more insights and data to enhance their Teams meeting experiences, fostering greater collaboration and productivity.
