There has been a lot to talk about over the last two months in Microsoft Teams.
Teams introduced collaborative annotations in meetings, intelligent chat translation, an enhanced front row experience, Power Platform and PowerPoint updates, newly certified devices, and more.
Microsoft is now gearing up for its annual conference, Microsoft Ignite 2022, which introduced some big features last year, including Microsoft Mesh, Dynamics Voice, Microsoft Loop, and more.
Tom Arbuthnot, UC Solutions Architect, MVP, spoke through the September Teams news with UC Today’s Rob Scott:
Teams Meetings
The Teams application is compatible with Apple silicon Mac computers. The new optimisation will significantly improve performance, even with high-res monitors in calls and meetings, also enabling more efficient use of devices.
Cameo in PowerPoint Live now integrates the camera feed into a presentation. The feature allows you to choose where you appear on the slides and provides layout recommendations.
The Microsoft Whiteboard is powering collaborative annotations in Teams meetings, letting everyone annotate on shared screens. Notes, text, shapes, and reactions can all be added to help express yourself.
Language interpretation lets interpreters translate the speaker’s words without needing to interrupt the speaker.
Select Together mode makes meetings feel more real by making participants appear on-screen next to each other with a range of backdrops to choose from theatre seats to round tables in a tropical setting.
Channel members who have not been directly invited to a meeting can now be pre-assigned to breakout Rooms by the meeting organiser.
Transcription is automatically created during recordings. Admins will need to enable transcriptions for the company and meeting organisers must choose the ‘Record automatically’ option.
‘Ranking’ is a new type of poll for gathering information. Recipients must put their answers into order by clicking an up or down arrow or dragging and dropping their selections.
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Notifications have been moved to the top centre for meetings to stop them from overlapping with other notifications. The notifications can also be set to snooze in the same way as chat bubbles.
Informational messages in meetings for iOS and Android have been updated to include a notification drawer for in-meeting messages. These allow you to interact with notifications with a single tap from mobile devices.
With one click, users can exit a meeting from all devices by clicking on the down-facing arrow on the ‘Leave’ button and selecting ‘Leave on all my devices’.
Transcriptions can now be initiated during Teams meetings for iOS and Android, which are viewable when the meetings have finished.
Citrix and VMWare users can now use background blur effects. There are a number of images and colours to choose from.
A new feature provides support for Human Interface Devices (HID) in Teams on VMware virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
Microsoft Word or PDF survey or quiz can be converted into Microsoft Forms in one click.
When started from the Calendar, instant meetings has the same functionalities as Teams meetings.
Teams Calling
Music is available for calls being transferred or placed on hold. Administrators can upload their own music or select Microsoft’s default songs.
Organisations can stay compliant more easily by integrating compliance recording solutions with Teams compliance.
Inbound federated VoIP calls can be blocked while you are working to reduce interruptions. Previously only inbound calls from specific numbers could be blocked.
Teams Phone VoIP Calls supports the same functionalities as Teams meetings, including tabs, in-meeting dialogue, bots, and meeting stage.
Teams Chat and Collaboration
Users can now choose the default download location where downloads in the Teams desktop client will be saved.
A new intelligent chat message translation feature asks Teams users whether they would like text to be translated into their preferred language. Teams detects if they have been sent messages in another language. The second time the feature is activated, it will offer users the ability to automatically translate future messages into their preferred language. These preferences can be changed in the translation settings page.
Teams Rooms on Windows Devices
Front row experience for Teams Rooms on Windows devices now maximises the content space by decreasing the top bar and video height and updating the default to a single panel on displays smaller than 21:9.
Teams meetings can be joined from Teams Rooms on Windows devices using a meeting ID and passcode, as with the desktop feature.
Windows devices with dual front-of-room displays can show as many as 18 video participants when content is not being shared on Teams Rooms.
A mute/unmute status displays if the sound is muted for the meeting. The icon appears in the bottom right-hand corner of the front-of-room display on Windows devices.
Participants can now control noise suppression on Windows devices. The in-room controls are the same as for those in Teams desktop.
The share tray has an updated user interface. Users can more intuitively select the way in which they would like to share content in a meeting; either through a camera or an HDMI connection.
Room videos on the front-of-room screen of Teams Rooms on Windows devices can be pinned or hidden. This will help to remove any possible unwanted distractions.
Admins can turn off split gallery using XML for Teams Rooms on Windows devices to avoid the gallery splitting across multiple screens.
Teams Certified Devices
The Poly CCX 505 Business Media Phone is a colour touchscreen phone with integrated Wi-Fi. It has been designed for home office, flexible, and shared spaces.
Logitech Brio 500/505 is the latest business webcam solution from Logitech. Certified for Teams, the cameras have professional features, such advanced light correction and noise reduction technology. The camera can also be tilted downwards to showcase your workspace and improve collaboration.
Teams Management
Admins can personalise the admin centre dashboard by dragging and dropping widgets on the dashboard. The widgets can be removed and replaced.
Teams admins can customise instructions a user receives when they request to use a blocked app. They can also configure external request systems and provide a URL that opens when users request access to an app.
The activity log shows more information about policy operations, including activity name, group name, policy name, and policy type.
Teams Frontline Workers
Large workforces can be deployed much more quickly. Admins can deploy teams of up to 500 people and add 25 users to each team using one Teams PowerShell command and two csv files. Team members can be added and removed at scale.
Additional filters can be added to the Approvals list. The right approval can be found faster, for example, by filtering on keyword or approval status.
Teams Education
Educators can use Parent Connection to start Teams chats with guardians with one click.
Teachers and students can now collaborate using Teams meetings within the Schoology Learning Management System (LMS). It enables teachers to share audio, video, and slides, perform live chat and hold live video and audio conferences with up to 250 participants. Schools can use the software to teach and connect with remote students.
Brightspace (D2L) LMS now integrates with Microsoft 365 for a more seamless learning experience.
Home page for Teams enables students and educators to have a centralised place for assignments, meetings, files, resources, and other materials for their class.
Classes can be activated from inside the Teams Classes LTI app within the Learning Management System (LMS). LMS also provides access to video recordings and attendance reports.
To save time and increase consistency, a used digital timer quiz can be implemented. Teachers set the timer for a quiz, providing equal time constraints for all the students but allowing them to take part when they are able.
Teams Government
Using NDI or hardware-out, GCC-High (U.S. Government Community Cloud High) and DoD (Department of Defence) users can access isolated audio feeds with the isolated video feeds from any Teams meeting.
GCC-High and DOD users can measure webinar and meeting registration and attendance data via the Attendance Dashboard.
Last month, Teams launched Teams Rooms Basic and Pro, but the newly packaged Teams Rooms offerings were a downgrade for many.
Azure Communication Services support for Teams was made generally available to users in August.
In July, Teams announced updates across a number of areas and included a slew of new Teams features from Inspire 2022.
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