Teams has introduced a raft of new features in an April update, including automatic lowering of a user’s hand after speaking and green screen integration.
Also among the wave of capabilities is echo detection and automatic muting of nearby Teams devices that create an audio feedback loop. Closed Captions will also now be enabled for embedded videos in PowerPoint Live for Teams, and Microsoft Teams Auto Install Approved Apps empowers admins and users to streamline the management of apps within their businesses.
Among the most intriguing additions is Teams’ new green screen capability.
Steven Stein, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, wrote:
The new feature green screen improves the sharpness and definition of the virtual background effect around your face, head, ears, and hair. It also allows you to show a prop or other object in your hand to be more visible to other participants in a call.”
To function, the green screen capability needs a solid colour screen or clean background wall behind the user, while users must have already applied a background effect in a meeting to enable the green screen effect. The feature also supports Windows and macOS Intel chips but not Mac M1/M2.
A Cluster of Useful Features for Meetings
Another eye-catching new feature is Teams’ ability to automatically lower a raised hand after the user speaks, allowing meeting organizers to focus on unanswered questions.
If a user raises their hand in a Teams meeting and subsequently speaks, they will then see a notification informing them that their hand will automatically be lowered soon. They will be able to choose to keep their hand raised by clicking the “Keep it raised” button. If they do not act on the notification, their hand will automatically be lowered. This offering is exclusive to Microsoft Teams Desktop users.
“Ultrasound howling detection” is another new feature, involving the detection of an echo when multiple users are in a Teams meeting in the same room using the same audio. After detecting these devices, Teams notifies the users that want to join before automatically muting the microphone and speakers of these users.
Teams, which Microsoft announced last week has reached 300 MAU, is also now supporting closed captions for embedded videos in PowerPoint Live for Windows or Mac. If the video includes out-of-band closed captions, all viewers will automatically have the option to turn closed captions on for the video. When closed captions are turned on, they will appear at the bottom of the slide. If no closed captions are available for a video, the closed captions button is disabled.
Features for Platform, Mobile and Phone
Microsoft Teams Auto install approved apps now allows admins to automatically install Teams apps for users after they sign into SaaS apps using their Azure AD credentials if approved by the admin’s app access controls, including apps users have used outside Teams.
“This helps reduce manual processes and administrative costs,” Stein wrote. “With Auto install approved apps, users avoid searching for apps and can continue to use the same tools within Teams to stay in the flow of work without context switching.”
Teams Phone has also introduced federated group calling for Government Cloud Calling High (GCCH) and Department of Defense (DoD). A Teams call can be initiated with federated colleagues outside the organization. This includes video and screen-sharing over an internet connection without any PSTN usage charges.
Teams Mobile has also introduced the ability to upload files from OneDrive from Teams Mobile chat and channel. Users can also view recent files and attach the most used files upfront from the Recent section.
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