Microsoft Teams Adds New Virtual Experiences

Recently Microsoft announced new Teams capabilities, as Microsoft continues to improve the app’s performance – in their continual battle to beat Zoom in the video conferencing space. The four areas of main focus were new meeting room experiences, new calling/ chat/ collaboration features, new Microsoft 365 Integrations, and Power Platform and custom development.

New Meeting Room Experiences in Microsoft Teams

Enhancements in meeting room experiences include:

• New Together mode scenes – (Coming this calendar year) The New together mode helps participants closer together even when apart as it allows users to easily transport their teams into a variety of settings (in order to set the tone and create the experience for their meetings).

• Custom layouts – (also coming later this year) Custom layouts allow for a more dynamics content viewing experience, as presenters are able to customize how content is displayed to meeting participants.

• Breakout rooms – (Coming this month) Breakout rooms enable meeting organizers to split up meeting participant into smaller groups to facilitate brainstorming sessions and discussions between coworkers.

• Meeting recap – (Coming this year) Meeting recap helps teams to stay on track and keep work moving forward after a meeting. A recap of the meeting will automatically be shared in the meeting chat tab and viewable Details tab for each meeting, as well as in the meeting event in your Outlook calendar.

• Webinar registration and reporting – (Coming by end of year) This new feature enables meeting organizers to use event registration with automated emails, making it easier to manage attendance. In addition, after a meeting, meeting organizers can view a detailed reporting dashboard in order to help them understand attnendee engagement.

• Microsoft Teams rooms experience on Android and iPhone – Users will be able to see up to 49 participants on a call. This feature is set to launch in preview by the end of this month and to everyone this Fall. Currently, you can only view up to nice meeting participants on a call. Microsoft reports that users will need to turn on the “multi-user experience” in order to take advantage of this new feature.
• Touchless meeting experiences – (Coming later this year) In an effort to help users navigate this new, hybrid working environment, Microsoft is announcing Touchless meeting experiences for shared spaces. Users will soon be able to control their Teams Room and collaboration bar devices from the Teams mobile app.  Touchless meeting experiences features room remote, wireless casting, and Cortana voice assistance. In addition, meeting participants will be able to automatically exit a meeting by simply leaving the room.

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• Meeting room capacity notifications – Using data from meeting room cameras equipped with people counting technology, meeting room participants are alerted when the room is over capacity. This not only helps remind organizations of room capacities, but also social distancing practices.
• Microsoft Teams panels (Coming early next year) Microsoft Teams panels provides users with the ability to view space, meeting details, reserve a space, view upcoming reservations, as well as easily identifying current availability status. In addition, users can also view the building floor plan and book another room using the “Nearby Rooms” feature.

• Deploy two Microsoft Teams rooms at no additional charge – In an effort to transform your meeting rooms, Microsoft will help deploy two of your meeting rooms at no additional charge. Click here to learn more about Microsoft Teams rooms.
• As of October 1, 2020 Microsoft Teams rooms will be a part of the FastTrack benefit – qualified customers can get remote guided assistance on select rooms at no additional charge.

To learn about more new features in Microsoft Teams, visit https://www.encloud9.com/blog/microsoft-teams-adds-new-virtual-experiences/