Due to the pandemic, the video conferencing tool Microsoft Teams has received an influx that was not previously suspected. That is why Microsoft is constantly working on new features. CHIP shows you whom feature you can look forward to.>|
Even one year after the start of the pandemic, many millions of people are still working from home. Many of them use Microsoft Teams to stay in touch with their colleagues.
Faster than originally thought, Microsoft is currently regularly sending new features into the race, which should overtake the competition for Zoom, Webex & Co. in order to bind companies and private users to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams: group chats also for external users
According to the official roadmap, Microsoft is planning a new chat feature soon in order to simplify communication in MS Teams outside of your own organization . In the future, users should also be able to add external team users to group chats who do not belong to the same company. The feature could be rolled out across the board in May.
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These innovations should still come in 2021
With a new dashboard, employees should be able to better organize their working day.
• Push-to-Talk : Constant muting with the mouse or with the key combination Ctrl + Shift + M can quickly become annoying in teams. So that you are only really heard when you want, Teams will soon finally be upgrading the push-to-talk mode. Your microphone is only activated when you hold down a certain key.
• Quoted answers : In order to avoid misunderstandings in chat discussions, individual answers can be quoted in teams so that you can always refer to the appropriate message.
• New dashboard: A new dashboard is intended to help users make their working day more productive and to network teams more closely. Know-how from Microsoft tools such as MyAnalytics serves as the basis for this.
• Own layouts : Presenting content in teams is an important feature. In the future this should be possible with your own layouts. For example, you can embed PowerPoint files in a background. It then looks like users are giving a real presentation.
• Conclusions: And at the end of a meeting everyone breaks up and nobody knows what to do. This is exactly what teams want to avoid. A new feature called Meeting Recaps makes a summary of meetings available to everyone, including shared files and existing transcripts.
• Simplified calls: Calls should be made easier in teams with an overview of contacts, voicemail and call history.
• Improved search: the more you work with teams, the more content there is. Finding certain things there should become easier. Microsoft Search should be available for teams later this year to make it easier to find messages, participants or files.
• Shift times: In order to stop unpaid work and stress outside of working hours, it will be possible in future to define the times in teams at which employees can use the communication platform. • Virtual commuting: Since there is no need to drive to and from the home office, this strange-looking function is intended to help you start the working day productively and end it in a reflective way. Thus, the dividing line between the two worlds should be drawn more clearly.
• Break reminders: Microsoft Teams will remind users to plan fixed breaks in the week before it is crammed with meetings. During these times, disruptions should be avoided, which is also important for productive work. • Headspace integration: Some functions of the Headspace app will be found natively in teams. These are, for example, mindfulness experiences and scientifically tested meditation exercises that can be seamlessly integrated into the working day to relax briefly.
• Emotional check-in: The feature should help colleagues to adjust to the emotional state of other team members. You can use a smiley to rate your day and network more quickly. The daily interactions should strengthen the team spirit.
• Microsoft Teams Connect : During Ignite 2021, Microsoft also announced that Teams channels can also be shared across company boundaries, so that internal as well as external participants are possible.
• Interactive webinars with up to 1,000 people: More participants inside and outside the organization. In addition, it is then possible to switch seamlessly to a broadcast for larger events.
• Microsoft PowerPoint Live: Instead of the usual backgrounds, slides of a PowerPoint presentation can also be played in the background.
• End-to-end encryption: First for video calls, later also in video meetings with larger groups. • Meeting ID instead of a link : According to the IT website Petri, Microsoft Teams plans to release an update by the end of May that will allow users to join a meeting without a special link. As is often the case with other video conference tools, it is sufficient to enter a special meeting ID to gain entry.