Some much-needed enhancements for Teams – coming your way in May 2020
[lwptoc]
May 2020 is to be an exciting month for those of us who use Microsoft Teams, with some new features that will help overcome some irritations and limitations that have become more apparent in the past few weeks with us all decamping home to work.
The big one – increase in the number of simultaneous video streams
Teams until now has had a limit of 4 simultaneous video streams. The reasoning behind this has been “focus”, and for those of us who have also been using Zoom in the past few weeks, there is some merit to that! Last week I had 58 in a Zoom meeting and it was a blur and almost impossible to focus on the speaker. It is a relief that Microsoft hasn’t gone in that direction, but we will see shortly up to 9 individuals on our screen with layout adaption based on who is speaking and their bandwidth capabilities.
Raise your hands!
Again, a feature available in Zoom for some time is now coming to Teams, allowing participants to indicate they wish to speak. Especially useful in large meetings. This feature is also imminent.
Background effects
I wrote in April regarding this feature and many of you will have already been enjoying fantasy backgrounds or plush offices … especially useful to hide that messy bedroom or kitchen. For the very busy or inattentive, this feature should be available now.
End meetings for all participants
Meeting organisers can now end meetings for all. Particularly useful for teachers or organisers who don’t want everyone hanging around afterwards to chat and talk about them 😊
Call recording for one-on-one calls.
Now you can easily record your 1:1 calls in Teams just as you already can for meetings. Simply select the option to record and call participants will be notified on their screen that a recording has begun! Learn more here.
So, some much-needed enhancements for Teams … hope you enjoy!
Source: Microsoft Blog
