Microsoft recently announce new features as part of an update to its enterprise-centric video conferencing platform, Microsoft Teams. The updates bring in new features that include the ability to view up to 49 videos on screen by default, schedule messages.
You can also launch instant polls, and use the newly adds unread-only toggle.
Microsoft made the announcement as part of its update for November 2022 in a blog post detailing each of the introduce features.
First of the new features announce through the blog post by Microsoft is the ability to launch a one-click instant poll during a Teams meeting.
Presenters will have the ability to launch spoken poll questions by clicking on the launch instant poll buttons that are present at the bottom right of the screen.
You can pick from three buttons with binary responses on the poll: yes or no, thumbs up thumbs down, and a heart and heartbroken icon.
These questions do not require to be prepare in advance, as per Microsoft users can speak the question out loud and then click on the corresponding response toggle icon which will automatically trigger the question to go live.
Microsoft claims that Teams is the first video-conferencing platform to offer such a ‘one-click instant poll’ feature.
What’s new in Teams? Here’s the scoop:
— Microsoft Teams (@MicrosoftTeams) November 28, 2022
👥 Assigned seats in Together mode
🖥 Separate windows for shared content
💬 Suggested replies in group chat
Check it out: https://t.co/1tTzJOwJwn #MicrosoftTeams pic.twitter.com/zhsMCYTK3o
The second feature that has introduce to Teams is the ability for Public switch telephone network (PSTN) dial-in, dial-out, and call-me attendees in meetings to join breakout rooms.
These users will also be able to re-join the main room meeting when the breakout meeting ends.
PSTN calls will now also support an automatic browser launch screen pop up that will display relevant information including CRM data, case data, etc.
This feature will have to be enable by admins in the Teams Admin Center.
The third feature introduce is the ability to view a maximum of 49 videos on the screen in a meeting at a single time through a 9×9 grid layout that replaces the 3×3 grid which only allow for 9 videos to be view at a single time.
This is a significant jump in the number of simultaneous videos that can be watch without having the need to click on any button to navigate to other user video boxes.
The actual number of videos seen by a user will depend on hardware or device capabilities, as per Microsoft.
Microsoft has also introduce transcription for calls on Microsoft Teams on 1:1 calls as well as group calls on Android.
Microsoft has also introduce the ability for users to accept or block a group chat invitation from an unmanage user as an additional safety layer.
The video conferencing platform will now also allow users to schedule and send a message.
This feature, which is similar to the one seen on the company’s email platform Outlook, will allow users to manually select a date and time for the chat message to be deliver to the recipient user.
This feature can be access by right-clicking the send button and selecting the schedule send option.
The platform has also introduce an unread toggle button on users’ activity feed, which when enable will allow users to view only chat message notifications that have not read.
Teams users will also be able to start a Teams Chat with distribution groups, mail-enable security groups, and Office 365 groups, with up to 250 members.
The platform has also tweak the way searches within messages are view.
Chat message searches will not be present with entire message threads, instead of single keyword referencing messages in isolation.
The extend chat history shows up once the search result item is click on, as per Microsoft.