Microsoft has just released a set of new and updated features coming to Teams. As usual, list contains long-awaited features, lately updated, and some new functions. Updates in Presenter Mode, new languages in Live Captions, Breakout Rooms enhancements, Lower all raised hands to name a few.
Let’s take a look at all those goodies.
Reporter and Side-by-Side options in Presenter Mode for desktop and window sharing
There are 2 new modes for Presenter Mode – report mode and site-by-side. The Reporter mode places shared content above presenter’s shoulder. The Side-by-side mode places content next to your video stream.
I’m very excited about this update. In many case I have to use 3rd party tools (OBS mostly) to show my content using Teams, and new mode makes my works easier😊
Live captions\transcripts
Microsoft expanded Live captions and Live transcript features to 27 languages. Full list is available on Live caption page and Live transcript page.
Together Mode Extensibility
Custom Together Mode scenes are coming to Teams. It’s quite nice addition to this mode and in some cases very important (for example, in Education).
I tested in in a Technical Preview and it was fast and easy to set-up a new custom scene.
Reading Progress
This feature is available only in Teams for Education. It allows teachers to prepare reading materials, assign them to students, and verify results. Students read aloud assigned text and record it to Team. Teams automatically analyze recording and detects potential errors.
Government features
Features that are available for commercial’s customers are rolling out to Government’s environments.
Reporter and side-by-side mode
Two new modes for Presenter, explained at the top of the page.
Breakout Room timer
You can set a timer for a breakout room (5-60 minutes). When a timer has expired, all participants are moved to the main room.
Lower all raised hands
Now you can lower all raised hands by one click. Small but very useful feature for large meeting. Attendees raise hands and usually forget about lower it later. Large meetings often end with 20-30 raised hands and no one is sure if a raised hand was answered, miss click or something else.
Summary
Summer breaks are almost done (for most people, but I know some that prefer late vacations 😊) and Microsoft is getting back with updating Teams. This month some nice features but I think that next 2-3 months we will get a lot of features and announcements.
Full list of features – Microsoft Teams Blog
