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New Features in Microsoft Teams for Remote Work and Collaboration

By June 1, 2020June 26th, 2020Business Productivity, Cloud Solutions
Updated features in Microsoft Teams

There are now a lot more features in Microsoft Teams to improve your video, chat, and meeting experiences! Here are some of our favorite new Teams features that you might want to check out.

Note: Most of these improvements are for the desktop and web versions of Microsoft Teams. Android and iOS versions may vary.

More video streams per meeting

There will soon be up to nine video streams at a time in meetings – we’re getting a 3 x 3 grid. This started rolling out in the second week of May, so if you don’t see it yet, it’s coming!

Pop-outs for chat and calls

For Teams used on the Windows desktop, we now have multiple windows for Teams. You can now pop-out windows for personal and group chats. This will soon be coming for meetings as well. To pop-out a chat, hover over it in the chat menu on the left, then choose the fly-out icon or choose options (•••) and then Pop out chat.

Backgrounds for video calls

Zoom backgrounds have become a cultural phenomenon… and yes, you can now choose backgrounds for your Teams video calls! Use this feature to spice up your video, or to mask your surroundings. When you’re in a call, go to More options (•••) and choose Show background effects.

Show background effects in Microsoft Teams

Let callers bypass the lobby

Don’t want to stop in the middle of a Team meeting to let new callers in? Under Meeting options, you can now Always let callers bypass the lobby.

New meeting settings in Microsoft Teams

Need to know who’s in your meeting?

Meeting organizers now have an option to announce when callers join or leave a meeting. Under Meeting options, choose Announce when callers join or leave.

End meeting for everyone

Don’t want callers to hang around in a meeting after you’ve left? If you’re a teacher with a virtual classroom, you may want this next option which is to End meeting for all callers right away. This is now under More options (•••).


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