Through this past year, you have probably become familiar with two things: remote working and Microsoft Teams.
As things start to return back to normal, Microsoft have announced a brand-new update with a bunch of features that will help us transition to the world of hybrid working.
This blog post will highlight all the new changes and how they will help us as we start to change the way we work once again!
Fluid components
These new components allow you to create widgets that are dynamic (tables and task lists) within Teams channels themselves.
This means that you and your co-workers are able to collaborate in real-time!
The cool part is that these fluid components can be copied over to other chats or Outlook calendar board without losing the data synchronisation.
Pin messages
You will now have the ability to pin multiple messages – no more worrying about an important message getting lost in the Teams chat tunnel!
Quote messages in replies
You have already been able to quote messages, however, you will now be able to quote messages in replies.
This now means you are able to provide the missing context that your co-workers may have been missing!
Changes to meeting notes
In meetings up to now, there has always been one person in charge of meetings up to now – the team at Microsoft are going to change that!
Attendees will now be able to co-author any meeting notes and action lists – so no post-meeting note worries if one person hasn’t captured every single thing!
Also, if anything is missed during the meeting, the notes will automatically be imported into OneNote – so you can make all the changes you would like to your heart’s content!
How Microsoft are addressing the hybrid working challenge – Teams Rooms
The biggest part of hybrid working is team meetings. We have been missing the feeling of being in a big meeting room and feeling productive!
Microsoft have acknowledged this and have made some collaboration changes within Teams with Teams Rooms.
Front row layout
The front-row layout of Teams Rooms means that the incoming video of remote attendees is enlarged. This ensures that although these attendees will not be in the same physical room, they can still be seen and heard more than ever!
For those of us with multiple screens, the video gallery will be split between the screens – so everyone can be seen as if they were in the room!
Voice-recognition technology
Have you ever had it in an online meeting where you’ve forgotten who was talking after you’ve taken meeting notes?
With compatible hardware from EPOS and Yealink, this is about to change! Voice-recognition technology can be used to identify who is speaking.
This information will automatically then be reflected in the transcript of the meeting – so no more mistaken identity and confusion!
Whiteboard
We’ve probably all used the Microsoft Whiteboard during a Teams meeting to demonstrate something to our colleagues. It makes showing things easier, however, so far, we haven’t been able to work on the same whiteboard at the same time.
The new whiteboard application will have a revamp for the new hybrid working world!
You are now able to work on a shared digital canvas – allowing you to feel like you are drawing on flip chart paper together in a meeting room and being more collaborative (personally my favourite part of a meeting!).
Read more about the new changes to Teams
If you would like to learn more about these new changes, you can read this article on TechRadar here.
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