Microsoft Teams: 12 new features you'll love

Today, a powerful remote collaboration tool has become essential in our organizations, where remote working has become widespread. Among the available applications, Microsoft Teams is ideal for organizations of all sizes. It allows you to:

continue operating remotely while accessing important business files,
maintain the social link between employees, but also with their managers.

This is why Microsoft plans to roll out new features in the coming months, including:

For your meetings:
- Dynamic view : intelligent and automatic organization of the presentation of video streams,
- View Selector: The view selector becomes more comprehensive to further reduce distractions. It allows for more natural contact with your interlocutors,
- Presenter Mode: Your video feed can be displayed in three different ways in front of the document you are sharing,
- PowerPoint Live : Your PowerPoint presentation is displayed with your notes and comments. Participants can freely navigate through your document, reading the slides at their own pace.
- Live Reactions : React live with emojis;
For your conversations and collaboration:
- Microsoft Teams Connect , to create teams with people outside your organization as easily as internally,
- Disabling participant video,
- Invitation with option to filter participants who were not directly invited by the organizer ;
For your webinars:
- Registration and confirmation of participants by email directly from Teams,
- Interactive webinars of 1,000 people ,
- Live events for up to 20,000 people,
- Participant Reports .

Microsoft 365 improves collaboration and communication

Promote collaboration and team cohesion:

internally with Microsoft Teams and Yammer,
externally with powerful Exchange messaging combined with the secure OneDrive sharing solution.

Meetings

Dynamic view

Dynamic View intelligently organizes your meeting elements for an optimal viewing experience. As participants join the meeting, Teams automatically adjusts and customizes your layout.

The dynamic view is being rolled out.

View selector

The new view selector in the top bar allows you to control how meeting content is displayed.

With the Gallery at the top, all video feeds are displayed at the top of your meeting window. This allows for a more natural view with others.

The Focus option hides all video feeds and focuses full attention on the shared content. Full screen helps remove other distractions on the desktop.

The view selector will be available soon.

Presenter mode

Presenter Mode increases presentation productivity and customizes how your content appears to your audience. It offers three display options:

Standout : Your video stream is displayed as a silhouette in front of the shared content;
Reporter : Your content appears as a visual aid over your shoulder, like in a TV news report;
Side-by-site : Your video stream is broadcast alongside your content.

PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams

PowerPoint Live in Teams gives presenters control and confidence, and delivers a more interactive experience for your audience.

You can now lead your meetings with a single view of your notes, slides, meeting conversation, and participants. Participants can also personalize their experience by navigating content at their own pace.

PowerPoint Live in Teams is now available.

Live reactions in Microsoft Teams meetings

All participants can now use emojis to react in real time during a meeting. These reactions help promote inclusivity in meetings and improve the optimism and interactivity of meetings.

Live reactions in Microsoft Teams meetings are now available.

Chat and collaboration

Microsoft Teams Connect

Teams Connect makes it easy to share channels with anyone, inside or outside your organization.

First, the shared channel will appear in the main Teams tab alongside other teams and channels. This will make it easy for everyone to access their workflow.

Then, in the shared workspace, you can take advantage of Teams’ collaboration features:

cat,
meeting,
call,
sharing
co-editing of documents in real time.

Finally, administrators have access to granular controls. This allows their organization to maintain control over how external users access data.

Teams Connect has been available since 2021.

Disabling participant video during meetings

The “Turn Off Video” option allows an organizer to turn off video for an individual or all attendees. This feature helps better manage unwanted disruptions.

So, once a participant has disabled their video, they cannot replace the organizer.

Video disabling will be rolled out later this year.

Invitation with control options

A new waiting room setting will be available in Teams options. Only invited participants will be able to join. Any participant who has not been directly invited will be directed to the waiting room where they will wait to be admitted.

“Invite only” will be rolled out later this month.

Webinars

Participant registration and email confirmations

Soon, setting up and hosting webinars will be just as easy as meetings in Teams.

This way, you can easily add a custom registration page for attendee registration for your meeting or webinar. This makes it easier to manage attendance before and afterward. After registration, attendees automatically receive a confirmation email for a seamless registration experience.

Interactive webinars for 1,000 people with moderation control

Since March 2020, Microsoft Teams has supported interactive webinars for up to 1,000 attendees. There will also be rich presentation options and moderation controls for event attendees.

Read-only broadcasts to 20,000 people

For webinars with more than 1,000 attendees, Teams allows view-only broadcasting for up to 10,000 people. It also allows moderation controls that mute attendee audio and video to prevent accidental interruptions.

Also, during this time of increased remote work, enjoy even larger broadcasts from 20,000 people.

Participant Reports

At the end of your webinar, you can use the reports to analyze participation (attendance rate and connection time). You will be able to download a full participation report for review.