In April 2022, Microsoft announced a range of new features that it would be adding to its video calling platform. With these improvements now implemented, let us take a look at some of the key enhancements evolving the Microsoft Teams platform.
Calls
- Outlook contacts – Outlook contacts with a phone number will be added to a drop-down menu for ease of calling.
- Call forwarding – Calls can be forwarded according to your personal preferences, either to other employees or to a whole group.
- Emergency calls – Admins can make a banner to display important information, such as emergency contacts.
- Compatibility – There is an increasing number of software applications powering Microsoft Teams Telephony that can improve efficiency and productivity of calls, and Teams itself has ensured improved compatibility between applications.
Meetings
- Anonymous users – If you were to join a meeting anonymously, this functionality was previously only available using the web portal. However, it is now possible to do so via the desktop application, too.
- Live captions – To improve accessibility, live captions can now be used in virtual meetings.
- Background music – If background music is detected, it will let attendees know, allowing them to choose whether to suppress it or not.
- Notifications – IOS users can benefit from a new notification drawer, allowing them to look at and dismiss notifications during meetings.
- Firefox – Teams now fully supports and is compatible with Firefox.
- Audio sharing – Users can now listen to a video with sound simultaneously thanks to updated audio sharing controls.
- Presenter mode – Presenters have more control over the size and layout of their video stream.
Collaboration and Chat
- Chat filter – You can filter out chats that you are not interested in, and better find out-of-meeting chats that you need.
- Predictive text – Predictive text capabilities are now available, saving you time, and streamlining communications.
- File upload – Upload requests are quicker than ever, allowing approved file uploads to be viewed almost instantly.
- Power Automate – Power Automate templates are available in the Power Automate tab of Microsoft Teams Templates.
- Suggested replies – AI has been deployed to offer suggested replies within the chat functionality.
- Fluent Emojis – Microsoft Fluent Emojis have arrived to Teams, giving you over 1800 choices of reactions to reply with.
Management
- Pin messages – Administrators can pin messages, and change the order of the pinned items.
- Teams devices – IT administrators can purchase devices that are certified by Microsoft Teams in the Teams device store.
- Mac updates – Mac users will now have the same functionality as Windows, enabling the Public Preview options.
- Request access to blocked applications – Blocked applications will remain visible once blocked so that users can request access, which can then be approved or denied by administrators.
Other
Microsoft Teams has implemented so many features in its April update that there are simply too many to mention! In addition to those mentioned above, Teams also has improved power platform and custom development features, updated and brand new supporting devices, and a whole host of options to support educators, students, frontline workers, and government employees.
So, there you have it – everything you need to know about the newest Microsoft Teams features from the April 2022 update. Though this list is not by any means exhaustive, each featured improvement has the potential to streamline business communications even further than previous versions.
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