New and coming innovations within Microsoft Teams prove that they are gunning to be the leader in online meetings. Here are some of the more recent additions and coming features.
Together Mode
With the implementation of Together Mode attendees can feel like they are in an auditorium together. This enhances the experience by removing the ‘Brady Bunch’ feel and putting us in an experience that we’re all looking at a mirror of the group. Soon they will be adding meeting room and coffee shop environments. These perspectives contribute to a more cohesive feel that lends to better immersion and participation.
Breakout Rooms
By the end of this year, Microsoft is expecting to include the ability to have breakout rooms within group meetings. This will allow users to escape to smaller rooms for discussions and collaboration. Hosts will be able to jump between rooms, address all groups, and streamline the experiences for participants.
Attendee Limit Increases
Limits for view-only attendees will be doubling to 20,000, active participants will increase from 250 to 1,000 and we’ll be able to see a full 49 participants in our meeting, up from 9 today.
Wellness Enhancements
Coming in October, employers will have the ability to report on each employee’s time in attendance on Teams. This feature will help not only with the management of remote workers, but also will have insight to help with mental health through fatigue reporting standards. These features will also be extended into other O365 applications, including Outlook. In addition we will be seeing the ability to include meditation breaks and reflection time before or after scheduled work time.
Many of the things here are closing gaps compared to other online meeting platforms. With many of these features being included in the free versions of Teams and the integration to SharePoint, OneDrive and productivity applications, Microsoft is poised to jump to the front of the solution space.
