Microsoft Teams – What’s new in 2023?
Microsoft Teams goes beyond being just a chat app. It’s a widely used platform for collaboration and communication, offering a variety of useful features. Microsoft has put effort into enhancing it with video conferencing and VoIP phone capabilities. The platform provides tools to simplify communication, whether it’s through meetings, group chats, or private messages. It’s a great choice for collaboration.
Once you understand how to use it, navigating Microsoft Teams becomes easy. It’s well-organized and structured, making it straightforward to use. There are many features, tools, and spaces for discussions with colleagues.
This year, Microsoft Teams has introduced several new features to enhance its capabilities.
1) Faster
Microsoft recognized the problems with the previous Teams version and took action to enhance the new one. Their goal is to make it speedier and more efficient, concentrating on quicker launch times, meeting starts, and reduced memory use.
To validate these changes, Microsoft partnered with GigaOm, an unbiased testing company, for assessments comparing the new Teams with the classic version. Here’s what they discovered:
Faster Launch: The new Teams opens up to twice as fast, allowing users to access it swiftly.
Speedier Meetings: Joining meetings happens up to two times faster, letting collaboration start without delays.
Quick Chat/Channel Switching: Navigating between chats and channels within Teams is around 1.7 times faster in the new version, boosting productivity.
Less Memory Use: The new Teams uses up to 50% less memory, which means better use of your device’s resources and potentially improved performance.
Less Disk Space: The new version takes up to 70% less disk space, optimizing storage on users’ devices.
These results show that the new Teams version greatly enhances performance, enabling smoother work without major delays or resource problems. By tackling launch speed, meeting start time, and memory usage, Microsoft improves the user experience. The new Teams assures faster, more efficient collaboration, letting users focus on tasks without performance worries.
2) Simpler than before
Microsoft is dedicated to providing a user-friendly and feature-packed experience with the new Teams. They’ve made various improvements to make actions simpler, personalize experiences, and make meetings easier. Here are some key upgrades in the new Teams:
Easier Actions: The new Teams focuses on making things less cluttered and actions simpler. Notifications, search, and message organization have been streamlined. This makes it easier for users to find what they need and move around.
Personal Touch: Microsoft introduced features for better personalization and collaboration. Threads organize discussions, customizable group chats adapt to preferences, and interactive emojis add a fun touch to conversations.
Effortless Meetings: Updates have been made to enhance the meeting experience. Joining meetings is smoother, the gallery view shows more participants, and screen sharing is more effective.
These changes aim to make things easier for users, reduce complications, and help users achieve more with fewer steps. By simplifying actions, personalizing experiences, and improving meetings, Microsoft wants Teams to be more user-friendly and efficient, enjoyable for everyone.
The focus on simplicity and user-friendliness underlines Microsoft’s commitment to offering a strong collaboration platform that meets users’ changing needs. With these upgrades, users can anticipate a smoother and more productive experience in Teams, boosting communication, collaboration, and teamwork.
3) More Flexible
Microsoft has enhanced the way authentication, synchronization, and notifications work to create a smooth and steady experience for users. For instance, many users collaborate with people from different organizations using Teams across various accounts. Rather than logging in and out of different accounts and tenants, you can now remain signed in across all of them. This means you’ll receive notifications regardless of the account or organization you’re currently using.
4) In Microsoft Teams, You can delete chats
Organize and easily remove chat conversations you no longer need without impacting other participants in the same chat.
5) You can add people to a group chat with @mention
Add new participants to the chat with @mention, removing the need to navigate to the add-dialog. When adding new participants, you can control how much of the chat history to share.
6) You can recommend people when creating a new message
Save time looking for the right stakeholders. Using AI, Teams chat will assist you in initiating new conversations by recommending colleagues based on your previous collaborations. This feature will be generally available by the end of the year.
7) Microsoft Teams has a Speaker Coach in Meetings
Speaker Coach provides private, personalized insight into how you spoke during your meeting or presentation and also provide feedback on your speaking and presentation skills in both real-time as well as post-meeting in a summary. Live insights are only seen by you and are not saved in recorded meeting transcripts.
8) There are avatars for Microsoft Teams:
Hybrid meetings can be tiring, especially when you’re concerned about your appearance or background. Avatars in Microsoft Teams provide a helpful camera pause while still ensuring collaboration. Express yourself with personalized avatars and reactions. Enhance participation by involving more individuals in discussions, whether they require a break from video, are in a different time zone, or prefer not to use video. Bring an extra dimension to your meetings. Forge connections in a whole new way with Teams avatars.
9) Video filters in Microsoft Teams Meetings
Microsoft Teams gives you the power to enhance your video experience using AI-powered features. You can now make your video feed appear softer and change backgrounds. And now, we’re going a step ahead with video filters. These filters let you eliminate distractions and showcase your personality in meetings. In Teams Meetings, participants can use filters to add visual effects to their video, from animated frames to altering the video’s hue. You can apply these filters before even entering a meeting from the lobby.
10) Video Closed Captions in PowerPoint Live
Closed Captions in PowerPoint Live have a significant purpose: aiding individuals who are Deaf, struggle with hearing, find it hard to process auditory information, face language barriers, or are in noisy settings. This feature provides a way for these participants to comprehend spoken content more effectively. Now, meeting attendees can choose to activate closed captions for videos that come with a closed captions file. This inclusivity ensures a better understanding of the content being presented.
11) Start Whiteboard from a Teams meeting for Teams Rooms on Windows
Users of Teams Rooms on Windows can now easily initiate a Microsoft Whiteboard within Teams meetings through the one-touch content sharing function on meeting room consoles. In the evolving landscape of work, whiteboarding plays a crucial role in fostering collaboration between individuals present in the room and those participating remotely. When the Whiteboard is launched from the meeting room, it’s linked to the meeting organizer. This enables them to control who can access and interact with the whiteboard content.
12) Live Transcript in meetings on Web
In any Teams meeting, you have the option to initiate real-time transcription of the ongoing discussion. This text is displayed alongside the meeting’s video or audio feed, showing the speaker’s name (unless they opt to hide it) and a timestamp. Live transcription adds value to your meeting by enhancing productivity and inclusivity. It benefits participants who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have varying language skills. Additionally, those in noisy environments find the visual aid beneficial. Participants can also decide not to have their identity revealed in meeting transcripts.
13) Walk up and use Microsoft Whiteboard
Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android displays now offer the capability to initiate whiteboard sessions directly from the home screen of supported displays. This can be done anytime, even outside of scheduled meetings. By simply tapping the screen, a Microsoft Whiteboard session can be quickly launched, enabling instant collaboration. Administrators can activate this feature using the “Allow initiate Whiteboard” setting on the device.
14) Live stream meetings & webinars to Meta Workplace Live
You can now live stream your Teams meetings or webinars directly to Meta Workplace Live using the new Workplace Live app integration. This feature enables attendees to watch meetings and webinars live within their Workplace groups or view recordings later on Workplace. To make use of this, add the Workplace Live app to your Teams meeting or webinar, log in with your Workplace account, and choose the Workplace Event you want to live stream.
15) Intelligent Recap feature
Introducing Intelligent Recap, a time-saving solution for reviewing meeting recordings. This feature, already accessible, uses AI to create chapters from PowerPoint Live content, segmenting the meeting into sections aligned with the presentation. This makes it simple to select and focus on the parts that matter most. In the future, Intelligent Recap will also create chapters based on meeting transcripts automatically.
16) Watermarking options for presentations
A new meeting option, Watermarking, offers an effective way to prevent leaks while sharing sensitive meeting content. Organizers can use this feature to apply a distinct watermark onto attendee screen shares and video feeds. This helps ensure secure presentation and display of confidential information during meetings.
17) Green screen in meetings
The fresh green screen feature enhances the clarity and precision of your virtual background, especially around your face, head, ears, and hair. It additionally enables you to make objects held in your hand more visible to others in a call. This feature is available on Windows and macOS devices with Intel chips, excluding Mac M1/M2. It works best with a solid-colored screen or clean background wall behind you. To activate this feature, users should apply a background effect in Teams meetings. By selecting the appropriate backdrop color, the green screen effect will be applied accurately, resulting in improved quality.
18) Ultrasound Howling Detection feature
In situations where multiple users are in the same room using audio during a Teams meeting, an echo can occur due to a feedback loop. With this new update, Teams has the capability to identify if another Teams device is present nearby and is already part of the same meeting with audio. When this happens, Teams notifies users intending to join and subsequently mutes their microphones and speakers automatically. These users have the option to reactivate the microphone and speaker anytime they prefer. This update helps alleviate echo-related issues during collaborative meetings.
19) Active speaker view in Microsoft Teams meetings
The Speaker View feature in Teams meetings lets you effortlessly follow the current speaker. The active speaker’s video gets displayed at a higher quality, ensuring clearer visuals. Using 16:9 tiles and keeping audio and video participants consistently placed on the same stage ensures a smooth experience. Turning videos on or off doesn’t require a complete stage redraw. The main area where the active speaker is displayed also accommodates shared content, allowing smooth transitions during presentations. Speaker View works especially well in situations with a small number of main speakers and a larger audience, like town halls, training sessions, or lectures, particularly from a student’s viewpoint. To access this, go to “View” in the meeting toolbar and select “Speaker view.” Please note, this view isn’t the default setting.
20) Use an app during a Microsoft Teams meeting
Apps within Microsoft Teams meetings offer various benefits, such as:
Feedback and Reminders: You can utilize apps to gather feedback through surveys or send reminders during the meeting.
Real-time Collaboration: Collaborate instantly on documents, boards, and interactive content.
Meeting Preparation: Provide meeting participants with relevant materials.
While app features differ, getting started is similar. During the meeting, click on the app icon to open it. If you can’t find the app, you might need to add it to the meeting. Click on “Apps” to search for the desired app and then start using it. Remember, when an app is open on your screen’s right side, other attendees usually can’t see your activity in the app until you involve them intentionally, like launching a poll in a meeting.
You can make the most of these Microsoft Teams features to streamline your work or enhance team connections. Even if you don’t use every feature, understanding how versatile Teams is can be valuable. Spend some time getting acquainted with Teams; you might uncover a game-changing tool for your business. Ultimately, Microsoft Teams is an excellent addition for workplaces already using Microsoft 365, offering seamless support for all your collaborative requirements.
If you require assistance in setting up Teams or Microsoft 365, feel free to contact our team by clicking here.
