Since Microsoft originally released Microsoft Teams as a successor to Skype for Business, they have been consistently improving the application with regular updates designed to make communication and collaboration easier for organizations of all sizes. With the recent situation surrounding COVID-19, many organizations have begun to rely more heavily on Microsoft Teams to help their staff communicate and collaborate while working remotely. We’ve put together a few of the most beneficial features Microsoft Teams has to offer to organizations looking to take advantage of the communication app in a more effective way.

New meeting experience

In the latest update, Microsoft Teams introduced a brand new meeting experience aimed at making virtual meetings feel more like in-person meetings. Before the update, meeting attendees could only see up to 4 other attendees on video. This meant that if a meeting had more attendees than 4, not everyone could be seen. With the new update, Teams has expanded the gallery view up to 49 people at once.

If the gallery view gets overwhelming, there is also a new view option called “Together Mode” that takes attendees’ video streams and puts them into a shared space. This can be a great option for meetings where a speaker needs to gage reactions of attendee groups.

Anybody who has attended a virtual meetings with more than 3 people has had the awkward experience of talking over someone or getting interrupted multiple times making it difficult to have meaningful discussions. In Teams meetings, each attendee has a  hand raise button that alerts other attendees that their had is raised and they would like to speak. After some practice, hand raising can be an effective way to eliminate talking over others and thus lead to faster meetings.

Every meeting includes a meeting notes tab that allows attendees to take notes within the meeting window. Even if someone is taking notes, sometimes having the ability to rewatch a meeting can be useful. Recording Teams meetings can a great way cut down on meetings or trainings that typically need to be redone. When an attendee records a Teams meeting, the recording is automatically uploaded to Microsoft Stream and saved to the meeting chat or in the Team channel if the meeting is located in a channel. Teams will even send an email to the attendee that started the recording when the video is available.

What about meeting recordings for people outside of your organization? Microsoft doesn’t currently provide access to Microsoft Stream recordings to users outside of your organization. We recommend downloading meeting recording, uploading it to OneDrive, and sharing it with external users there. We outline the entire process here.

Contextual search

Searching for previous conversations can save valuable time and limit the embarrassing emails asking for repeat information. In Teams, the Search bar at the top can find words or phrases in files, teams, channels, and conversations. Limiting the search by pressing CTRL + F  will limit the search to whatever conversation or channel you are currently in making it easier to find specific things.

File sharing experience

Microsoft now considers Teams to be the heart of sharing and collaboration in Microsoft 365. This is why they are bringing the same file sharing experience and file access controls to Teams. Their goal with this is to have users be able to share a file within teams and have the ability to create sharing links – even sharing with external users.

This is just a small number of features in Microsoft Teams that can improve remote collaboration and communication. If your organization is looking to take advantage of Microsoft Teams for internal use, or need additional training, get in touch with us.