Microsoft announced Teams in 2017, and since then, the platform has been driving collaboration for thousands of organizations globally. More than 270 million people actively use Teams to conduct meetings, share information, and connect over distance. Check out these useful Microsoft Teams features that can take your team to the next level.
Useful Microsoft Teams Features to Improve Meetings
For many people, meetings provide their first introduction to Teams. Knowing this, Microsoft regularly delivers additional features to make meetings more collaborative, secure, and productive.
For instance, the Share-to-Stage feature allows all meeting participants to work together with shared content in real time. This moves the meeting from a presenter and observer format to active brainstorming around a virtual whiteboard. And share-to-stage supports multiple whiteboard apps to allow for greater flexibility.
For those who use music in multimedia presentations or classes held over Teams, Microsoft has added a music mode. When activated, the High-Fidelity Audio Mode delivers greatly improved sound experience. This applies to live music, music through applications and even medical signals that can play a crucial role in virtual physician appointments.
Some meetings require a greater measure of security, the virtual equivalent of locking the conference room doors. For those situations, Teams now includes a Lock Meeting feature. Once the organizer locks a meeting, no one can join the meeting, including invited participants who arrive late.
Collaborate More Effectively
First and foremost, Teams drives collaboration, and recent additions to the platform take that to new heights. This year, for example, Microsoft rolls out its Mesh for Microsoft Teams, a mixed reality metaverse experience designed to increase engagement. With mesh, users can share holographic experiences in immersive spaces using personalized avatars.
Microsoft also plans to release its Loop app in 2022 to deliver greater flexibility in real-time collaborative editing. Already, users can use Loop Components in Outlook and Teams chats. For instance, multiple team members can edit the same table simultaneously, no matter which Office app they use to access the table.
Additional features help diverse teams to work together more effectively. Contact cards now include the local time for each contact, for example. And with Inline Message Translation, each team member can chat comfortably in their own native language.
Enhance Focus to Increase Productivity
Teams excels at connecting coworkers. But sometimes, constant connection can prove distracting. Fortunately, Microsoft delivers several features to help keep distractions to a minimum when the time comes for heads-down focus. Start with the following habits:
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- Pin important chats and channels – Most users have dozens of chats and potentially hundreds of channels in their workspace. To keep important discussions from getting lost in the mix, pin critical chats and channels to the top of the list.
- Use slash commands to work efficiently – Quickly initiate a chat, set your status to “do not disturb,” see all your @mentions and more without navigating a menu. For example, to start a chat, just type /chat in the search and command box.
- Control notifications – Set your default notifications settings to match your distraction tolerance. For instance, you can turn off reactions notifications. You can also hide less important channels or teams or mute a specific conversation.
- Filter content – Filter your activity feed by keyword or select one of various filter options. For instance, you can filter by @mentions, unread messages, replies, reactions, missed calls, voicemails, apps and suggested.
Put Your Best Foot Forward
The hybrid work environment does not mean the end of professionalism. In fact, Teams offers several tools to help you deliver the best impression possible. Start by getting acquainted with Microsoft Editor, the versatile writing assistant available in Outlook and Word. Beyond spelling and grammar, Editor gives tips for readability, inclusivity, and professional tone.
For meeting presenters, Teams will soon roll out the Speaker Coach feature. This AI-powered feature can remind the speaker in real time to check in with their audience or warn them about speaking too quickly. Speakers can also view personalized feedback in a post-meeting summary.
Power Collaboration with Useful Microsoft Teams Features
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