Microsoft Teams adds ‘Together mode’ in massive update - coniglioonced1974

Microsoft today said that it's shaking up online Teams video meetings with a new "Together mode" that places participants in a virtual auditorium. It's all part of a redesigned Teams experience that capitalizes happening few of the promises Microsoft has been making for years. There's even a pair of Teams smart displays.

On Wednesday, Microsoft aforementioned the company has spent much of the live few months rethinking the way in which video meetings were conducted. About 60 percent of those Microsoft surveyed said they matte up less connected to their colleagues ascribable the coronavirus, so Microsoft's new Teams update tries to make gestural communication a priority.

Several features toy into this aspect of the Teams vamp, including chaffer bubbles, an updated way to "raise you give" during meetings, and even live reactions. An earlier version of the "raise hand" option simply popped up a small hand icon. Now Teams will synopsis that particular speaker window in yellow, as an unobtrusive signal that the participant wishes to chip in.

Text is a priority in Teams' video calls

However, you don't have to enter in the conversation orally. The chat window in Teams (and competing services) has become a sort of lateral channel to carry on the conversation without interrupting the giver. Here, Teams is introducing something new: chat bubbles, with small snippets of text that will appear over your head if you want to bell in with a supportive comment operating theatre question. If that's too distracting, Microsoft has stolen a Thomas Nelson Page from other chat apps, and added "live reactions," Microsoft's name for emoji (same a heart) that participants can trigger and that can bubble up from their window.

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Here's what a post-meeting transcript within Microsoft Teams will look like.

Microsoft has also same for a piece immediately that transcription and version are a key part of the cooperative office experience, from showing off automatic translation in Skype to its vision of the office of the future, where a conversation is translated in real time. Speaker attribution, where Teams automatically highlights the speaker, will arrive "soon," Microsoft aforesaid.

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Live transcription within Teams.

Microsoft promised that live transcripts will arrive later this year, together with a searchable transcript file that will be attached to the meeting. Sincere-time transcriptions testament follow soon after that, Microsoft same. (The companionship made clear, notwithstandin, that it testament not be able to select individual speakers from a group that's connexion a Teams chat from, say, a conference board.)

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The new dynamic mode within Microsoft Teams.

Making Teams video look better with Together modal value and to a greater extent

Microsoft was latterly to the pun with AI backgrounds, and it's now trying to recapture the conversation. Teams will begin adding telecasting filters to adjust lighting levels algorithmically and create other effects, enhancing the way you look on camera. Teams is adding a dynamic catch, which will adjust the size of the video Windows that show participants, simply also set aside you to "pin" Francis Scott Key speakers, and then their Windows volition ne'er be circumstantially minimalized.

Teams meetings will grow to 1,000 participants, though you'll never see altogether of those windows onscreen erstwhile—49 synchronous video windows are supported, and that hasn't changed. (Adequate 20,000 people can passively find out a Teams demonstration, Microsoft said.)

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A "coffee tree shop" view appears to be one of the upcoming alternatives inside Teams' "together mode".

In some respects, Unitedly fashion combines all of that. Instead of placing participants in their own video Windows, Microsoft uses AI to "snip" participants verboten of their backgrounds and place them in a virtual auditorium. The result Crataegus oxycantha appear a little phantasmagorical—these are literal error talking heads, after all—simply it's a way to fit more virtual participants onscreen at a time. Microsoft said IT has as wel in use gaze tracking to attempt and orient the resultant images so they appear to be looking straight at you, even if their camera setup is slightly offset. Together mode will roll in August, Microsoft said, and new backdrops will be added over time.

Mobile Teams adds Cortana

Microsoft is also beefing up the Teams floating experience. Javier Soltero, formerly responsible for Cortana's development, told PCWorld in 2018 that Cortana's intelligence would be distributed across various apps. Soltero left Microsoft to running game Google's G Suite, but Microsoft's corporate vice President of the United States of Microsoft 365, Jared Spataro, has brought Cortana within Teams.

Within the coming weeks, Microsoft said, Teams users on Android and iOS (and who take Microsoft 365) will be able to ask Cortana to make a call forth, send files and author confabulate messages, and more.

Microsoft is adding the "suggested replies" that have become common in Google's Gmail and Microsoft Lookout, where you'll be able to tap a quickly bubble with a "Testament do!" or "Can we talk about this?" in answer to the content of a previous message. Teams wish add an internal "Tasks" app, which pulls unitedly similar features from Outlook and Microsoft To-Do, providing a unified dashboard inside Teams of things you need to get done. This sort of cross-pollination of functions began with Outlook (including Mail and Calendar tabs within the mobile app), and the same thinking is oncoming to Teams.

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Sunrise Teams hardware happening the horizon

Finally, Microsoft said that the Microsoft Teams hardware that was announced earlier this year will be deployed later this year. Microsoft's statement was a bit odd, disposed that the Lenovo ThinkSmart View, a $350 device that Lenovo declared at CES in January, is already available and shipping.

The ThinkSmart View is a "companion" device that works aboard a laptop, connecting (alone) to Teams and providing a 5MP front-facing tv camera and a 1200×800 8-inch IPS sort for conducting telecasting calls. Presumably, a second companion device from Yealink that will debut later this twelvemonth will have similar features.

Lenovo

Lenovo's ThinkSmart View, one of a early breed of surprisingly low-cost Teams hardware.

Finally, Microsoft said that Teams capabilities will be added to the Surface Hub, complete with a new room remote feature that will tour live later this class within the Teams mobile app. Users will be able to apply the app to launch features via voice command.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/393179/microsoft-teams-adds-together-mode-in-massive-update.html

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