Working remotely comes with many challenges, including communication as the most important one. With employees scattered around the country or even worldwide, large organizations are struggling to keep up with their workflow. Luckily, Microsoft has recognized the need for a better communication system during these difficult times. They have acted on this right away and introduced significant changes to their Microsoft Teams collaboration platform. Here is what’s been added to the platform recently!
The most recent update Microsoft made on their Teams platform is the increase of team sizes. With entire companies going online due to lockdown and social distancing, there is a need for a platform that can accept a large number of team members communicating in the same place. Microsoft decided to offer this feature by increasing their team sizes to 10 000 members, which is more than enough for businesses to let everyone on board.
Microsoft has collaborated with the Bookings app to provide a convenient booking feature for its users. It is now very easy to schedule appointments through Microsoft Teams, including both in-person meetings and virtual meetings that take place on the platform. Microsoft now provides a single interface where users can manage multiple departments with ease without having to use different apps to book and schedule meetings.
Moreover, Microsoft has made their chats more accessible by adding a new multitasking feature. The program now allows you to open chats in a secondary window and maintain communication easily while doing other tasks. That way, you can stay in touch with colleagues while working on shared projects and tasks. To activate this feature, double click on the chat you want to open in your chat list and select the small square icon with an arrow in the top right corner. That chat will open in a secondary window so you can multitask in other tabs.
One of the most interesting new additions to the platform was the hand-raising feature. You no longer have to interrupt others to get your word out. Simply raise your hand to let other participants know that you have a question or a comment and you will be given a turn to talk. To activate this feature, select the hand icon located in the control bar.
Last but not least, Microsoft Teams now allows hosts to track the attendance of their team members. Since all the work is done remotely, it can be difficult for managers and team leaders to keep track of everyone’s contributions. With the attendance list report, you can keep track of all the users who attended your meetings. To access the report, select “show participants” and then click on the “download attendee list.” You will receive a CVS file with the names of users, as well as the time when they joined and left the meeting.
Microsoft Teams has always been one of the leading collaboration platforms out there. These new features will help push them to the top as users recognize the functionality of this tool. Microsoft Teams goes way beyond just hosting online meetings. It allows for constant communication and data sharing in a secure environment.