{"id":1463,"date":"2020-10-19T03:47:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T03:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/?p=1463"},"modified":"2020-10-19T03:47:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T03:47:17","slug":"reimagining-virtual-collaboration-for-the-future-of-work-and-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/2020\/10\/19\/reimagining-virtual-collaboration-for-the-future-of-work-and-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Reimagining Virtual Collaboration for the Future of Work and Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today we\u2019re announcing a set of new features in Microsoft Teams that make virtual interactions more natural, more engaging, and ultimately, more human. These features offer three key benefits for people at work and in education. First, they help you feel more connected with your team and reduce meeting fatigue. Second, they make meetings more inclusive and engaging. And third, they help streamline your work and save time. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about enabling people everywhere to collaborate, to stay connected, and to discover new ways to be productive from anywhere. Let\u2019s dig into the details.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feel more connected and reduce meeting fatigue<\/h5>\n

Together mode<\/strong>\u2014At a time when people are conducting more virtual meetings than ever,\u00a0our research\u00a0has shown that many of us feel less connected since moving to\u00a0remote work, and experience more fatigue during\u00a0video meetings\u00a0than during in-person collaboration.\u00a0Together mode<\/a>\u00a0is a new meeting experience in Teams that uses AI segmentation technology to digitally place participants in a shared background, making it feel like you\u2019re sitting in the same room with everyone else in the meeting or class. Together mode makes meetings more engaging by helping you focus on other people\u2019s faces and body language and making it easier to pick up on the non-verbal cues that are so important to human interaction.<\/strong> It\u2019s great for meetings in which multiple people will speak, such as brainstorms or roundtable discussions, because it makes it easier for participants to understand who is talking. Together mode with auditorium view is rolling out now and will be generally available in August. And we\u2019ll bring more views to Together mode in the future.<\/p>\n

Dynamic view\u2014<\/strong>While Together mode offers an extraordinary new meeting experience, it\u2019s not intended for every meeting. We believe that traditional video meetings people use every day can also be more engaging and dynamic. A set of enhancements we call dynamic view gives you more control over how you see shared content and other participants in a meeting. Using AI, meetings dynamically optimize shared content and video participants. New controls\u2014including the ability to show shared content and specific participants side-by-side\u2014let you personalize the view to suit your preferences and needs. Dynamic view builds on the meetings enhancements \u00a0include\u00a0large gallery view, where you can see video of up to 49 people in a meeting simultaneously, and\u00a0virtual breakout rooms, which allow meeting organizers to split meeting participants into smaller groups for things like brainstorming sessions or workgroup discussions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Dynamic view<\/em>\"An<\/a>Large gallery view<\/em><\/p>\n

Video filters<\/strong>\u2014We\u2019ve all become familiar with video filters used in photography and social media apps, and now we\u2019re bringing them to Teams. Before joining a meeting, you can use the filters to subtly adjust lighting levels and soften the focus of the camera to customize your appearance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Reflect messaging extension\u2014<\/strong>Our research shows that employee well-being is more important to productivity than ever. Creating an emotionally supportive environment is key to keeping people healthy, happy, and focused. The new Reflect messaging extension gives managers, leaders and teachers an easy way to check in with how their team or students are feeling \u2014 either in general, or about a specific topic like work-life balance, the status of a project, current events, or a change within the organization.<\/strong> IT administrators will be able to install the Reflect extension from GitHub, and then make it available to employees in their organization in the\u00a0message extension menu. Once installed, the extension provides suggested check-in questions and the ability to add custom questions that team members can respond to in a poll-like experience. Managers or teachers can also choose to make poll results anonymous.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Make meetings more inclusive, engaging, and effective\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Live reactions\u2014<\/strong>Non-verbal cues like smiles and head nods can be difficult to notice in online meetings, making it challenging for presenters to gauge audience reactions and for participants in large meetings to share a sentiment without interrupting the meeting flow. Soon, you will be able to react during a meeting using emojis that will appear to all participants. Live reactions is a shared feature with PowerPoint Live Presentations, which allows audience members to provide instant feedback to the presenter<\/strong>. We are also\u00a0bringing PowerPoint Live Presentations to Teams<\/strong>\u00a0in the future, further enabling audience engagement right from Teams.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Chat bubbles\u2014<\/strong>During meetings, chat has become a lively space for conversation and idea-sharing, and offers an option for people to participate in the discussion without having to jump in verbally. But it can be challenging to pay attention to video feeds, presentations, and chats all at the same time. Currently, Teams users need to manually open a chat window to view the chat screen. Soon, however, chats sent during a Teams meeting will surface on the screens of all meeting participants, making the chat more central to the conversation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaker attribution for live captions and transcripts\u2014<\/strong>While Teams already provides live captions as a way to follow along with what is being said in a meeting, soon we will add speaker attribution to captions so that everyone knows who is speaking. Live transcripts, coming later this year, provide another way to follow along with what has been said and who said it. After a meeting, the transcript file is automatically saved in a tab as a part of the meeting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note:<\/em>\u00a0Remarks made by participants joining from a conference room device will be attributed to the room rather than to the individuals in the room.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Live Captions with speaker attribution<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Live transcription\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Interactive meetings for 1,000 participants and overflow\u2014<\/strong>There are times when it\u2019s important to bring large groups together for meetings or classes. For more interactive meetings\u2014where attendees can chat, unmute to talk, and turn on their videos for real-time collaboration\u2014Teams meetings are growing to support up to 1,000 participants. When you want to bring more people together to watch a presentation or discussion, Teams can support a view-only meeting experience for up to 20,000 participants.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Microsoft Whiteboard updates\u2014<\/strong>Visual\u00a0collaboration tools can make meetings and teaching environments more effective and inclusive. Whiteboard in Teams will soon be updated with new features including faster load times, sticky notes, text, and drag and drop capabilities.<\/strong> These features enable team members who don\u2019t have access to a touchscreen or Surface Hub to participate in whiteboarding sessions during Teams meetings.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Streamline your work and save time\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Tasks app\u2013 The Tasks app in Teams <\/a>provides a new unified view of tasks from across Microsoft To Do, Planner, and Outlook.<\/strong> Smart lists like \u201cAssigned to me\u201d bring tasks together across different shared plans, whether you\u2019re on desktop, web, or mobile. Add Tasks as a tab in a channel and get your familiar Planner tab experience with the new list view.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Suggested replies\u2014<\/strong>Get your message across with just one tap! Suggested replies in Teams chat uses assistive AI to create short responses based on the context of the previous message.<\/strong> So the next time someone asks you \u201cDo you have time to meet today?\u201d you can respond \u201cI sure do!\u201d without even pulling up your keyboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cortana in Teams\u2014<\/strong>Coming soon to the Teams mobile app,\u00a0Cortana\u00a0uses AI and the Microsoft Graph to provide voice assistance in Teams. To stay connected to your team even when you have your hands full, you can ask Cortana to make a call, join a meeting, send chat messages, share files, and more.<\/strong> These voice assistance experiences are delivered using\u00a0Cortana enterprise-grade services\u00a0that meet Microsoft 365 privacy, security, and compliance commitments. Cortana will be available in the Teams mobile app on iOS and Android in the coming weeks for Microsoft 365 Enterprise users in the U.S. in English.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Teams displays\u2014<\/strong>Organizations need to enable their employees to set up more effective home office spaces while also preparing some to return to the office. To help, we\u2019re introducing new\u00a0Microsoft Teams display<\/a>, a new category of all-in-one dedicated Teams devices that feature an ambient touchscreen and a hands-free experience powered by Cortana.<\/strong> With natural language, users can ask Cortana to join and present in meetings, dictate replies to a Teams chat, and more. These devices seamlessly integrate with your PC, providing easy access to Teams chat, meetings, calling, calendar, and files. And with a camera shutter and microphone mute switch, your conversations stay private. The\u00a0Lenovo ThinkSmart View\u00a0will be the first Microsoft Teams display to market, and Yealink will deliver one of the first devices in this category too. Microsoft Teams displays with Cortana will be available in the U.S. starting later this year.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Touchless meeting experiences\u2014<\/strong>As some people begin to return to their worksites,\u00a0touchless meeting experiences in shared spaces\u00a0are more relevant than ever.\u00a0Today,\u00a0Teams enables\u00a0people\u00a0to join meetings and share content to meeting\u00a0room\u00a0devices\u00a0from\u00a0their own mobile device or PC. Later this year, we\u2019ll enable these capabilities on Surface Hub as well.\u00a0We\u2019re building on these capabilities with a new\u00a0room<\/strong>\u00a0remote\u00a0<\/strong>in the Teams mobile app, which will provide\u00a0additional meeting controls\u00a0<\/strong>such as the ability\u00a0to leave the meeting, mute and unmute the room, adjust audio volume,\u00a0and turn cameras on and off.\u00a0Beginning later this year,\u00a0voice assistance<\/strong>\u00a0will be enabled for Microsoft Teams Room devices, allowing in-room participants to ask Cortana to join and leave a meeting, add a participant from the address book to a meeting using their name or phone number, and more. We\u2019re also introducing\u00a0the ability to\u00a0wirelessly\u00a0cast<\/strong>\u00a0to any Teams Room, collaboration bar,\u00a0or\u00a0Surface Hub\u00a0device,\u00a0enabling\u00a0seamless\u00a0ad-hoc\u00a0in-person collaboration for people in a shared space.<\/p>\n

Note: Voice commands will launch first for Microsoft 365 Enterprise users in the U.S., in English. Not all Teams Room audio devices will support Cortana voice assistance.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Room remote for Microsoft Teams devices<\/em><\/p>\n

While the above capabilities are designed for work and school, we aspire to make Teams the platform for work, life, and learning.<\/p>\n

And they all reflect our vision for the future of work: where everyone is able to contribute and do their best work; where they can move fluidly between experiences, apps, and devices; where AI lends a helping hand to streamline tasks, provide short cuts, and save you time; and where technology contributes to wellbeing and doesn\u2019t detract from it.<\/p>\n

From the kickoff call to the project\u2019s launch\u2014and all points in-between\u2014Teams is the place where people come together to get work done.<\/strong> Working alongside our customers, we\u2019ll continue reimagining the future of work and delivering technologies that put people at the center of every experience.<\/p>\n

For more information on Microsoft Teams, please\u00a0contact us<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we\u2019re announcing a set of new features in Microsoft Teams that make virtual interactions more natural, more engaging, and ultimately, more human. These features offer three key benefits for people at work and in education. First, they help you feel more connected with your team and reduce meeting fatigue. Second, they make meetings more … Continue reading “Reimagining Virtual Collaboration for the Future of Work and Learning”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1476,"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions\/1476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cllsystems.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}