New Features for Teams 2021

Along with the pandemic of 2020 came digital adoption like we’ve never seen. For so many people, working and learning moved from the office and into their home.  

This flexible working has continued into 2021 and looks set to stay. According to research conducted for Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, more than 70 percent of employees say they expect to take advantage of flexible work from home policies post pandemic.  

Microsoft have been at the forefront of building experiences for colleagues to help them thrive in this new hybrid world. They recently announced even more exciting new teams features at Microsoft Ignite this week, which we’ll be covering over the next few blogs.  

Here’s what’s new in Meetings: 

1. Dynamic View arranges the elements of your meetings to provide the best viewing experience. 

As people join, turn on video, start to speak, or begin to present in a meeting, Teams auto-adjusts and personalises your layout.  

2) The new view switcher in the top bar of your Teams meeting allows you to control how you see the meeting content. In Together mode you can interact with your colleagues without any distractions. With Gallery at top, all video feeds display at the top of your meeting window, so you have a more natural gaze towards the camera. Focus hides all video feeds and puts the attention fully on the shared content and Full screen can help remove other desktop distractions.  

3) Now this is fancy. This new teams feature, Presenter mode steps up the production level of your presentations and customises how your video feed and content appear to your audience. Our first mode, Standout, shows your video feed as a silhouette in front of the shared content. Reporter places content as a visual aid above your shoulder just like a news story. Side-by-side displays your video feed next to your content.  

4) Want to look more professional with your presentations? PowerPoint Live in Teams gives you the control and confidence, while providing a more interactive and inclusive experience to your audience. As a presenter, you can now lead meetings with a single view of your notes, slides, meeting chat, and participants. Attendees can also personalise their experience by navigating the content at their own pace or using the screen reader to consume content, allowing people with vision disabilities to follow along with the presentation more easily.  

5) It’s always nice to get a thumbs up and with Live Reactions in Teams you can now send emojis during a meeting. As well as being a bit of fun, it gives you realtime feedback and praise.   

PowerPoint Live and Live Reactions are both available now while Dynamic View, view switcher and Presenter Mode will be available real soon.  

If you want to know more about new teams features or if you’re interested in Teams training, get in touch using the form below or email us at [email protected].