Microsoft Teams 2020 updates
One of the great things about Microsoft 365, is you don't have to wait years for an update... Better yet, there are loads of them!
Let's start with a bit of honesty. We started using Microsoft 365 with a client about four or five years ago and we came from a G Suite background. Back then, we struggled to see the benefits. It was clear Microsoft were playing catch up when it came to 'the Cloud', and when it came to features like file collaboration we felt Office simply wasn't ready yet.
The client we worked with had originally planned to migrate to G Suite (now Google Workspace), but decided the change was too big. At the time we believed it was the wrong decision, because G Suite was leading by far when it came to built-in security, collaboration and video conferencing. That said, we got on with it and trained them up on 365. We then went back to the G Suite world with open arms, but kept an eye on 365 because we knew one day it would be a worthy competitor.
Some time passed. Microsoft Teams was born and we became very intrigued. File collaboration was still weak in comparison to G Suite, but it showed us that Microsoft were finally taking modernising the workplace seriously. To cut a story short, I (Lauren) fell in love with it and the rest is history.
If you'd asked me a couple of years ago about Teams, I would have probably said it's OK for some things, but other apps such as Slack and Google Chat were better in certain areas. However Microsoft have been listening and updating rapidly (this year especially). Microsoft Teams has very quickly become everyone's hub for team work and the possibilities are endless. Messaging, video conferencing, file sharing, note taking, scheduling, task management, third party integrations... I mean does anyone actually leave the Teams app other than to check their emails and LinkedIn?
Anyway, I almost forgot why I am writing this. Updates! Let's see what's happened this year and what's coming soon.
Best bits of 2020 so far
â Read receipts
đ Pin your favourite apps and access them in Teams
đˇ Tags (For groups of people, so you can @mention a group, role, department, etc.)
đ End meeting option (end the meeting for everyone, useful for webinars and lessons)
đť Large Gallery view in meetings (49 people)
đ¨âđŠâđ§âđŚ Together mode in meetings (try it in your next team meeting for a laugh)
đ Export an attendee list in meetings
đ Hand raising in meetings
đ Pop-out chats for multitasking
đ 10,000 people in a Team
đ 300 people in a meeting
đŚ Spotlight in meetings (pin the presenter for everyone)
đ Custom backgrounds (our favourite)
đľď¸ââď¸ Search within a chat or channel
Wow, and that's only some of them! It's been a heck of a year and Microsoft have really pulled it out of the bag to help us all work remotely. Let us know if we missed your favourite update.
