Microsoft Teams is getting a bunch of upgrades to make it easier to work from home

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Microsoft Teams is getting a agglomeration of upgrades to make it easier to work from home

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Microsoft is planning a series of major updates to Microsoft Teams to help smooth the transition to hybrid working patterns.

While some people have at present returned to the office or are contemplating doing and then in countries where Covid-19 is under control, many are likely to shift to a mixture of days spent working-from-home and days in the office. Microsoft recognizes that, and has been working on a series of new features to "put everyone on equal ground" wherever they're working.

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"To piece of work effectively in hybrid and asynchronous models, people need a super-rich canvas that both creates and maintains context before, during, and after the meeting," wrote Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365 in a blog post explaining the upcoming changes.

One manner of doing this is the introduction of dynamic widgets, which allow workers to create annihilation from tables to task lists inside Teams, work on them together in existent fourth dimension, so copy and paste to other chat threads or Outlook with the data nevertheless synchronized.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

There are other smaller merely extremely welcome changes coming, as well. You'll at present be able to pin messages, ensuring that fundamental data isn't lost in a sea of groundwork chatter. You'll be able to quote messages y'all're replying to, as well, meaning that the context of what y'all're writing won't be lost on other chat participants. And you'll soon exist able to co-author meeting notes and action lists, with the text automatically imported to OneNote after the grab-up ends.

While these are sensible steps to ensure that remote workers aren't left at a practical disadvantage when collaborating with their office-based teammates, Microsoft is likewise looking to deal with problems that are harder to pinpoint.

Unintentionally, remote workers tin can often be forgotten when they're not physically present, and Microsoft is hoping that a change in layout to Teams Rooms will assist reduce this problem.

The new pattern will see remote participants getting more screen space to give them "a greater sense of physical presence in the coming together room." If said room has 2 screens, the remote workers will be spread beyond both, giving them an fifty-fifty greater presence.

(Epitome credit: Microsoft)

Elsewhere, the Microsoft Viva Insights app for Teams is tackling one of the more elusive problems of remote working: isolation and its consequence on mental wellness. Wellness software Headspace will be integrated into the app afterwards this month, allowing employees to work through guided meditation and mindfulness exercises, helping them prepare for a big presentation or unwind and switch off before calling it a solar day. Information technology also offers integration with Focus style, where music and timers can aid you work without getting distracted.

"Back-to-back meetings increase stress and brand it harder to stay engaged and focused," wrote Malavika Rewari, a senior product managing director from the Microsoft 365 marketing team, noting that weekly meeting time had more than than doubled in Teams since the starting time of the pandemic. "In simply a few minutes a solar day, meditation and mindfulness with Headspace can assist yous reduce stress and better focus."

(Paradigm credit: Microsoft)

These improvements certainly sound beneficial, though it's hard to know how many of the cultural changes to the way we piece of work will stick once the virus is well and truly under control. Many businesses may want employees dorsum in the office for meliorate collaboration or but because they want to go along a closer middle on their workforce. Others volition jump at the opportunity to save on edifice and equipment costs by keeping workers remote.

With the changes to Teams, which will be rolled out over the class of 2021, Microsoft hopes to be the collaboration software of pick, no matter which mode the wind ends up blowing.

But it faces plenty of competition on this front: Google is too rolling out updates to Meet and is eliminating the need to pay to admission Google Workspace, every bit it too goes afterwards the earth's hybrid workers.

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Freelance correspondent Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine as well. When not weighing upwards the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his e'er-growing games excess. Or, more than likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth fourth dimension.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/microsoft-teams-is-getting-a-bunch-of-upgrades-to-make-it-easier-to-work-from-home

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