Microsoft Teams enhances content sharing, PowerPoint presenter view and more

Microsoft has released a number of new and improved features in the latest public preview edition of its Teams app. Here are the updates to expect.

SEE: 11 ways to be a consummate professional during Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings (TechRepublic)  

New emojis

Unveiled late last week, the newest public preview for Teams kicks off with an update that has expanded the emojis available from 85 to more than 800. Among the new and more diverse emojis you can use to spice up your messages, chats, and calls are ones for people and animals. Teams also serves up emojis for smilies, hand gestures, food, travel and places, activities, objects and symbols. Beyond the new images are new selectors where you can more easily pick a specific category or skin tone.

Better content sharing

Next on the list is a new content sharing tray designed to help you more quickly find and select the content you wish to share. Selecting the Window tile shows you a list of all open windows so you can pick the one you want to share. The PowerPoint Live feature lets you choose a PowerPoint file to share from the most-recently used list or from your computer or OneDrive.

You can more easily decide whether to include sound from your computer when you share a screen or window. Selecting FreeHand by InVision allows you to tap into InVision’s whiteboarding product to use in your meeting. And selecting Microsoft Whiteboard lets you share the built-in whiteboard with your meeting participants.

Noise suppression on the Mac

Aimed at the Mac, an updated noise suppression feature will automatically remove background noise during a meeting. The feature takes advantage of artificial intelligence to analyze your audio feed and filter out any unwanted noise. You can also control how much noise suppression should be in effect.

Teams on VDI 2×2 Gallery View

The next feature is designed for organizations that run Teams in a virtual desktop infrastructure, specifically in VDI optimized mode. The Teams on VDI 2×2 Gallery View feature allows you to view the thumbnail videos of up to four meeting participants in 2×2 Gallery View on VDI clients from Citrix and VMWare.

PowerPoint Presenter View in Teams

Finally, the PowerPoint Presenter View in Teams revs up PowerPoint presentation sharing with a new Presenter View. After you select a PowerPoint file from the Share tray, Presenter View automatically opens so you can see and navigate through the current slide, slide notes, and a thumbnail strip of all the slides in the presentation. Accessing the new view happens behind the scenes and out of sight of the other meeting participants. You can also control whether your fellow participants see your current slide or a slide of their choosing.

The five new and improved features do require the public preview of Microsoft Teams, an option that Teams administrators would have to enable from the admin console. Admins would first set an update policy that turns on the option to Show preview features. Individual users in the organization can then opt to join the public preview if they desire and would get early versions of features not yet available for general release.

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