UCStatus Podcast Episode 43: Random Teams news June and July 2022

Hello Readers, I hope you’re well.

Welcome to Episode 43 of the UCStatus Podcast. This episode features me (@randychapman) & Shawn Harry (@shawnharry) and Mark Vale (@markvale83).

This week we chat about a long list of the Microsoft Teams features we found interesting since the last time we recorded back in May. Sorry for the gap. We’ll try not to let it happen again.

Here’s the list

• Pop out shared content into a separate window during calls and meetings
• Auto end stale meetings
  • If a user is the sole participant in a meeting 10 minutes after the scheduled meeting end time has passed, then a dialog will appear in the call prompting them to end the call or dismiss the notification. If no action is taken on the dialog within 3 minutes, the meeting will automatically end.
• Join meeting by Meeting ID and passcode
  • This is the ability to join a Teams meeting using a meeting ID and passcode
  • The feature started with Desktop. But Microsoft also announced that from 4.13, this feature will be available on MTRoW. Coming really soon
• Here’s the list of features coming to MTR on Windows version 4.13
  • Join Teams meeting using meeting code/ ID
  • End-to-End encryption for one-to-one Teams call
  • Noise suppression in Teams meeting
  • Share tray experience update
  • Mute/ unmute status on your room video
  • Admin setting for content only layout default
  • Modern authentication is on by default
• Dynamic caller ID in calls app for call queue agents
  • You can assign outbound caller ID numbers for agents by specifying one or more resource accounts with a phone number. Agents can select which outbound caller ID number to use with each outbound call they make.
• Exchange Contacts Available in Calling Pickers in Teams
  • Exchange contacts with associated phone numbers will be available as part of the drop down selection in all Calling people pickers, such as the Dialer or call transfer, for customers that have PSTN enabled.
• Changes coming to phone number assignment using Teams PowerShell Module cmdlets
  • CsPhoneNumberAssignment is the new way to interact with phone numbers for any object. Within this single commandlet there is a PhoneNumberType parameter you use to distinguish between DirectRouting, CallingPlan and OperatorConnect
  • all other methods including Set-CsUser, CsOnlineApplicationInstance, CsOnlineVoiceUser and CsOnlineVoiceApplicationInstance are being retired
• Co-organizer Meeting Role
  • assign the co-organizer meeting role to up to 10 specific people they invite to their meeting.
  • Co-organizers will be granted most of the capabilities of the organizer in the meeting, including being able to access & modify the meeting options for the meeting.
• Modern Meetings and Calls on Teams Web Client
  • As more comes to Teams web, will there be a point where you don’t need to install the fat client?
• Teams Chat with self
  • The ability to create a chat with yourself and use it to collect your thoughts and probably more
• Intelligent Cameras
  • Microsoft announced that more intelligence is coming to cameras from multiple brands including Logitech’s RightSight 2 Grid View, Neat Symmetry, Jabra’s Dynamic Composition, and People Framing from Poly which run directly on the camera
• Collaborative Annotations
  • basically turn a screenshare into a whiteboard canvas where everyone can annotate
• Teams Displays getting cool again
  • Neat Frame and Yealink Deskvision were purpose built as Teams Displays.
  • And now, Crestron have announced that the UC-P8 & 10 video phones can be converted to Teams Display with an update
• Shared Channels is now Generally Available
  • Could this be the death of guest access and tenant switching?
• Microsoft launches a digital Contact Centre platform
  • made up of Teams back end, Azure Communications Service, Dynamics 365, the Power Platform and Nuance
  • basically showcasing what a Contact Centre partner can do with all the building blocks
  • But partner solutions are still important. “Customer choice is at the center of everything we do”. Microsoft points out that there are 13 contact centre vendors and 11 call recording vendors certified – and there are more in the pipeline
• Operator Connect Mobile, Conferencing and Accelerator
  • Accelerator helps partners become OC ready by leveraging Metaswitch infrastructure
• Teams is growing and so is Teams Phone
  • Microsoft announced that there are now 270 million monthly active users, 80 million Teams phone (those users who have the Teams Phone license) active users, 12 million active PSTN users (users with that license making PSTN calls) and they are making a Billion Calls a month

This was a fun episode as always and we hope you enjoy it. Have a listen below.

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