Microsoft brings new features to teams to make your meetings less boring

During this year, Microsoft rolled out a host of features on its video conferencing platform, Teams, that made it easier for its users to communicate with each other even when working from home. Now the company has released new features that aim to bring Christmas cheer to your virtual meetings.

The company today announced the launch of new vacation-themed Ensemble Mode scenes and custom backgrounds. In addition to this, the company also announced the availability of breakout rooms. Let’s go through these features one by one.

Scenes from Holiday Themed Ensemble Mode

Microsoft today rolled out the Winter Wonderland Together Mode scene in Teams. The company says it will “ add a touch of holiday spirit, perfect for hosting a virtual holiday party. ” In addition to that, the company also announced that it is rolling out a new set of scenes in Together mode, which includes a cafe. , conference room, classroom and United Nations Space Command, among others, in teams.

How to use: Open the Teams meeting> select Together mode from the drop-down menu> click the little pencil in the left corner of the screen> choose a scene.

Custom backgrounds

Next are the custom backgrounds. Microsoft announced that it has created a set of new, custom holiday-themed backgrounds for standard meetings and video calls. To add a new custom background, upload the backgrounds you like. Then, while you’re setting up your video and audio before joining a meeting, select Background Effects, click Add New, then select a background to download from your computer, and you’re good to go.

Sub-committee rooms

Finally, Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would roll out a feature called Breakout Rooms in Team. To give you a brief overview, this feature allows the organizers to divide the meeting into subgroups to facilitate discussions and brainstorming sessions. A meeting organizer can create up to 50 breakout rooms and choose to automatically or manually assign participants to the rooms. Now the company has started to roll out this feature.