March marked the 3rd year anniversary for Microsoft Teams. It also marked the start of stay at home orders in many states across the US, and other countries across the globe, to battle the current pandemic. To coincide with the anniversary of Teams, Microsoft recapped on their growth and revealed some additional features that they have prioritized releasing, as more people are now working from home full time.
Teams currently has over 44 million daily users, a number that grew by 12 million in just a week at the end of March. Over 650 organizations with more than 10k users have fully embraced Teams, including 93 Fortune 100 companies. Twenty of those organizations have over 100,000 employees actively using Teams. In total, Teams is being utilized across 181 markets that speak 53 different languages.
Microsoft hopes to improve upon the experience in Teams when communicating and collaborating with colleagues remotely by expediting the release of some features that they didn’t plan to release until later this year.
Increased Number of Simultaneous Videos in Meetings
Microsoft is increasing the number of simultaneous videos shown in the grid view during a meeting from four to nine. This change comes due to both a demand from Teams users, but also as a response to creeping competition from other solution providers. Microsoft has said this change is just the initial increase, and they will further increase it in the future. This feature will begin rolling out in May.
Raise Hand
In large meetings, it can sometimes be difficult to know when to best chime in when you have something to say. That is where the new raise hand feature comes in. This will let anyone in the meeting send a visual signal that they have something to say, via the click of a button. This feature has already started rolling out to tenants.
Real-time Noise Suppression
This is the feature I am most excited for, and one I have not yet seen offered by a competitor. Microsoft originally planned to release it later this year, but the pandemic kicked the release date up to the start of the summer. Real-time noise suppression is a software solution that will reduce background noise. Microsoft recently demoed it by successfully silencing a crumbling bag of chips. This will certainly be welcomed by those who have been working from home in less than ideal home office environments.
Continuous growth and investment into the Teams experience shows that this is a platform that Microsoft is fully committed to. While it is more important now than ever to enable remote work, being able to successfully do so is something that will have a lasting value beyond this current COVID-19 outbreak. An investment now into a solution like Teams will empower your organization to continue to achieve.
Ready to make the transition to Teams for your organization? Don’t hesitate to contact our experts at any time!
