What's new in Microsoft Teams - Janaury 2021

Thanks to Microsoft Teams, your desktop app will always be up to date. But how will you know what those changes or updates are? If you have a Microsoft trainer already, you can count on them to sift through updates and alert you or your team for changes that directly apply to specific roles in order to maximize efficiency. If you don’t have an ongoing trainer, tune into these monthly updates for a quick rundown on new features, or tips & tricks to share with your team.

Shared Calendars

No more back-and-forth chatting to schedule a meeting- view all events on one master calendar and add them to your personal calendar for ease. Here’s how to view your personal calendar, schedule meetings, and add shared calendars to a channel.

Breakout Rooms

In order to get the feel of discussing details with your neighbor, Microsoft Teams now allows Team meetings to be broken up into smaller meetings— or rooms— in this digital age. Learn how an organizer can set up breakout rooms through your desktop app by visiting this tutorial. 

Get Approved

Eliminate some Inbox overwhelm with Team’s new Approvals hub, where you’ll see approvals you’ve sent, create new approvals, view previous approvals in one continent place, and eliminate those long-winded email chains. Get real-time updates of the approval’s status— who responded, and who needs more time. View this video to get get a better idea of how it all works.

Tasks

Combining Microsoft To Do and Planner, Tasks lets users view and manage all their individual team tasks and prioritize their work. Read more about what you need to know about using this feature, how to set it up, and how to publish correctly by visiting this resource.

Changing Scenes

Together Mode has new scenes for your next meeting! Look at the new choices by going to the Together mode, then select Change scene (with the pencil icon) in the bottom left corner of your meeting.

Google + Microsoft = BFFs

From video calls to digital whiteboards, stay connected seamlessly and join a Teams meeting directly from a Google Workspace calendar with the new Teams add-on. Install the Teams meeting add-on for Google Workspace here.

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