Microsoft Teams Latest Features: February 2022

Meeting Recording Updates

Easy to share – Now auto-saved to OneDrive and SharePoint
Multi-speed playback – Now you can watch recordings at slower and faster speeds (0.5x up to 2x)
High-quality transcripts – Transcripts now have speaker attribution for meetings that have Teams Live Transcription turned on
Indexed recordings – Recorded meetings are indexed into easier-to-consume segments based on slide transitions
Auto-recording – Meeting owners can set meetings to automatically start recording
Auto-expiration – Coming soon, admins will be able to set a default number of days after which newly created Teams meeting recordings will be sent to the recycle bin.

Operator Connect Conferencing

Operator Connect Conferencing is now generally available, allowing tenant admins to add participating operator dial-in numbers to a Teams audio conferencing bridge. You can keep your existing contract with any of the participating operators or select from a list of partners within the Operators tab in the Teams admin center.

Image descriptions in Teams Chat

Make your Teams messages more accessible to people with disabilities by adding alternative text to images.

You now can add descriptions to images in Teams chat messages by right-clicking on the image and selecting “Add alt text.”

This enables people who use screen readers to understand the full content of your message, even if they can’t see the image.

Meeting Room Capacity Notifications

Teams Rooms can now notify in-room meeting participants if the room is over capacity.

IT admins can define meeting room capacity for each Teams Room account and, using data from meeting room cameras that support people-counting, identify how many people are in a room.

A banner will automatically appear at the top of the front of room screen to alert participants if the room is over capacity.

Split Video Layout across multiple screens

Maximize screen real estate in a Teams Room with the ability to split the video gallery across all available displays when content isn’t being shared. Better utilizing the additional space can help focus attention on people joining remotely for a more inclusive and engaging meeting.

Hot Desking on Teams Display

Hot desking on Microsoft Teams display allows employees to quickly locate and reserve flexible workspaces to touch down, make calls, set up ad-hoc meetings, or sign in to access their personalized Teams experience.

With hot desking, employees can reserve a workspace in advance through Teams and Microsoft Outlook, or right from their device if they’re already in the office

Breakout Room Updates

Meeting organizers can extend the management of breakout rooms to presenters.

Appointed presenters will be able to perform breakout room operations as managers or meeting organizers and join rooms as a breakout room manager.

Switch Cameras

During meetings in Teams Rooms with more than one video camera attached in the space, people in the room can switch between cameras—by choosing from the list of available cameras.

If the device does not have multiple USB cameras set up with Teams Rooms devices in the conference rooms, there will be no difference in experience.

Transcription for 1:1 Calls

Transcription of one-to-one calls on Teams is now available. This can be enabled via the control bar within the Call window.

Front Row Layout

With front row, remote attendees are seen in the room at eye level and additional meeting experiences including chat, and a rostered view of participants with raised hands, are brought to the front of room screen.

Front row (preview) will be available in the layout chooser experience on the Teams Rooms console. It can also be set as the default layout or turned off altogether by device admins.