What’s New in Microsoft Teams in 2023?

Microsoft Teams is constantly evolving, with new features & updates being released on a regular basis.

Teams is now focused on making it faster, simpler, more flexible, and more streamlined.

The app’s new, more straightforward user interface will make finding the tools and features easier and help you stay focused on your work.

Here is an overview of some of the latest and most notable changes.

Also Read: Slack VS Teams

12 Latest Features in Microsoft Teams

Amongst all the new features added to Microsoft Teams in 2023, here are the top 11  features discussed in detail.

1) Default Meeting Layout

Microsoft Teams has rolled out a plethora of new features for the IT admins for the meeting layouts.

Now, they can choose between Content Only and Content + Gallery when sharing content.

For the Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard, Pro service, and premium customers, they have the Front row as the default layout.

2) Spatial Audio  

This new feature uses 3D audio to create an upgraded meeting experience.

Spatial Audio in meetings will give an immersive experience while using the built-in stereo speakers or wired stereo handset.

When enabled, the voices of meeting participants will be heard as if they are coming from different locations in the meeting room.

This can be helpful for making meetings feel more natural and engaging and for helping people to understand better who is speaking.

You can turn on Spatial Audio in 3 following ways:

• Before joining a meeting

To do that, select built-in stereo speakers or wired stereo headsets from the pre-join screen of the meeting. Open the Device Settings and head to Speakers. Then, enable the Spatial Audio.

• During a meeting

To turn on Spatial Audio during a meeting, go to More > Settings.

Then, head to Device Settings. Choose built-in stereo speakers or wired stereo headsets under the Speakers section and turn on the toggle for Spatial Audio.

• Anytime

Teams allow you to turn on the Spatial Audio feature anytime. Here is how to do so:

Open Settings and More> Settings > Devices. Next, turn on the toggle for Spatial audio.

3) Animated Backgrounds

This new feature allows you to add animated backgrounds to your Teams meetings.

This can make your meetings more visually exciting and engaging.

There are a variety of animated backgrounds to choose from, including nature scenes, cityscapes, and abstract patterns.

• Before the meeting, select Effects and Avatars. You can choose an Avatar from the existing ones or create an absolutely new Avatar for yourself.
• Then, you can select Video Effects and a background with a video icon at the corner of the preview image.

4) Improved Meeting Navigation

The meeting navigation experience has been improved in Teams.

This makes it easier to find and join meetings and to switch between different views during a meeting.

The meeting controls have also been updated, making it easier to manage your meetings.

Teams have redesigned the phone dial pad for fewer dialing mistakes. You will get a dial pad-only view when in the Landscape mode now.

5) Together Mode

A new Together Mode experience is now added to Microsoft Teams for an easy-to-understand and more inclusive meeting experience.

You can now raise your hands and see reactions and name labels.

To be able to use the Together mode feature, the users should be a member of the Teams Public Preview and use a MacOS or Windows Teams client.

When you activate the Together mode, you can:

• See how many participants have raised their hands and their reactions within the view.
• The name labels support status icons like the meeting’s active speaker, microphone, pin, or spotlight.
• But your video gallery will be removed to avoid duplicity if you self-preview.

How to Use Together Mode in a Meeting?

Follow the steps below to use Together Mode in a meeting in Teams:

• Join or conduct a Teams meeting.
• Go to the View tab and select Together.

New meeting controls

New meeting controls are available in Teams, including a dedicated button for raising hands and a button for switching between view modes.

The raise hand button makes it easy for participants to indicate that they want to speak, and the view mode button makes it easy to switch between different views of the meeting, such as the gallery view and the speaker view.

6) New Caption Settings 

The latest Caption settings in Teams meetings allow easier navigation and a better discovery.

Now, you can customize the font’s color and size and change the caption window’s height and position for reviewing the captions of what is said for up to a minute.

How do you enable and disable captions?

• To turn on Captions in a meeting, select More > language and speech.
• Then, Turn on live captions.

To disable the live captions, select More > Language and speech > Turn off live captions.

Change the language of the captions

• To change the language of the captions, select Settings > Language and Speech. Then select Spoken Language.
• Now, from the list of languages, select the spoken language of the meeting.
• You will select the language for the captions and meeting transcript.

Live captions

Teams now support live captions in meetings. This can be helpful for users who are hard of hearing or in a noisy environment.

The live captions are generated in real-time, displayed on the screen, or sent to a transcript file.

Here is how to use the live captions in a meeting:

• Open Settings next to meeting captions.
• Select the Caption language > select the language to which you want the captions translated.

Customize the Captions

• To customize the captions, follow these steps:
• Go to Caption Settings.

• Select from the Language and Style options.

You can also change the height positions and font size of the captions.

7) Chat Details in Compact Mode

Now, Microsoft Teams allows you to scan the important chat details at a glance in Compact Mode.

The Compact mode hides the message previews from the chat list and shows more conversations.

Line breaks separate messages sent to you from the same sender for a more condensed appearance.

Here is how to use the Compact Chat Modes in Teams:

• Go to Settings and more options> Settings.
• Select Appearance & Accessibility.
• Set the Chat Density to Compact.

8) Hover the Menu in the Chat

Now you can edit and reply to the chats using the hover menu.

To do that, hover over a message and select the Reply option. You can react as well as write replies to the chats.

To edit the chat you sent, hover over a message and click the Edit button. Now, you can make changes to the message you have sent.

9) Microsoft Teams Webinars

Microsoft Teams has introduced a tool to schedule webinars, manage attendee registration, organize an interactive presentation, and analyze the attendee data for follow-up.

The registration link lets attendees join a webinar from up to 3 different devices.

Microsoft Teams webinars contain tools for scheduling webinar events, running interactive presentations, managing attendee registrations, analyzing the data, etc.

10) Mark All Read in the Activity Feed

If you cannot check the activity feed and multiple notifications from the chats, meetings, or channels, it can be quite overwhelming to clear each one.

To simplify the task, Microsoft Teams has introduced a Mark all as read feature.

You can select it from the ellipsis (…), the three dots menu in the feed, or the Activity panel. This will instantly clear all the notifications.

11) Set Status Message

Now, you can select your work location and set a status message in Teams.

To do that, click on your profile icon and select Set status message.

Type the message you want. You can also select an option to clear the status message after that time.

12) Microsoft Teams For Education

Microsoft Teams has taken a step ahead for the students.

Teams now support grading periods for classes and divide the assignment grading into periods or semesters.

• Grading Schemes

Teams have revamped the grading experience, showing the average grades to students with weighted grading categories.

These features streamline the Grades experience in Microsoft Teams for more accuracy for the students and educators.

In Grading categories, the average grades are calculated by multiplying the category’s weight by the average score in each category.

• Announcements

The new announcement feature in Microsoft Teams allows teachers to make an announcement and post it for their students.

Once the teacher composes an announcement, it will be broadcast to the entire class as a 1-1 thread created for each student.

Wrapping Up

Hope Microsoft Teams wilbring some exciting new features in the coming months.

Stay tuned with s to remain updated about the new features and enhancements.