Microsoft Teams Brings New Feature That Will Reduce Distractions

Millions of users (especially those who work remotely) have benefited immensely from using Microsoft Teams due to its numerous advantages. While the numbers of active users keep rising Microsoft is also paying attention to regularly updating the collaboration platform with new meeting features. In the next update, Microsoft is making planning to reduce the distraction by removing your face from the screen.

Microsoft has realized that users may find it a bit odd when theirs faces appearing while speaking which may translate as distractions. If you are one of those who are looking to hide your own video in a Teams meeting or want to make adjustments so that it doesn’t cover your presentation or documents, here is good news for you – Microsoft is allegedly considering a toggle that will give users the ability to turn off the feature entirely.

In a post to the Feedback portal, users have complained that Teams’ Self View is static and appears in the bottom right-hand corner always. One user noted that this practice is “often distracting”, the users added that the Self View usually also gets in the way of the screen share when in a Teams meeting. In a response to the post by Microsoft officials, it was confirmed the team is currently seeking new ways to turn off the video mirror in other to reduce these said distractions. A similar update was made earlier in the year on the popular video conferencing platform- Zoom. The video conferencing platform expanded its functionalities by rolling out a new Focus mode. The Zoom Focus mode was designed primarily to keep users especially students from getting distracted while online. When this feature is activated, the feature makes it impossible for each participant to see each other’s videos or screen shares, while only the host is able to see everyone’s webcams.

The new for Teams is feature is expected to land in a few weeks. It is unclear if that is going to be either in December 2021 or January 2022. However, plans may change, given that the holiday season is around the corner and as a result delays surprises.

Currently, when you use Microsoft Teams the user’s video appears at the bottom right corner of the screen. This new feature will now give users the ability to hide their own video during a meeting. As earlier mentioned this will go a long way to help reduce distractions during the call while still having your video available for other participants.

Asides from the ability to reduce distraction which Microsoft is planning to empower users with, the company is also planning to enable a new feature that will allow users to grant permissions to each third-party app using Microsoft Teams web. What this means is that users will be able to manually approve camera, microphone, or location access from third-party apps using Teams.

This same set of permission protocols is already available on Teams desktop and mobile clients, and Microsoft is bringing the same set of permissions to the web version. Microsoft Teams will be getting support for a new security feature come February 2022. Microsoft is simultaneously making arrangements for support for multi-camera when using the Teams Rooms devices. However, this offer will be to only select Microsoft Teams Rooms devices on Windows, such as the Surface Hub. Finally, Microsoft is also rollout of new 3D and 2D fluent emoji for both Teams and Windows 11.

Microsoft Teams have witnessed numerous tweaks and update within 2021 alone, this is a big sign that Microsoft truly cares about her users on Teams, needless to say, other Microsoft products that brings ease to digital life.