Although the picture quality dipped in and out at times, at no point was it so bad that it affected our ability to have a successful call. On the whole, we didn’t experience any serious issues with the audio or video quality on our Microsoft Teams call. ( Meeting policies are applied to meeting organizers and to users, rather than controlled on a meeting-by-meeting basis.) Audio and video quality According to Microsoft’s support documentation, this is as intended: when an organization has an Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3 or E5 license and when approved by IT admins, internal users have start/stop recording permissions. One permissions quirk we found odd was that the other meeting participants could start and stop the meeting recording, with no way for the host to stop this from happening during the meeting. And like Google Meet, Teams provides an impressive live closed-captioning feature that my colleagues could turn on and off as they liked they all praised it highly for its accuracy. However, closed captioning is still not available to users dialing in via a browser. Participants are notified when the meeting is being recorded, and the recording is saved to OneDrive or SharePoint, depending on the type of meeting. Another new feature Microsoft has added to Teams is the option to form breakout rooms, which worked seamlessly on our trial call.Ī “More actions” button allows access to extras such as taking meeting notes and using a background image or the background blur effect. ![]() You can also browse to a file or open up an interactive whiteboard. The screen-sharing feature lets you share your whole desktop, a specific app window, or a PowerPoint presentation. Similar to the other apps we tested, Teams provides a toolbar along the bottom of the screen for actions like turning the microphone and camera on and off, sharing your screen, and accessing the chat pane and participants list. Together Mode offers an informal view of Teams meeting participants, but it didn’t always work in our tests. Custom backgrounds are also available, and participants can choose to upload their own backgrounds or pick from a selection of stock images provided by Microsoft. I found out after the call that each participant individually has to enable Together Mode in order for it to work. Despite being notified that this would change the view for all users, however, no one else could see the participants in that view. As the host for our test call, I tried out several Together Mode layouts. Users can now see up to 49 participants on a single screen and have the option to toggle through different viewing modes - including the informal Together Mode that groups participants as if they’re sitting together in an auditorium, coffee shop, or other settings. Since our original review was published, Microsoft Teams has undergone a lot of changes, all of which have significantly improved the in-meeting experience. My biggest annoyance stemmed from being able to see only four participants on screen at a time - or one at a time if using the browser instead of the app. Last year, I wasn’t overly impressed by my Microsoft Teams meeting experience. I’ve found this useful on several occasions in the past where meeting invites have gone awry. It’s also worth noting that for users of the Teams app, a notification appears in the right-hand corner of your screen letting you know when a meeting has started. I have the Teams plug-in in Outlook, which means all I have to do is click New Teams Meeting, fill out all the necessary information, and hey presto, the meeting is scheduled. Since undertaking last year’s review, my office has moved from Google Workspace to Office 365, making the process of scheduling a Microsoft Teams meeting through Outlook exceedingly simple. (See small business and enterprise plans and pricing details.) User experience ![]() ![]() Some M365/O365 plans offer a 30-day free trial. Microsoft 365 enterprise plans: start at $32/user/monthĪll Microsoft 365/Office 365 plans allow up to 300 participants per Teams call or up to 10,000 attendees for a live-stream event. Office 365 enterprise plans: start at $8/user/month Microsoft 365 Business Premium: $20/user/month ![]() Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50/user/month Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $5/user/month Teams only: free up to 100 participants per call 60-minute call limit Launched in 2017, Teams has now largely replaced Skype for Business as the communications hub for its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites, although legacy customers may still use Skype for Business. Unlike the other platforms in this roundup, Microsoft Teams is meant to be an always-on collaboration tool that centers around group messaging and shared workspaces, with video meetings as an added component.
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