New Teams

The new and improved Microsoft Teams platform loads much faster, giving you a more enhanced user experience. Microsoft has automatically upgraded the UCT tenant to the latest version.

This upgrade forms part of Microsoft’s ongoing mission to continually update its variety of products and services to make it user-friendly and efficient.

 

What’s new

Most of the functionality and features remain the same, so you can continue using the platform as normal. Microsoft has, however, addressed many of the issues that have been experienced globally in the Classic version, while also introducing features that customers have been asking for.

Look and feel
  • The overall colour theme is more white and grey, while the signature Teams purple is used to draw your attention to a particular action.
  • Dark mode and high contrast settings are automatically adapted, depending on your system settings.
Meetings
  • Meetings now load faster so you can join quicker.
  • The presenter view in PowerPoint Live allows you to see your presentation while still being able to monitor whether participants have raised their hands or turned on their cameras.
  • New backgrounds are available to suit your mood.
Profile
  • Manually set your status for a duration of time.
  • Create your own avatar.
Channels and chats
  • When you scroll through your posts and chats, you will no longer see empty placeholders while you wait for the content to load. All the content will be displayed making it easier and quicker to find what you’re looking for.
  • Group profile pictures can be created, and colour coded to help with navigating your long list of chats.
  • Use Ctrl + F (Windows) or Cmd + F (Mac) to search content in a chat or channel you’re in.
  • Some emojis have been enhanced to celebrate teamwork and collaboration. When two people in a chat post high five emojis, a graphic will appear of the two high fiving each other.

 

Manage multiple organisations’ profiles

In addition to your UCT profile, you can now manage your profiles for other organisations without having to switch from one account to another. Messages from your various accounts will pop-up no matter what profile you’re in.

 

Microsoft Teams town hall

When creating a new meeting from your Teams calendar, there is now an option for a town hall. Town halls has similar functionality to live events – which will retire in September 2024. It’s much easier to set up as it uses the Teams meeting experience to host large scale events internally and externally.

This one-to-many format now provides presenters and organisers with a dedicated space where they can prepare, conduct test runs, and communicate with each other before and during the event. Up to 7 presenters can also now appear onscreen along with content.

Organisers can keep track of attendee numbers, where they’re joining from, peak periods within the session, durations and more, from a dashboard. Only presenters and organisers will be able to see the attendee list. Attendees’ mics and cameras will be turned off by default.

 

Known issues

Microsoft is aware of some issues within the new Teams, which their teams are currently investigating. At UCT, we have also identified some issues that you may experience. Our technical specialists are working with Microsoft to address these issues.

Known issue
Workaround
Teams status does not always display correctly (e.g., shows Away but you’re currently active)  Manually reset your status.
Teams client crashes while connecting to a Unified Communications Centre (i.e., helpdesk or call centre).  Restart Teams.
Meetings can be transferred from a laptop to a phone, but not vice-versa.  Join the meeting on your laptop and leave the meeting that may still be active on your mobile phone.