Friday 16 October 2020

Yay Teams

Pitt IT has reaffirmed that Pitt is migrating all Skype users to Microsoft Teams this Saturday.  And according to various online news sources, Microsoft has been working hard to make Teams the best WFH app for all sorts of situations.  Examples of new features on Teams:  

Endgadget reports on the upcoming “virtual commute” feature, whose goal is “to create a boundary between work and life.” It is designed to help people mark the start and end of the workday (Half of the chat volume on Teams occurred between 5 p.m. and midnight in the past six months, up 48% from the months before the pandemic). According to Endgadget, “Microsoft says this is an attempt to promote employee wellness.” 

“Teams Together” mode looks custom made for university teaching. According to Computerworld,   Instead of the BradyBunch-like gallery view that we’ve gotten used to, Together makes the group in the meeting look like they’re sitting together in a room or an auditorium.  

And Crayon has the information on how to add virtual and custom backgrounds in MS Teams. You can also blur your background on Teams (to protect your privacy or hide a mess 😊).  

Finally, there are lots of keyboard shortcuts on Teams; just open your Teams app and hit the “Control” key and the “.” key on your keyboard at the same time to pull up the list.    

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