Microsoft has been busy providing new features and enhancements to Teams in the last few weeks.  Here are some of the new features you might not have seen yet: 

Raise Hand During Meeting

Meeting with a big group?  Instead of having people talk over each other, you can ask people to raise their hand!  The “Raise Hand” button will put an icon next to your name, letting the organizer and others know you’ve got something to say.  Give it a try next time your big group won’t let you get a word in!

9 People Shown At Once In Meeting

No more being limited to seeing 4 people at once – Teams will show up to 9 people during video chat!  They’ll still cycle through based on who’s speaking, but now you can see more of your audience at once.

Custom Backgrounds During MeetingMuch like background blur will automatically detect your surroundings and soften them out in a video, you can now replace your background entirely (much like Zoom).   Either before your meeting starts or in the middle, tap the button for background effects and pick a background.  Now your drab background can be slightly less drab!  You can see an animation on how to turn this on in the Microsoft announcement.  (On an iPhone?  While you don’t get custom backgrounds, you now have the ability to turn on background blur when you’re on video)

Pop Out Chat

Want to have a few chat windows open at once?  Hover over someone in your left-hand “Recent Chat” list and click the new “Pop out chat” button!  With this new feature, you can jump between your regular chats more easily than before