Microsoft Teams dishes out a massive blow to Zoom with these new features

Microsoft Teams is upgrading its group calls experience with a bunch of new features to rival Zoom

Microsoft Teams
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Shabana Arif
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Since the pandemic and the slew of people transitioning to working from home, Zoom found popularity with individuals and businesses alike, with fun features to make group calls a bit more exciting. 

Microsoft Teams was slow to catch up, but it's been implementing changes that have made the platform the place to be, and the latest ones to roll out will make working from home a lot easier, more productive, and a dash more fun.

Microsoft shared details of the updates in its latest blog post but the biggest changes will see more customisation coming to calls. 

Meetings can be jazzed up with Together mode screens, that will transport everyone on a team call to virtual auditoriums, conference room, coffee shops, and more.      

Microsoft Teams

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Custom layouts, meanwhile, is geared towards presentations, offering a more dynamic experience by allowing you to customise how the content being presented will be show up for your audience. Rather than just screen-sharing, you can transpose your video feed over the top of a PowerPoint presentation, for example, to make for a more connected experience. 

When it comes to post-meeting breakout sessions, Microsoft has got you covered there too; breakout rooms allows call participants to splinter off into smaller groups, but presenters will still have the ability to switch between sessions, make announcements to all breakout rooms, and close them to return everyone to the main meeting when necessary.

Together mode scenes and custom layouts will be rolling out before the end of the year, while breakout rooms are set for October.

There's a ton of other changes to streamline the Teams experience, like meeting recap, and a simplified calling experience, but these features are the highlights that sees Microsoft catch up to what made Zoom such a hit.

Shabana Arif
Shabana Arif

Shabana worked at T3.com as News Editor covering tech and gaming, and has been writing about video games for almost a decade (and playing them since forever). She's had bylines at major gaming sites during her freelance career before settling down here at T3, and has podcasts, streaming, and video content under her belt to boot. Outside of work, she also plays video games and should really think about expanding her hobbies. If you have any tech or gaming tips, shoot over an email or DM her on social media.

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