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Hello it's Matt and welcome to Collaboration Coach.
In this video we're going to have a first look at the new meeting experience in Microsoft Teams.
This new update is going to allow us to meet in separate windows
and it's going to move the toolbar out of the way
and enable other features like Together and Gallery mode.
I'll show you how to turn it on, what the benefits are,
and we'll see if Microsoft has finally caught up with Zoom or not.
Before we get started, if you like the video then please subscribe to the channel
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First let's talk about who can use this update.
It's going to be available for Windows and Mac apps only
and it's like a public preview just so people can try it out if they want to
so you won't be forced to use it if you don't want to.
It will be made available initially only for targeted users and not everyone,
so only if you're a targeted user will you see this update.
It will be gradually rolled out to everyone else over the next few months.
Also it's not available for the Linux app or the browser version of Teams
but it will be eventually.
And it's not available for the Teams live events or Teams free,
but Microsoft say it will be eventually.
So how do you turn this update on?
The first thing you should do is check Teams for new updates just in case the update hasn't arrived yet.
To do that in Teams, go to the picture in the top right hand corner of the app,
drop the menu down and choose "check for updates".
You should see a grey bar along the top letting you know that it is checking for updates
and once that's done - which can sometimes take a few minutes -
it will say something like "you've got the latest updates, enjoy".
And it sometimes has a refresh link and that will restart the Teams app.
To turn on the new meeting experience update you need to go back into the settings again
and this time choose "settings".
If the update has arrived you should see a new option on this page
with a checkbox labeled "turn on the new meeting experience".
You should check this box and then restart Teams.
You can restart by right-clicking the Teams icon in the windows taskbar
or on the Mac dock, and choose "quit".
Microsoft says that you might also see a notification that announces the new experience
and asks you whether you want to turn it on or not.
You can choose to turn it on now or choose "maybe later".
I didn't see this myself so if you do let us know in the comments whether it worked for you or not.
Once you've turned it on, the best way to test it is to start a meeting.
I'm going to choose "meet now" from the calendar app
but you could do this from a chat or a scheduled meeting.
The first thing you notice is that the meeting is in a new window.
It's completely separate from the Teams app which is the main feature of this update.
So now it looks a lot more like Zoom
and because the meeting is in another window you can dock it to the left and right
and you can maximise and minimise it.
When you minimise you just see this rectangle in the bottom right
and you can move that around if it's in your way
and you can just click it once to get back into the meeting
so if you need to, you can now work in Teams freely while the meeting's running in a separate window.
So this looks really good to me, but what do you think?
Let us know in the comments.
The next thing you can see is that the toolbar has moved from the center of the stage up to the top,
so all the controls are now docked at the top in Teams
and don't get in the way of the meeting.
So on the toolbar as expected, you have the people and the chat window buttons
and they still appear on the right-hand side so nothing much has changed there
and then you have the "raise your hand" feature
and then you have the video, audio and sharing buttons
and then the "leave" button has changed slightly
so you can choose to either leave the meeting,
or if you're the organiser you can end it, which means everyone has to leave.
The sharing feature is basically the same.
You hit the "share" button and then you choose what you want to share.
When a presenter is sharing slides, attendees can use the buttons at the top...
...to move backwards and forwards through the deck.
And also there's a new-look "take control" button next to them.
You can also use the new "focus" feature when someone is sharing.
if you go to the ellipsis and choose "Focus",
Focus removes all the video streams from the meeting stage so you can just see whatever is being shared.
You can maximise the meeting window but there's no fullscreen option yet -
- Microsoft say that they're working on that.
Meeting notes are now written in the Teams app itself rather than in the meeting window,
so if you go to the ellipsis and choose "show meeting notes", and then choose "take notes",
it takes you back to the Teams app and you can make the notes there
and the meeting carries on in the separate window.
Finally, this update will introduce the "Large Gallery" and "Together" modes.
Large Gallery mode will allow you to see up to 49 videos on the stage
and is available when 10 or more people are sharing video
and Together mode will be available when five or more people are sharing video.
These two may not be available straight away. They weren't in my tenant.
So keep checking back over the next few weeks if you don't see them yet .
So to summarise, the new meeting experience update introduces all meetings in separate windows.
It moves and docks the toolbar to the top of the meeting window.
It adds the Gallery and Together mode although maybe not straight away
and it adds the Focus mode to remove all the video when people are sharing.
So that's your update on the new meeting experience.
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Thank you so much for watching and see you next time.
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