Microsoft Teams available on Apple Vision Pro

Apple Vision Pro

Microsoft did it! They partnered with Apple to launch Microsoft 365, including Teams for Apple Vision Pro! This exciting development, which became available starting February 2nd, has ushered in a new era of spatial computing, offering an enriched and productive workplace environment. Microsoft Teams, along with a suite of Microsoft tools including Microsoft Copilot, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Loop, is now accessible for download from the App Store on Apple Vision Pro.

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WheelHouse IT Showcases: Microsoft Teams on Apple Vision Pro – Available Now

Dedicated to providing top-notch digital experiences, Microsoft has enhanced Teams and Microsoft 365 across various platforms, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The integration with Apple Vision Pro is a milestone, bringing specialized Teams features designed for the unique demands of spatial computing.

With Microsoft Teams now available, users can enjoy the full spectrum of Teams’ communication and collaboration tools. Additionally, meetings, chats, calls, and interactions with business processes are all elevated in this new smart workspace.

Beyond the fundamental Teams functions, the application on Apple Vision Pro utilizes the device’s advanced capabilities to enhance user experience. For instance, in Teams video calls, individuals using the application are represented by Personas – interactive digital avatars that mimic their facial and hand movements in real time, adding a novel layer to virtual meetings.

Microsoft Teams, acting as a central hub for collaboration, often requires multiple windows open simultaneously. The infinite canvas feature allows users to open, scale, and position applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint conveniently, ensuring smooth access and collaboration during Teams meetings and chats. Additionally, Teams streamlines the sharing and previewing of 3D content within chats and channels.

This software enhances the experience of connection and communication by bringing Teams chats to life with more dynamic and expressive reactions and emojis, thus adding a new level of depth to interactions.

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Microsoft Teams – Transforming Collaboration, Available Now

One of the most appreciated aspects of Teams is its flexibility across different devices, and this seamless experience continues with Apple Vision Pro. Users can effortlessly switch between devices during meetings, maintaining the flow of conversation whether transferring from desktop or mobile.

Experience the future of collaboration with Microsoft Teams on Apple Vision Pro! Elevate your workplace environment with enriched communication and productivity tools. Download now from the App Store and unlock a new era of spatial computing. Transform your collaboration experience with WheelHouse IT and Microsoft Teams – available now!

Elevating Your Virtual Meetings in 2024 with WheelHouse IT and Microsoft Teams Enhancements

Virtual Meetings. Modern Collaboration

As 2024 unfolds, WheelHouse IT, a celebrated Microsoft partner, embraces the spirit of innovation and growth. In line with our commitment to enhancing your digital experience, we are thrilled to introduce the latest enhancements in Microsoft Teams, designed to elevate your virtual meetings this year.

Join us as we explore the advancements in Teams, offering more engaging, flexible, and efficient meeting experiences, reflecting our dedication to your success in the digital realm.

Customizable Virtual Meetings View: A New Standard in Virtual Interactions

The essence of virtual meetings lies in their ability to connect us seamlessly, regardless of location. Teams is revolutionizing this experience with customizable meeting views. The updated gallery view ensures equal visibility for all participants, with a consistent 16:9 tile ratio for both video-on and video-off modes, making every meeting more inclusive and engaging.

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Enhanced Participant Prioritization for Effective Communication

Teams is now smarter with AI-driven enhancements. When a participant raises their hand or becomes the active speaker, their visibility is prioritized, ensuring no valuable input is missed. For Teams Room sessions, the video automatically enlarges, bridging the gap between remote and in-person participants. Resulting in a clearer and more connected experience.

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Tailor Your Virtual Meetings View for Optimal Engagement

Diversity in meeting styles calls for flexible viewing options. With Teams, you can now adjust the number of visible participants, ranging from 4 to 49, based on your meeting’s nature and requirements. Additionally, if you find your own video distracting, Teams offers the option to hide it from your view, while still remaining visible to others.

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Prioritize Video Tiles and Customize Backgrounds

Teams understands the importance of visual connection. You can now prioritize video tiles for participants with their cameras on, fostering a more engaging and personal meeting atmosphere. Additionally, the new gallery view updates, available in Public Preview this month, provide options to change your background directly from the camera flyout, along with access to avatars and brightness adjustments.

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Light Theme: A Fresh Perspective on Teams Interface

Introducing the Light Theme for Teams, an alternative to the default Dark Mode. This customizable option allows you to refresh your Teams interface with a brighter, more vibrant appearance, enhancing your overall user experience.

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Streamlined Virtual Meetings Joining Process: Efficiency at Its Best

With our ever-busy schedules, efficiency is key. The new meeting join process in Teams is designed to be quick and straightforward, allowing you to dive into discussions without delay. The invite design is cleaner and more organized, with a shorter, clearer meeting URL. Thus making sharing and joining meetings a breeze.

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Seamless Cross-Account Meeting Joining

In our interconnected world, the ability to join meetings across different Microsoft accounts seamlessly is a game-changer. Whether you’re using Teams for work or personal use, the updated Teams allows for effortless cross-account meeting participation, eliminating the need for browser-based joining.

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Enhanced Audio and Video Controls for Focused Conversations

Teams is simplifying in-meeting audio and video controls. With easy-to-access flyouts, selecting your camera or microphone, adjusting volume, spatial audio, and noise suppression is now more intuitive. Therefore lets you focus on the conversation, not the controls.

Virtual Meetings

Together Mode: A New Layout for Shared Experiences

Emphasizing the human connection in virtual meetings, Together Mode in Teams is now better with a new content-sharing layout. This innovative feature places video participants in a shared background at the bottom of the screen, mimicking a front-row experience and enhancing the sense of togetherness, especially during content presentations.

Virtual Meetings

At WheelHouse IT, we are excited to bring these Microsoft Teams enhancements to you, reinforcing our commitment to providing top-tier digital solutions. Embrace these new features and transform your virtual meeting experiences in 2024.

Get Botox Without the Injections! Elevating Video Call Appearance with Microsoft Teams

get botox without the injections elevating video call appearance with microsoft teams

High-definition cameras in video calls can be a double-edged sword. While they capture every detail, sometimes they can be a bit too revealing, especially during professional meetings. Microsoft Teams has introduced two new features to address this: Adjust Brightness and Soft Focus. Let’s explore how these settings can enhance your appearance in a video call.

Navigating to New Features in Teams Video Call

You can find these new features in your Device settings. Simply scroll to the bottom, and you’ll see options for Adjust Brightness and Soft Focus. Here’s a quick guide on how each setting can transform your video call experience:

  1. Adjust Brightness: Initially, with this setting turned off, your video feed might look standard, potentially shadowy in low-light conditions. However, once you activate the Adjust Brightness feature, you’ll notice a significant improvement. This setting subtly enhances the lighting on your face, particularly useful in darker environments. The effect is a more balanced and brighter appearance, as shown in our demonstration images.thumbnail image 1 of blog post titled What’s New in Microsoft Teams | May 2022
  2. Soft Focus: The Soft Focus feature is especially handy for softening facial details. When turned on and set to maximum, this feature gently blurs facial imperfections and lines. The result isn’t overly dramatic but provides a subtle enhancement, smoothing out areas like under-eye bags or minor wrinkles. This comparison with the previous image illustrates the softening effect of the Soft Focus feature.

A Balance of Clarity and Comfort

These settings in Microsoft Teams strike a balance between high-definition clarity and the comfort of not having every facial detail in the spotlight. Whether you’re in a dimly lit room or just want a more forgiving video appearance, these features can be easily adjusted to suit your needs.

At WheelHouse IT, we believe in leveraging technology to not only enhance productivity but also to boost confidence and professionalism in a virtual environment. Stay tuned to our blog for more insights and tips on making the most out of Microsoft Teams and other technology solutions.

Introducing Microsoft Video Filters in Teams Meetings

a group of people are shown on the screen

We’re thrilled to announce that Microsoft has generally released video filters in Teams! Microsoft understands that you want to be fully engaged in meetings but may not always have the time to get camera-ready. That’s why they’re now offering AI-powered capabilities that allow you to soften your appearance and add backgrounds in Microsoft Teams. And now, with the introduction of video filters, you can remove unwanted distractions and express your unique personality in each meeting.

video filters

Video filters in Teams Meetings allow participants to enhance their video stream with a range of visual effects, from animated frames to changing the video’s hue. You can even apply these filters before joining a meeting from the lobby. These filters are provided as apps that can be added to your meeting experience via the Teams Platform infrastructure. Microsoft is launching the filters with a first-party app called Custom Filters, but more apps will be available soon.

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Microsoft continues to be a privacy-first company. They assure you that your privacy and compliance are top of mind. Tenant admins can enable or disable the availability of video filter apps, but these apps are enabled by default. The admin cannot pre-install these apps as they require explicit user consent. Before using the filters, you must provide explicit consent to the app to access your video feed. You can turn off the video filters in Teams by uninstalling the filter app.

in meeting screen

Please note that initially, these filters are only available from a desktop and are not available in EDU tenants. We’re excited to see how video filters can enhance your Teams Meetings experience!

Closed Captions in PowerPoint Live for Microsoft Teams Meetings

a group of people that are looking at the camera

Microsoft is excited to introduce a new feature in Microsoft Teams meetings called Closed Captions in PowerPoint Live. This feature aims to enhance accessibility for those who are Deaf or hard of hearing, have difficulty processing auditory information, have a language barrier, or are simply joining the meeting from a loud environment. Closed Captions will help these individuals better understand the auditory content shared in Teams meetings.

closed captions in PowerPoint Live

With Closed Captions, meeting attendees now have the option to turn on closed captions for any video that includes a closed captions file. PowerPoint users looking to create accessible presentations can easily add closed captions to any embedded PowerPoint video directly from within PowerPoint for Windows and macOS.

Here’s how to add closed captions:

  1. Select the video and select Insert Captions from the Playback Ribbon
  2. In the Insert Captions dialog box, select the WebVTT file or files that should be included
  3. Select Insert

insert closed captions in powerpoint

When the PowerPoint presentation is shared using PowerPoint Live in a Microsoft Teams meeting, the closed captions option will be available for viewers to turn on. To turn on closed captions, attendees can click the closed captions button on the video player in PowerPoint Live. Then, select their preferred language from the dropdown menu. Once turned on, the video closed captions will appear at the bottom of the slide for only the individual attendee. Thus, empowering each attendee to choose the closed captions setting that’s best for them. Additionally, without distracting other attendees, who may prefer to have closed captions turned off.

enable closed captions

Closed captions make PowerPoint Live presentations more accessible and benefit everyone who watches videos. Especially those in their non-native language, people learning to read, and individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. We encourage everyone to learn how to make PowerPoint presentations more accessible with closed captions!

closed captions unavailable

It’s important to note that when no closed captions are available for a video, the closed captions button will be unavailable for participants to select. Microsoft is committed to making its products accessible to everyone. They will also continue introducing new features that promote inclusivity and accessibility in their products.