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Microsoft Teams Blog
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Introducing Microsoft Teams displays

Microsoft_Teams_team's avatar
Microsoft_Teams_team
Silver Contributor
Jul 08, 2020

As many people around the world are working remotely, we are seeing an increased need to streamline the work experience and help prioritize what is important. Following our recent blog on Teams product news, we are excited to announce our newest device innovation, Microsoft Teams displays, a category of all-in-one dedicated Teams devices featuring an ambient touchscreen, and a hands-free experience powered by Cortana.

 

We brought Microsoft Teams phones to market about 3 years ago and have seen an accelerated expansion of devices, presenting a wide selection of devices for customers to choose from. Today, we are reimagining the personal workspace with Microsoft Teams displays by integrating the Teams collaboration and communication experience into your home and workplace with high fidelity audio and video.

 

1. All-in-one dedicated Teams devices
Microsoft Teams displays bring together your favorite Teams features: chat, meetings, calls, calendar, and files into a single device, promoting human connection in the remote workplace. With Teams displays, you can enjoy a high-quality microphone, camera, and speakers (or Bluetooth headset) for a reliable calling and meeting experience.

Dedicated Teams devices like Bluetooth headsets (left) and displays (center) create a more reliable calling and meeting experience.

 

2. Glanceable ambient personalizable displays
Microsoft Teams displays help you stay on top of your busy work with always-on displays highlighting important activities and notifications and removing distractions from your primary work device. Also, you can personalize your Microsoft Teams displays by changing your wallpaper and additional personalization options will become available.

Microsoft Teams displays can be personalized to include wallpapers and highlight important activities and notifications.

 

3. Hands-free voice assistance with Cortana
Microsoft Teams displays allow you to speak in natural language to effortlessly join and present in meetings, dictate replies to a Teams chat, and more. You can make requests to Cortana like "What is on my calendar today?", "Share this document with Megan", "Join my next meeting", “Add Joe to this meeting", "Present the quarterly review deck".

 

4. Better together with your PC
Microsoft Teams displays seamlessly integrate with your PC to bring a companion experience that allows for seamless cross-device interaction. You can easily lock and unlock both devices from your connected PC, open files or messages then easily transition to your PC, and join meetings from either device with a distributed meeting experience across both devices.

Using Microsoft Teams displays allows for a distributed meeting experience across devices.

 

5. Enterprise privacy, security, and compliance
Microsoft Teams displays ensure user's privacy and meets enterprise-grade security and compliance in several ways:

  • With a camera shutter and microphone mute switch, users can feel assured that your conversations and video will remain private.
  • IT admins can securely manage, update, and monitor Microsoft Teams displays through the Teams admin portal.
  • Users will securely sign in with their enterprise Azure Active Directory credentials.
  • Voice assistance experiences are delivered using Cortana enterprise-grade services that meet Microsoft 365 privacy, security and compliance commitments.

 

With Cortana built-in, the Lenovo ThinkSmart View will be the first Microsoft Teams display to market, with Yealink also delivering one of the first devices in this category. Microsoft Teams displays with Cortana will be available in the U.S. later this year, with plans to expand Cortana to other markets in the future.

The first Microsoft Teams displays are from Lenovo (left) and Yealink (right).

 

To learn more about portfolio of devices certified for Teams, visit office.com/teamsdevices

From now until 7/31/2020, use code “TeamsDevices20” to receive a discount on a variety of products at checkout.

 

 

Updated Jan 26, 2021
Version 12.0

58 Comments

  • JohnW_AU John Meredith Teams Displays are an evolution of devices many people already have, which is IP Desk phones, and esp. video phones. FYI there are > 23M IP desk phones sold annually WW, and that number is growing.  Many people like having a dedicated, purpose built, always on and always connected device available to quickly make calls and join meetings.  While we think there is a great use case for simpler desk phones, and we have our Teams Phones experience for that, we also believe that there is a great opportunity to evolve video phones to be broader companion devices, delivering more of the value of Microsoft 365 in addition to calling and meetings.  That is what the Teams Displays experience will do, again on always on, always connected, purpose built devices. Relative to video phones, which can cost $500-800, the Lenovo ThinkSmart View is very attractively priced at $350.  Also, an $89 tablet would not work well, as it would have very poor audio and video performance, and not nearly enough CPU / GPU to provide advanced capabilities in Teams, such as background blur. 

  • shawn harry's avatar
    shawn harry
    Iron Contributor

    Really looking forward to seeing the Yealink Display. A dedicated piece of hardware as a digital PA definitely has use case for me personally with the new work from home paradigm. 

  • pieterodb's avatar
    pieterodb
    Brass Contributor

    I hope Microsoft will be making iOS/Android apps out of these as you would be able to use any smartphone/tablet as a personal Teams Display device. I don't see the added value in buying a dedicated device as most of us already have devices that in theory could render these apps.

  • JohnW_AU's avatar
    JohnW_AU
    Copper Contributor

    Agree John Meredith and even better (for me at least), I have a device, my iPad, just give me an app I can use that does the same thing...

  • John Meredith's avatar
    John Meredith
    Copper Contributor

    Hilariously overpriced hardware for absolutely no good reason. Why fail to sell a $350 tiny screen unit when a simple $89 tablet can do the exact same thing and let you dominate the space?

  • Nathan Chapman's avatar
    Nathan Chapman
    Copper Contributor

    wroot - I think you've missed the point. It's not just a video phone. While it's a bit of a mouthful, consider the description "Glanceable ambient personalizable display." The use case for this category of device is probably stronger for when you are not in a Teams meeting. Think about how often you need to switch apps or pull out your phone to check what's coming up in your calendar, or to see where you've been @ mentioned. You can also use it for Teams Meetings and calls in combination with your PC and large displays so you can still have 24" content display or gallery view if you want. 

  • Deezu's avatar
    Deezu
    Copper Contributor

    Because Zoom and RingCentral make similar devices, so that's one reason. Or you may not have a camera on your desktop, OR you have a laptop that stays closed when at the office and you don't want to open it up, shifting your windows around, just for the meeting. I can think of plenty of reasons I'd prefer to have a dedicated Teams device versus using a large monitor. 

  • wroot's avatar
    wroot
    Silver Contributor

    Why would i want to squint at such a small display and even have a meeting on it? I would rather put some 24+ monitor besides my laptop and hook it to a laptop or have a dock than have that limited device dedicated just to Teams. Overglorifying what Teams is.