Teams On Air Q&A Roundup: Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams Capabilities Roadmap
Published Nov 01 2017 10:57 AM 12.1K Views
Microsoft

Every two weeks, our team goes live and shares updates for Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams on a show called Teams On Air.   Last week, Ben Canning, Partner Director of Program Management for Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams and I, discussed the highly anticipated roadmap of Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams.

 

 

 

We had so many questions from our Q&A, that we couldn’t address them all, so we’ve rounded up all the questions from our live Q&A and included them below. If you want to catch up on the show, you can access our full list of on demand videos on YouTube at www.aka.ms/TeamsOnAirReplay. If you’d like to receive notifications for latest videos in the future make sure you subscribe to our playlist. Thanks for watching!   

 

 

 

Q&A

 General Questions:

Q: Will this be recorded to view by my other team members that are unable to join right now?

A: Yes! Teams On Air leverages the Skype Meeting Broadcast Technology, so you can always rewind a live episode if you join late.  Once we publish the episode, can watch it, and all previous episodes on demand at www.aka.ms/TeamsOnAirReplay

 

Q: Where can I download the Teams Roadmap?

A: you can download the PDF here https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap. Also a public roadmap is always avialalbe and most up-to-date here: https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-roadmap?filters=microsoft%20teams

 

 

Skype for Business to Teams Transition

Q: Is team going to replace SFB?

A: Eventually we will replace Skype for Business Online with Microsoft Teams. Skype for Business Server is still available, and we have in fact announced the next version of the server for release in late 2018.

 

Q: sfb-teams interop initially refers to SFB-Online not SFB On-Prem right? But SFB On-Prem-teams interop is on the roadmap right or will it have to be SFB hybrid?

A: We're researching interop for on-premises as well. When we have something to announce, you can expect it to be on the public roadmap.

 

Q: Will Skype for Business Server have the same interop capabilities as SfB online?

A: We're researching interop for on-premises as well. When we have something to announce, you can expect it to be on the public roadmap here: https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap

 

Q: Skype for business on prem, and Teams? how does that interoperability work!?

A: You can find detailed description on how the interoperability between two environments work on aka.ms/skypeandteams.

 

Q: What is the roadmap for interop with Teams and SfB on-prem? Seems the deck is only referring to SfBO.

A: We are looking into Interop with on-prem right now, no timelines yet, but stay tuned!

 

Q: Is the migration process available now? I want our users to do the hybrid approach.

A: We have a lot of content describing the process of co-existence and migration on aka.ms/skypeandteams.

Q: How about SfB with Enterprise Voice (PBX in the cloud) for customers in Europe? (I'm from Switzerland). This is essentials to move further to O365 and to Teams.

A: Customers with Calling Plans for their country will be able to explore a basic version of this option this quarter. For customers in countries that do not have Microsoft Calling Plan, we will offer an option to pair customer provided Session Border Controllers directly to Teams backend for voice integration.

 

Q: Can I use Teams to message a person who doesn't have Teams using SFBO?

A: Yes, you can use Teams to message a person who is using SfBO only.

Q: Is SfB Server 2019 a requirement for interop with Teams or can I stay on SfB Server 2015 and assume it will receive the necessary cumulative updates for interop?

A: Interop with Teams should work with the current version of Skype for Business Online -- the team is looking into on-prem support as well.

 

Q: what will happen with the s4b onpremise?

A: SfB Server 2015 will continue to be supported. We announced at Microsoft Ignite that we are a targeting the next release of SfB server for late 2018.

Q: What happens to SfB client?

A: Microsoft Teams will become your communication client for Office 365 users. for on-premises, SfB Server 2015 will continue to be supported. We announced at Microsoft Ignite that we are a targeting the next release of SfB Server for late 2018.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teams Capabilities

Q: Can outside vendors join a Team meeting? What will they have to do?

A: You can enable guest access and let the vendors join. Anonymous join is on https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap .

 

Q: Is Team cloud-based only?

A: Yes but for we are looking into possible Inter/Op scenarios.

 

Q: For a Team will you be able to generate channels and determine which users can access that channel (permissions)? Currently it seems you would have to create a new Team if you want to have a private conversation with select members of the Team within the Teams platform.

A: This is something the team is working on. Great feedback!

 

Q: Can a Microsoft Teams site have a subsite which is a regular SharePoint site?

A: There is a SharePoint site created for each team today. As we move forward, Teams will support the exposure of other SharePoint features that makes sense for collaboration.

 

Q: When are we planning to allow external users to be invited to meetings without the need for them to have an Azure AD account?

A: External users without ID (anonymous) is targeted for Q1 2018.

 

Q: Is it true that Teams has a 999 member limit, and if so, what are the plans to extend that?  

A: The limit has been extended to 2,500 as of now.  Release Notes: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Release-notes-for-Microsoft-Teams-d7092a6d-c896-424c-b362-a...

 

Q: Will Teams offer a "Call Me" option to join conference audio or switch audio sources mid call?

A: Yes. Teams supports PSTN conferencing today - dial in and dial out. Call me back support is coming soon

 

Q: how can I remove a member of a chat?

A: Thank you for the question – this is a known issue. We are researching this feature request and when we have more to share, you will be able to find details on https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap .

 

Q: Will Teams support hardware mute/call/end buttons on headsets?

A: Yes. Teams will support this. Please review https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap  – this is referred to as USB HID.

 

Q: Is there a way to tag files in teams? To more easily track them?

A: Great feedback – this feature is currently not available. The Product Group is researching and when we have more information, you will find it on https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap .

 

Q: We cannot search in OneNote tab in Teams!

A: Great feedback – this feature is currently not available. The Product Group is researching and when we have more information, you will find it on https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap .

Q: one of the speakers mentioned Exchange as integrated with Teams. I don't see Exchange as an option on the Tabs area, where I see SharePoint, Excel, Word etc. Is that not an option yet?

A: The Exchange calendar - agenda or day view is available to see on the Teams on the Meetings tab. You can also schedule meetings on your calendar and invite people to meetings using Teams using the "Schedule Meeting" button in the Teams calendar. You can also send emails to a particular channel.

 

Q: Any plans to integrate Team (or S4B for that matter) into the W10 1709 "People" feature?

A: Hi! This is something we're researching for Teams - but no timing to share at this time.

 

Q: Can you secure ethical walls between teams?

A: We are currently investigating this and will share more information in the future

 

Q: What is the meeting size max in Teams? In Skype it is 250 users... did I see this is moving to 250 in Teams?

A: The current meeting size maximum is 80, but we do plan 250. Please review https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap.

 

Q: New Admin portal isn't on Roadmap, any eta on that?

A: We are working on it, targeting end of Q2 2018

 

Q: When Sharing your Desktop through Skype/Teams, and you have High Resolution Monitors, there is a lot of Bandwidth, will Teams have a way manage/limit the Bandwidth?

A: We are working on improving all aspects of Teams including improving bandwidth consumption.

 

Q: A good feature to have in Teams would be to share screen without having to call the other person, like how we do on Skype now. We can still share screens without having to get on a call. 

A: Yes, absolutely. This is on our https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap  for the first half of 2018.

 

Q: Are there plans to increase the 4 live video streams to more? With most people having large monitors it would be great to be able to configure that individually.

A: Thank you for the feedback. Our current model supports 4 videos on stage and as any other users speak, they get promoted to the stage. Having more than 4 actively viewable on stage is not currently on our roadmap, but we appreciate your feedback and will consider it.

Q: Will Teams support showing audio/video/chat status of attendees like Skype?

A: Yes, Presence similar to SfB is on our https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap. We’ll also support interopability between Skype for Business and Teams, so presence states in either client will be able to seen.

 

Q: Not sure if this is on User Voice or being addressed, but when you start a new conversation, the cursor returns to new conversation box. If you start a new one, and hit send/enter the cursor should then move into a reply textbox to that conversation. So many people start a conversation, then type another line and start another conversation when it should just continue the existing conversation.

A: Great feedback! We are getting feedback on various aspects of starting a new conversation when people intended to continue one. We will share this feedback with the team.

 

Q: Is the Teams client similar to click to run - it updates automatically so we'll get the new features as they are released, or do we need to consider an upgrade process?

A: Updates automatically.

 

Q: Is there any support for customization in Teams?

A: Definitely - see aka.ms/successwithteams

 

Q: Is there an ETA on Teams utilization stats in the O365/Power BI dashboard?

A: Targeting end of Q2 CY2018.

 

Q: When will the Skype Broadcast feature be enabled for Teams?

A: It is on roadmap for the end of Q2 2018.

 

Q: Please add the ability to add videos to a meeting. It is great to upload PowerPoints and have app sharing but the ability to stream a video during a one to many meeting is a gap.

A: Thank you for the feedback. We are currently researching this ask.

Q: For a Team will you be able to generate channels and determine which users can access that channel (permissions)? Currently it seems you would have to create a new Team if you want to have a private conversation with select members of the Team within the Teams platform.

A: Thank you for the feedback. Private channels are a known ask and we are researching but no timing to share.

 

Q: Any plans for enhanced video features? I'm fighting an increasing presence of Zoom in my org, and some of their cooler features, such as virtual backgrounds (green screen) and filtering (softening/wrinkle removal!) tend to appeal to our younger associates.

A: We will be looking into virtual backgrounds for users in a meeting. When we have more information (such as possible timing) we will share via https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap .

 

Q: Regarding the expanded limit to 2,500 – yay! But what if we need more? Are there any plans to remove the limit?

A: Currently not on https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap , but we will share this feedback with the product group.

 

Q: How will Teams work with Macs? What will be the difference in functionality ?

A: The plan is to have User Interfaces very similar between all clients regardless of the underlying platform.

 

Q: Will there be a pop-up application like Skype's?

A: The current POR for the UI is that it will be part of Teams - and not separate.

 

Q: How will teams integrate into Skype Conferencing Systems? Will the software be able to uploaded into the interface system?

A: Skype Room Systems (SRS) V2 will have an update to support Teams, so you can join Teams meetings by tapping the join button.

 

Q: Teams client uses up a lot of memory. Only have Edge, Outlook and Teams open. Often times it means I have to close down Outlook as it starts to misbehave. I have also heard from other colleagues that Teams uses a LOT of memory. Any update on that please?

A: Hi! We've heard this feedback a lot, and are planning improvements now to reduce the memory footprint of Teams.

 

Q: Is a plan to have a better/dedicated administration interface for teams options?

A: We are working on better administration portal dedicated for Teams. Please stay tuned.

 

Q: How will dial-in work with Teams?

A: If you have Audio Conferencing  (formerly PSTN Conferencing) in O365, the Teams meetings you schedule will have the same access bridge phone #s (so if you currently use SfB, the same meeting coordinates will show up for the Teams meetings too)

 

Q: Will future Teams functionality include access to full company directory--ability to call/IM access anyone in the network ad hoc, without the need to set up a formal "team"?

A: Hi! You can search for anyone in AAD today for 1:1 and group chats and calls without needing to set up a Team. Is there a more specific scenario you have in mind?

 

Q: Is a way to allow or not members to create Team groups?

A: If you mean - block a user from creating a Team, yes in the admin portal.

 

Q: Microsoft Teams is great for our organization, the only missing factor is allowing external users without Office 365 to join a Team.

A: Thanks for the feedback! Will take this back to the team working on external access.

 

 

Q: Will there be an application available to help manage/report on a Teams calls/conversations? Is that the part of the IT Pro Call Quality Diagnostics Portal?

A: Correct - we call this Call Quality Diagnostics (CQD) and is on https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap .

 

Q: Good Afternoon, Is there a separate track or presentation for the eDiscovery capabilities and/or integration?

A: Not yet although eDiscovery in Teams will function much like feature does for Office 365. Please review the Roadmap for when features land.

 

Q: It would be great to open the Teams app in multiple windows (Like Outlook or other Office apps). Working in multiple teams at the same time, I am forced to use the web app so that I can have multiple conversations open at the same time. Is that a feature you're planning to add?

A: This is being looked at now and if we have more to share, you will find it on our https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap .

 

Q: When will guest access be available for email addresses outside of the organization?

A: Users with an Office 365 account can join from another organization today. We are working on the next version of guest access to make it easier to join. We will have more to say in Q1.

 

Q: Curious when the Call tab is expect to start appearing? I saw it on Ignite demo's etc. already, ready to make some phone calls from my Teams! Doesn't really spell that out on roadmap.

A: This is planned to roll out in the current quarter (Q4 2017) for customers who have purchased Microsoft Calling Plan for their region. Hybrid voice customers can expect availability in the middle of 2018.

 

Q: Is there channel level security?

A: Currently, Channels have the same ACL (people) as the overall Team. Private channel support is being researched for possible development.

 

Q: Any timeline on when Meet Now and Video chat will function on a docked Surface Book when the monitor is set to a docked display?

A: If your display is extended to the docked display - you can do the video chat on the docked display. Automatically switching the call/meeting to the docked display is something we will look at, but can't comment on specific timeline at this point

 

  1. Can we then talk about the SBC option as a viable solution to my management team, and colleagues? We just do not have the technical information on exactly how until next year?

A: Correct. We are targeting the release of this feature for the middle of 2018.

 

Q: When having a video call with a team, we can't add any additional team members unless we drop the entire call and start a new one. Annoying.

A: I'll pass that feedback to Support - ty!

 

Q: What is the advantage of using the desktop app vs the browser version?

A: The desktop app gives you full functionality in Teams - like calling and meeting and desktop sharing. The browser version today doesn't support calling and meetings. We will be adding calling and meeting support for Edge & Chrome by end of this year but sharing your screen will still require the desktop app. Performance is better in the desktop app due to data caching.

 

Q: Will Teams offer more granularity over permissions? The backend SharePoint site can be customized, but Member/Admin is a little limiting.

A: Yes, Teams will enable per user policy such as Meeting or Calling policy.

 

Phone System & Calling Plans

Q: Will the user Telephony in Teams be the same as it is in SfB? There are a lot of users in our organization that are recorded and cannot be enabled for Enterprise Voice.

A: We are targeting basic calling before the end of 2017. Advanced calling features we are targeting to release in the middle of 2018. Please refer to https://aka.ms/skype2teamsroadmap .

 

Q: Are we going to get any definition on hybrid voice for Teams?

A: We currently are planning to release a feature which will allow the connection of on-premises voice trunks to Microsoft Teams. We will have more information on this feature in Q1. We are targeting a initial release in Q3 CY2018.

 

Q: Calling Roadmap: This is for US only, right? Europe?

A: The roadmap is worldwide. Specific countries for Calling Plan are announced when we have the information.

 

Q: We are a Telco - so where can I go to find additional info/ detail or more in depth info re how you plan to enable you to use your existing telco voice line to activate calling services in Office 365.  Want to understand how we support our customers that wish to use Voice Complete to work in their cloud environment. Today it's cloud connector...is there a new design?

A: Correct, the design will be changed, we will not require to deploy any software between custom/provider owned SBCs and Teams backend.

 

 

 

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