New capabilities on Microsoft Teams phones l June 2020
Published Jun 30 2020 08:01 AM 39.5K Views

This month, we are excited to release new features and capabilities on Microsoft Teams phones including the People app and raise hands feature to improve parity with your Teams desktop experience.


1. People App for Microsoft Teams phones

The People app on Teams phones allows you to easily connect and collaborate with teammates, colleagues, friends, and family. Through the app, you can organize your contacts by creating and managing contact groups.

People (left) and create contact or contact group (right)People (left) and create contact or contact group (right)

 

Add from directory (left) and Add to contact group (right)Add from directory (left) and Add to contact group (right)

 

All contact groups (left) and Edit contact groups (right)All contact groups (left) and Edit contact groups (right)

 

 

2. Live Captions
Microsoft Teams phones will now present real time captions in meetings and group calls. More information is available here.

Note: Live captions are a preview feature in Microsoft Teams, and only available in English (US) for now.

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3. Raise Hand
During a meeting, you can raise a virtual hand from your Teams phone to let people know you want to contribute without interrupting the conversation. More information is available here.

5.png

 

 

4. Transfer to Contacts
When transferring a call, Microsoft Teams phones will now suggest frequent contacts to easily transfer calls with a single touch. If you don’t see the contact from the suggested list, you can still search using the search bar.
111.png

 

 

5. Seamless Lock/Unlock with your PC
With this new feature, your Teams phone and Teams PC client will have a coordinated and seamless lock and unlock experience.

 

To set this up, you will need to connect your Teams PC client to your Teams phone.
Prerequisites:

  1. Both devices need to be signed into the same user account.
  2. Your PC must be Bluetooth enabled and in proximity to your Teams phone.
  3. Your PC must run 64-bit Teams desktop client with version >= 1.3.00.15364.
    Note: Mac, Linux, web, mobile and 32-bit/ARM-based Teams clients are currently not supported.

Lock / unlock setup:

1. Go to Manage devices on your Teams phone (left).  2.	Click Find a device and Connect to setup with your nearby Teams Windows Desktop client (right).1. Go to Manage devices on your Teams phone (left). 2. Click Find a device and Connect to setup with your nearby Teams Windows Desktop client (right).

 

3. Teams phone is waiting for a response from your Teams Windows Desktop client (left). 4. Click Connect on your Teams Windows Desktop client to complete setup with your Teams phone (right).3. Teams phone is waiting for a response from your Teams Windows Desktop client (left). 4. Click Connect on your Teams Windows Desktop client to complete setup with your Teams phone (right).

 

5. Setup is complete.5. Setup is complete.

 

 

6. Auto Dismiss “Rate my call” and “Call ended” Screens
We’ve added support to auto dismiss “Rate my call” and “Call ended” screens for users to continue with their productivity after completing the call.

 


7. Teams and Skype Interoperability
Last month, we announced this capability on Teams; by end of June, users will be able to make and receive audio and video calls from Skype for Consumer (SFC) through Microsoft Teams phones.

 

To take advantage of all these new features and more, visit office.com/teamsdevices and check out our wide range of Teams phones from industry leading partners including Audiocodes, Crestron, Lenovo, Poly and Yealink. If you already have a phone and do not see updates for your phone models, check with your phone manufacturer for firmware release schedules. 

 

Explore the most recent Microsoft Teams announcements in our monthly round-up blog covering everything new in Teams.

42 Comments
Copper Contributor

Why does the better together feature use Bluetooth?!?! How is that supposed to work in an office environment? 

Copper Contributor

"Manage devices" does not appear in my iOS Teams App. Bluetooth is enabled and even connected to my PC with Teams installed (version higher than the required version). And it's the same user account also.

Brass Contributor

Good afternoon, @Microsoft_Teams_team.  I just pushed the new update to about 30 Yealink T56A phones in our organization; they are all running 58.15.0.107 now.  The "People" tab appears on 2-3 of the phones but not on the others.  And, for some reason, the "Manage Devices" option appears on some but not the others.  Is there some explanation?  Thanks in advance for your help.

Iron Contributor

@Kennard1969 Try signing the user out of the phone and back in.  Some new features may not appear after an upgrade until after the user signs-in again.

Iron Contributor

@David Eger Bluetooth is only used for proximity detection for the initial pairing process; it's not used for actual communications.  Once a client is paired with a device they communicate between each other via their existing connection to Teams in the cloud, over their existing network links.

Copper Contributor

I am having exactly the same issue as @Kennard1969 on about 25+ Yealink 56A phones.   And i have tried @Jeff_Schertz suggestion of signing out and back in worked on a few of them but not all... 

 

Thank you in advance..  

Brass Contributor

I also followed @Jeff_Schertz's suggestion and, like @NixieTubes, logging out/in resolved the problem for a few but not all of the devices.

 

I realize this is an odd question and the two probably aren't connected, but I will ask anyway:  Does the user's desktop Teams app need to be updated to the most current version (1.3.00.15561) for the "People" tab to populate on the phone?  I ask because the phone update seems to work for the users who are running version 1.3.00.15561 but not users who are running version 1.3.00.13565.

 

And at the risk of muddying the water more, my users who were running version 1.3.00.13565 were unable to update to version 1.3.00.15561 automatically or by clicking "Check for Updates."  The only way I could update their desktop Teams app was by uninstalling and reinstalling them.  

Copper Contributor

Will contacts added directly in Outlook show up as well?

Copper Contributor

@Kennard1969 so Manage Devices also showed up as well on the devices that people appeared on.   But my understanding of pairing the device with teams desktop client was supposed to provide a experience similar to BTOE as we had with Lync/Skype on Polycomm VVX600 devices.  But after pairing two devices here to two different desktop clients via Bluetooth.   The only feature that seems to function is the auto unlock.   @Jeff_Schertz do you have any insight as of functionality of the Bluetooth pairing other than screen unlock?

 

@JohnMajor2112 At this time it only appears to me to be GAL or contacts that have been added as a favorite tab on the desktop client but i could be missing something as i am only a day into this.. 

 

thank you.. 

Iron Contributor

@NixieTubes  Device locking/unlocking with the PC is the only Better Together feature currently provided by Microsoft.  Additional features like call control or audio on the phone while joining a meeting from the PC are coming later.  I'll leave Microsoft to comment on when those thing might be coming, but they've shared publicly back at Ignite 2019 that the various Better Together features would be delivered at different times.

Iron Contributor

@JohnMajor2112 The People app currently only shows your Teams contacts.  Outlook contact support is planned for a future client update.  (This information was shared by Microsoft in one of the Teams Users Voice requests for Outlook contact integration.)

 

Regarding how the Favorites and new People app work in the latest client here's something I just posted in another thread:

  • The April release added the Favorites list to the Calls page in the client and showed the contents of the actual Favorites contact group.
  • Then the June release added the People app to the client
    • This also changed the behavior of the Favorites view in the Calls app as it now lists the contents of the Speed Dial group for the user (and not the actual Favorites group, even though it still says FAVORITES at the top).
    •  The new People app can be used to view any of the contact groups, including Speed Dial or Favorites by selecting the drop-down menu.
Brass Contributor

@Jeff_Schertz, your recommendation solved our problem after all.  I asked everyone to sign out of their phones again and log back in.  The second time was the charm.  The "People" tab and "Manage devices" setting are now visible on all devices.  Thanks for your assistance, sir.

Copper Contributor

@Microsoft_Teams_team can you activate two separate VoIP providers on the same MS Teams account when working with MS Teams Direct Routing integration?

Iron Contributor

@KenGomes  You can have multiple VOIP providers coming into your SBC. Absolutely. However, a Teams user (presume that's what you mean by same Teams account?) can only have 1 Direct Dial number. If you require multiple numbers going to the same person, then you would do a transformation on your SBC so when that call comes in, it gets translated to the number assigned to the user.

 

If you mean Teams account as tenant, then yes. You can have multiple trunks from multiple suppliers coming into the SBC and going into the Teams environment where those numbers will be assigned against the user.  The relationship from Teams is only to the SBC, not to the VOIP provider.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

Copper Contributor

@Microsoft_Teams_team With update #3 you've introduce a permanently available dial pad on the calls page. Since my company's tenant has no PSTN connectivity in place, that feature wastes one third of my CCX600 screen. Is there any way to remove the dial pad?

 

Thank you in advance

Copper Contributor

Some great features on this upgrade! But on my CCX500, running 6.2.11.1323, I'm finding that the Teams app (not the phone, but Teams itself) is restarting itself numerous times a day, even when the phone isn't on a call. A colleague has both CCX500 and Yelling and sees the same issue. Is anyone else seeing this?

Iron Contributor

@PTaylorDorking The UCS 6.2.11 firmware release is only supported for Open SIP usage and has not been certified for Microsoft Teams.  So, while the newer Teams app is available in that firmware version it is untested and unsupported.  You should stay on the previous 5.9.13 release until the next Teams-supported version is released for the CCX.

Copper Contributor

@Jeff_Schertz fair enough, the Support page does say that. I might downgrade and wait patiently then ;)

As I said, the restart seems to be a Teams issue and a colleague's Yealink (sorry, odd spelling correction previously....) does the same too, so hopefully this will get picked up.

Copper Contributor

It appears that this feature is only available when using license Microsoft 365 Business Voice and not the Ala Carte license (Audio Conference, Phone System, and Domestic Calling) features.  So be aware that it doesn't always work till you convert a customer to that license model and wait 24 hrs. 

 

 

When performing a contact search it appears to only be searching the GAL and not the contact of the phone.  Will this feature be added or am I missing something?

Brass Contributor

@Microsoft_Teams_team  @Jeff_Schertz 

What about accounts running Common Area Phone User Policy or Audio Conferencing Device Policy SignInMode?

I have a lot of customers who need to have Favorites/Speed Dial on the Common Area Phone i.e. on the Factory Line or in the Security Guard room.

It's not really convenient to always search/dial some regularly used contact (i.e. mobile number of the supervisor or contact of another CAP phone) when you can simply add Speed Dial.

Is it possible to activate it on the policy or device level?

 

Thank you

Copper Contributor

@Microsoft_Teams_team  or @Jeff_Schertz  Is the above comment about needing a Microsoft 365 Business Voice license correct?  Ours is E3+PhoneSystem and on Poly CCX 400 after performing an update, it appears that we still have the "April" version with "Favorites" and not the People App.

Thanks

 

Iron Contributor

@Ruslan_Bakharev This is being addressed.

 

@Sarat Vemuri I don't know what feature is being referred to above in regards to the licensing statement.  Other than dial pad availability requiring a Phone System license the rest of the phone client's features are configuration based, not license based. The currently supported CCX release (5.9) does not yet include the People tab, that's coming soon with the next firmware release as I stated above.

Brass Contributor

@Sarat Vemuri 

It basically the same for CCX500 with 5.9.13.0374 version but yep Jeff already answered it.

No People app on it while Yealink T58 and T55 have it.

 

@Jeff_Schertz 

Thanks Jeff, I've also sent this request to our Microsoft contact.

 

I also observed a bug with Yealink T55A and T58A running 58.15.0.107 (different accounts with different licenses)

If you try to add custom contact, i.e. mobile number everything goes smooth until the stage of saving contact into the group.

You will get an error message below. I will raise support ticket for that.

 

Yealink T58.jpg

Iron Contributor

FYI the latest Teams-certified CCX firmware (6.2.21) was released yesterday and you should all see it in the Teams Admin Center as an upgrade option for CCX 400/500/600 models.  The latest Trio software (5.9.5) was also released and is in the TAC.  All phones are now running the 1449/1.0.94.2020071702 Teams Android client.  

 

Microsoft has not yet posted the features available in this client update to the "What's new in Microsoft Teams" page, but I'd expect them to be online soon.

Brass Contributor

Thank you, @Jeff_Schertz.  I haven't yet figured out what all was added in this release, but I like how the notifications appear on the new home page.

Copper Contributor

@Jeff_Schertz  and @Microsoft_Teams_team Something is wrong with CCX 400 upgrade process.  The update shows as available in TAC.  I did a manual upgrade.  First, TAC displays "Not all commands were queued" or something like that, but it appears to initiate the upgrade anyway.  Phone downloads the software and reboots.  Then it displays "Poly app crashed" and I still have 1.0.1.0054 on the phone.  Now TAC thinks it has 6.2.21 but in the history it shows upgrade failed.  It still shows that there is an upgrade available though, but with both current and new versions at 6.2.21.  Bottom line: upgrade doesn't work on CCX 400.  It did work on a Trio C60.  Those are the two models I have.

Copper Contributor

Still can't update CCX 400 from TAC.  More users reporting same issue on Poly forums. @Jeff_Schertz 

Also, I spoke too soon about Trio C60.  While the phone got updated to 5.9.5.2831 success fully, It would not sign in the conference room user. Just kept saying no internet and can't contact intune, but it is connected and I could ping.  Had to enable web, switch to Generic profile and update to 5.9.5.2686 that is available on Poly site (couldn't update in Teams profile), and now it appears to work.

So 0/2 with latest Poly updates through TAC.

Copper Contributor

@Jeff Schertz you are the man with all the answers :thumbs_up:

 

CCX 600 - I have linked it with my PC and enabled the lock function.

It locks and unlocks as expected with the PC but also locks on timeout as well.

 

Is this an expected and annoying feature or have I missed something in set up?

Copper Contributor

For some reason, even after updating to the latest firmware version on the Yealink T55A, I still don't see the manage devices button.  The people button is there, just no manage devices.  I've log out and back into the phone several times. 

Copper Contributor

is there a security white paper available on the under pinning communications flow as the initial setup is over Bluetooth but how do this security model sit once in place. 

Iron Contributor

@Martin MEIGH There is no actual communication performed between the devices via Bluetooth.  Bluetooth is simply used as a way to detect proximity.  The room device or IP phone just uses its own Bluetooth radio to send a beacon out and then the pairing device (like a laptop) uses its Bluetooth radio to look for said beacon.  When selecting the desired device in the Teams client the pairing process is not Bluetooth pairing, it uses its existing network registration and connection into Teams to pair and communicate with the other device.

Copper Contributor

@Jeff_Schertz Thanks for that,

Is their a whitepaper detailing this process at all?

 

Martin

Copper Contributor

I am use a Poly CCX 500 with the device connection over Bluetooth, and I noticed TEAMS won't let me select a camera separately from the Poly phone. In the TEAMs Device Settings, when I use the audio device for the CCX500, it auto selects the camera to be the CCX500, and I can't change the camera to my USB camera. Is this a TEAMs problem? Has anyone seen this?

Iron Contributor

Yes, that behavior is a limitation of the current Better Together implementation in Teams.  If a paired phone is selected as the audio device when joining a Teams meeting then the PC cannot send video (it will still receive video streams from other meeting participants).

Copper Contributor

To use the Better Together feature on a CCX600 and a laptop do they need to be on the same subnet? I'm unable to get the phone to find my laptop 3' from each other.

Iron Contributor

@RobNelsen The Better Together feature does not require the two devices to talk between each other.  All communications are handled by the Teams service, as long as both are signed in to Teams with the same user account.  Bluetooth is only used to discover the name of the device you wish to connect to, so make sure that BT is enabled on both the computer and phone.

 

You can read more about how this all works in my latest blog article: http://blog.schertz.name/2021/01/device-pairing-in-microsoft-teams

Copper Contributor

can these phones can be used with other network carriers, suppose I bought the phone for sale or on a discount offer from a specific cellular network in the US, and now I want to move to Canada, then what should be the procedure?

A colleague of mine suggested going through an online unlocking service: https://www.unlockninja.com 

But I am not sure yet, what you people say?

Copper Contributor

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Copper Contributor

Hello @Microsoft_Teams_team and @Jeff_Schertz, I have a question with the People App in Poly CCX600 phones.

The people App don't show any of the external contacts in Poly CCX600 which are already available on the Teams client in laptop and mobile devices. This is the same behavior for all the phones deployed in our environment.

We are running firmware version: 6.2.23.0304 for our phones.

Is there a way external contacts which are seen in the Teams client can be synced to the Poly phone?

Copper Contributor

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Copper Contributor

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Copper Contributor

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