New Meeting and Calling Experience in Microsoft Teams!
Published Jul 22 2020 08:00 AM 2.1M Views
Microsoft

You may have seen the recent announcement of new meeting features in Teams in Reimagining virtual collaboration for the future of work and learning (if not, check it out!). Today, we’re pleased to share that we’re making several of these features available to most users of Teams over the next few days.


We’re gradually rolling the features out. Once you’ve got the build that has the new experience (Teams desktop app only), you’ll have the option to turn it on. Read on to learn how to turn it on, what comes with it, how to use it, and answers to some common questions. Let’s get right to it!


Turn on the new experience
You do this via a checkbox in Teams Settings. Here’s how:

  1. Select your profile pic at the top of the Teams app, then Settings > General. (General should be what’s showing when you open Settings, so you probably won’t have to select it.)
  2. Select Turn on new meeting experience.
  3. Restart Teams by doing the following:

a. Right-click or Cmd-click the Teams icon in the Windows task bar or Mac System Tray.
b. Select Quit.
c. Start Teams again like you normally would.


You might also see a notification that announces the new experience or reminds you to turn it on. Then it’s even easier—in that notification, choose Turn it on now if you’re ready at that point, or Maybe later if you’re in the middle of something.

1.1.png

 

 

What happens after you’ve turned it on
After turning on the new experience and restarting Teams, the biggest thing you’ll probably notice is that any calls and meetings will pop out into their own window, separate from the main Teams window. Like this:

2.1.png

If you’re still seeing calls and meetings in the main Teams window after turning the setting on and restarting, go to your profile pic again and select Check for updates. Once that is done, do the same quit and restart procedure per above. That should do the trick.

 


But wait, there’s more
Here are the other new things you’ll see and can try out:

  • Meeting controls are moved to the top of the meeting screen. They’re docked there so you always have access to them (without jiggling your mouse) and they’re out of the way of the content and video that’s being shared.

3.1.png

  • Large gallery view lets you see up to 49 video streams at once. This view is available when there are 10 or more attendees who are sharing video. To switch to large gallery, go to More options (…) in the meeting controls > Large gallery.

4.1.png

Here’s what it looks like—pretty cool to see all those faces!

5.1.png

 

  • Together mode lets you feel like you’re in the same shared space with everyone in the meeting. (It might be even more fun than Large gallery.) It’s in the same menu as Large gallery, just below it. Here’s Together mode:

6.1.png

Together mode is available when 5 or more participants are sharing video.


Both Large gallery and Together mode are being rolled out gradually over the next few weeks. If you don’t see them right away, check again later.

 

  • Meeting notes are now taken directly on the meeting’s Meeting notes tab in the main Teams window. (This is one of the benefits of having the meeting in a separate window.) To access or take notes from within the meeting window, select More options (…) > Show meeting notes and you’ll see the usual side pane come up. In the pane, there is a Take notes button that brings you to the Meeting notes tab.

7.png

 

  • Focus mode is available when content is being shared. If you’d like to pay close attention to content, without the distraction of seeing video feeds, Focus mode is for you. It’s available in the meeting controls under More options (…) > Focus mode. Give it a whirl!

 

Common questions

  • Has screen sharing changed? How do I share my screen?

No big changes here. In the meeting controls at the top, select Share screen. The screen choices you have will come up from the bottom of the meeting window just like they did before.

8.png

To stop sharing your screen, select Close screen share in the meeting controls. It’s the icon next to the Leave button.

 

  • Why are message extensions grayed out? I like to send polls in meeting chat.

We’re working on it! For now, if you want to send a poll or use other message extensions in the meeting chat, go back to the main Teams window, select the meeting chat (either via the Calendar or the list in Chat), and do it there.

 

  • What about InVision Freehand whiteboard?

Yup, we’re working on that, too.

 

  • Will live events also open in their own window?

No, not yet—that functionality is coming soon.

 

  • Focus mode is nice, but what about Full screen view?

We like Full screen view, too! (It’s available currently in meetings that happen in the main Teams window.) We’re working on bringing that to the new experience as well. When we do, you’ll have both Focus mode and Full screen view to choose from.

 

  • Is this available for any license type?

The new experience isn’t available for Teams for Government or Teams free just yet. But soon.

 

  • Which platforms?

The new meeting and calling experience is available for the Teams desktop client on both Windows and Mac. It’s not available for Teams on the web. (If you need to download the desktop client, go here.)

 

  • What if I don’t turn the new experience on?

We’d love for you to try it out. We’re making it available in this way partly because in the near future, we’ll turn the experience on by default. Eventually, the setting to turn it on and off will go away. At that time, the experience of meetings in separate windows, with the meeting controls at the top, will become the norm. So we want you to have ample time to get familiar with it.

 

  • What happens to the new meeting experience if I sign out of Teams or switch to a different Teams org?

If you sign out or switch to a different Teams org (also known as a "tenant"), you'll have to turn on the new meeting experience again. Follow the instructions for turning it on in Settings and restarting Teams.

 

That’s our overview and how-to for this new meeting and calling experience. We hope you’ll try it. Remember to check for updates and restart the Teams client after you turn it on. Enjoy! 

385 Comments
Silver Contributor

Already playing with it. Super cool! Thanks folks.

Copper Contributor

@Petri X- Thanks for sharing it. I tried restarting the app many time but did not see the feature but sign out and sign in worked.

Bronze Contributor

@Mathlesh , I believe you did not made "Quit" from Teams. Closing down application does not do the trick.

 

Right click Teams on taskbar, and then select "Quit" from popup menu. And then start Teams again.

 

Teams Quit.png

 

But the problem what my colleague has found is, if you do "Sign-out" from Teams. Then the checkbox for the new meeting behavior is cleared. :facepalm:

 

 

 

Iron Contributor

Finally showed up for me this morning! Now I can join the rest of my team! So happy!

Iron Contributor

We're liking the new experience, especially moving the control bar!  The new window comes up in some kind of Dark theme although we have Default Theme set in the main window?  Can this be changed?  Do the Gallery settings change when enough videos are available and grayed out when less than a certain number, or is that feature not yet available in version 1.3.00.19173?

Thanks,

Russell

Brass Contributor

Great job!   Can't wait for Full Screen, ability to tab through other webcam in the large meetings like Zoom - additional pages to see all attendees with cameras on when 49 is full on the front page, and Web Browser enhancements for gallery/large gallery views as well as breakout rooms.

 

Brass Contributor

Great to see these updates. Looking forward to more richer meeting experiences! Well done to all those engineers who are working tirelessly to make these exciting features available to match the rivals. Cheers,

Bronze Contributor

From the meetings we still need:

- End the meeting should really end the meeting, not only kick out people

 

Copper Contributor

Anybody knows why the Sharing-Option "Browse Teams and Channels" in a Meeting has disappeared when the new meeting experience is active?

 

Screenshot 2020-07-31 at 10.39.38.png

Brass Contributor

Looks like Apps such as Praise, Forms, Polly, etc are no longer available in the new experience - do know if these will be making a return?

Brass Contributor

Proximity Join on MTR is no more working after switching to the new Teams meeting experience.

Copper Contributor

This is great news.  Looking forward to trying it out.

Copper Contributor

When in a meeting I can no longer see who was invited but is not currently in the meeting. Will this be added back? This is super useful information in order to begin meetings, thanks!

Copper Contributor

When in a meeting I can no longer see who was invited but is not currently in the meeting. Will this be added back? This is super useful information in order to begin meetings, thanks!

Copper Contributor

Awesome improvements! While I understand your have channels, are you also looking into something like Zoom's "breakout rooms" for more randomized, in-the-moment, groupings?

Copper Contributor

After enabling this new feature seems to be issues with users who are part of the call queues getting incoming calls in a separate window and then disconnects after few seconds without being answered. If we turn off this feature calls are connecting fine as normal without any issues. 

 

Can someone suggest next step of action to follow with this new update in case of such call disconnect issues

 

Copper Contributor

@Mansoor Malik Is together mode a personal view setting or does it change for all participants in the meeting once the organizer changes it? 

Copper Contributor

Thanks for sharing the update.

Copper Contributor

People who are not seeing the latest option even after upgrading to the latest build, please log out of the application and log in again. You will start seeing the latest options.

Brass Contributor

My comment isn't specific to this topic, but it is related to Teams...
I find it both amusing and ironic that when I click on "Share" this news, I don't have the option to "Share" it to a Teams channel. :D

Brass Contributor

Need the ability for a meeting organizer to be able to set default, for all attendees in a meeting, for speaker view, gallery view, large gallery, or together mode, hide people not showing cameras.  Maybe a check box to decide in certain meetings if you want the attendees to be able to override or change once they are in the meeting, but it would make life a lot easier if an organizer knew that everyone was in a particular view to start with for specific types of meetings.

 

Brass Contributor

I really enjoy the new layout. But I absolutely hate the fact that it pops-out into a new window.

I prefer the previous docked window behaviour to keep the experience more seamless within Teams.

Can we please have the option to Pop-Out and Dock the meeting space?

Copper Contributor

Is there a way to create customized background according to our corporate brand in teams ??

 

Brass Contributor

@gaelbarbe , From within your meeting, go into

  • "More Actions"
  • Apply background effects
  • +Add new
  • <choose the graphic you want to be your background>
    • The graphic you chose will show up at the bottom of the available backgrounds

Anyone can create a background.  Our marketing department created some company-branded backgrounds for everyone in our company to choose from.

It's basically any graphic that is 1920x1080 pixels.  This means you can also search the web for any pictures with those dimensions.

 

I highly recommend that you take a look at the training & support resources that MS offers.  They are really good and answer many questions like the one you asked.  From within the Teams local app, in the bottom-left corner is "Help".  From there, you can choose from various options.
You can also find a lot of great support and training materials here:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams  (you can go to your regional version of the website if you aren't in English / United States).  For example, simply change the en-us in the URL to de-de and you're be at the local German / Germany site.

Copper Contributor

Really like the pop-out meeting. However, I'm on a Mac running Catalina and as soon as a pop-out meeting starts my fan kicks in and my machine starts chugging. Looking at Activity Monitor it appears the Teams Helper is taking a lot of processing power (I'm no expert though).

Anyone else having this issue? Also, I can't seem to figure out how to turn off the pop-out mode.

Copper Contributor

@Hariharan_T

I can confirm this, we have the same problems with PSTN calls to call queues when the new feature is active!

 

Bronze Contributor

@Christian_Wolff @Hariharan_T 

Do you get some error message? How about reports in Teams Admin center, any indication on there?

Copper Contributor

Really excited with the new features..

 

Does anyone have any idea about rolling new feature without being informed end users?

 

How to automatically turn on new experience for all users. As it may bit confusing for them to check the setting on.

 

I searched through Teams Admin portal but did not find one.

Copper Contributor

@Petri X @Hariharan_T 

The wheel spins as if trying to answer the call and then the call disconnects. It doesn't happen with every call, but it happens with most.

Have tested with three MS-Teams Windows Desktop Client versions. In this version (1.3.00.13565) only one out of ten calls disconnects, in this (1.3.0.19173) and this version (1.3.00.19565) it happens with me almost every second PSTN call to an CQ/AA. For me it seems that the new feature is buggy.

SBC Call Debug Log gives me: 

Reason: Q.850;cause=16;text="....;CallEndReasonLocalUserInitiated"



Bronze Contributor

@Christian_Wolff 

Have you take a look the Teams' diagnostic logs? You get them by Shift + Ctrl + Alt + 1

 

At the moment the most useful log is the one which have no real statement e.g.: MSTeams Diagnostics Log 8_6_2020__4_36_35_PM.txt

Especially what do you have around this the line where you found the following text:
callingService: Finish start call scenarios

 

 

 

ps. Here is a link to documents about logging with Teams: Teams' Diagnostic logs (why they are calling these as debug logs, if the names are diagnostic logs)

Bronze Contributor

Hi @Mansoor Malik ,

 

Do you know what happen for "Full Screen" option on the new meeting experience?

 

FullScren.png

Was that just forgot?

Copper Contributor

Is there a way to set the local settings for all Teams-Clients?
It seems that there are no general possibilities via GPO yet?
But I found this article: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/configuring_startup_settings_in_microsoft_teams_with_window... 
With this I can adjust the existing values like "OpenAsHidden". The parameter responsible for the new function seems to be "callingMWEnabledPreferenceKey", at least it changes in teh config-file when I change it directly in the client.
I have adapted the script accordingly, the change is also saved in the desktop-config.json. So the client will be closed and the value in the file will be changed. But unfortunately the client does not accept this value after the start.
What would I have to do to roll this out by default for a new customer, so that the users don't have to get used to it again later, when it is converted by MS to default?

 

Bronze Contributor

@Mansoor Malik 

Bug #xys

When you have meeting or chat in separate window, then the magically four finger prey (Shift + Ctrl + Alt + 1) is not working to get logs. But I need to activate the main Teams window, and then do the same. Then I'm able to get the diagnostic logs.

 

If I contact to support they most likely say: "This is by design" and they are not able to help more. But I believe this is not the way it should be working?

Iron Contributor

Curious if others are experiencing issues in viewing participants in a meeting.  Lately, we've noticed when end users have their web cams on, some see them while others don't.  If they turn their web cam off and back on, they will then appear again.  We haven't been able to pinpoint the actual cause yet but it seems to occur when the layout changes, after the presentation ends and sometimes randomly.

Brass Contributor

We had situation yesterday where the "record" option was missing from everyone that was on the new version. Someone on the old version had to record the meeting.  On mine, it was also missing.  I launched another test meeting which did show me record option, and then when I resumed the previous meeting, the record option returned.  Definitely some weirdness going on.

Copper Contributor

Maybe I'm missing something but I cannot figure out how to start a meeting in the main window (or transfer it) in order to get full screen view.

Copper Contributor

Has anyone else seen a weird issue where two popout video windows appears, saw this earlier when launching a call from a new chat session (not sure if other times too - that was when I noticed it earlier and took the screenshot below); one with your own video filling it and the other with the other party's video (was a 1:1 call so not sure what would have happened with more users in the call). The window that had my video was on top of the other party until I dragged it off so it was next to it; as expected the thumbnail/swap camera was present in the bottom right of the other party's video screen; I tried to close the window with me in (right side window below) and it said it was was going to close/exit the meeting it said. Any thoughts anyone on what would trigger this; had other calls which have been fine but a handful this week like this; I really am not that interested in a full screen pane of myself!

 

teams issue1.png

Bronze Contributor

@Charles_Randall 

You need to turn off the new meeting experience to get this menu back:

 

Teams Full screen.png

 

Wish to hear from MS was this done "by design".

Copper Contributor

@Petri X Some of our users got the same issue, did you see any of solutions for this?

Bronze Contributor

@yargryazn425 

As I wrote, by removing the new meeting experience feature from your Teams client. Then the full screen option is again available on the menu.

Copper Contributor

This is a great step in the right direction and finally lets us get rid of that terrible bar that covers up a third of the screen, at long last.

 

However, it doesn't seem to remember the size and shape of the pop-up window between meetings, which is rather important for those of us who need to set up a reasonably automated system for streaming and capturing. 

Copper Contributor

@Petri X 

Thanks for the tip with the log! There is a lot of information in it...Maybe this is a hint?

2020-08-10T06:38:38.171Z Inf CallingIntentMultiWindowService: [saveIntent] #callpopout Existing intent found with id: adc368e4-e14a-4aa5-a62c-cbc2a65490f8
2020-08-10T06:38:38.171Z Inf CallingIntentMultiWindowService: [getExistingIntent] #callpopout Intent found with id adc368e4-e14a-4aa5-a62c-cbc2a65490f8
2020-08-10T06:38:38.171Z Inf CallingIntentMultiWindowService: [saveIntentFromCall] #callpopout Didn't find existing intent with id undefined. Using default ongoing call intent.
2020-08-10T06:38:38.171Z Inf CallingIntentMultiWindowService: [getIntent] #callpopout Intent with id undefined not found
2020-08-10T06:38:38.171Z Inf CallingIntentMultiWindowService: [saveIntentFromCall] #callpopout Existing intent not found for call with teamsCallId=2
2020-08-10T06:38:38.171Z Inf CallingIntentMultiWindowService: [getExistingIntentForConversation] #callpopout Using conversationId: 19:preview-0cf95ab5-39f7-4335-96ff-a259d36e62df and messageId:
2020-08-10T06:38:38.171Z Inf CallingIntentMultiWindowService: [getTeamsCallFromIntent] #callpopout Using conversationId=undefined to find existing call for intent [id=adc368e4-e14a-4aa5-a62c-cbc2a65490f8]
2020-08-10T06:38:38.171Z Inf CallingIntentMultiWindowService: [getExistingIntentForConversation] #callpopout Current intent Ids: ["adc368e4-e14a-4aa5-a62c-cbc2a65490f8"]

Copper Contributor

Hi everyone
In the Microsoft stream recording are still only four people visible.
Is this a limitation of streams or what could be the problem?
(I have the new experience activated)

 

Copper Contributor

We need multiscreen option in meeting,  cameraview on one screen and shared dokument on one screen.  When will that happen?

Copper Contributor

Seriously.  Where is the "Always on top" option for the meetings?!  I can't believe this STILL isn't an option.

Copper Contributor

Super, ce sont de beaux ajouts.

 

Copper Contributor

@Petri X sorry for misunderstanding, i meant this problem: "But the problem what my colleague has found is, if you do "Sign-out" from Teams. Then the checkbox for the new meeting behavior is cleared." We actully got people with this checkbox being randomly cleared and filled even without any actions from users. Actually i fell as a victim for this myself. tried new experience last thursday, then checkbox got cleared, ant it is now not possible to tick it

 

Copper Contributor

@yargryazn425 - we have also had the same issue with the tick resetting itself - tick being cleared without signing out - at start up or restart.

 

Bronze Contributor

@yargryazn425 

Sorry, I could not found any explanation. It is a bit shame that Microsoft (like @Mansoor Malik ) has not came back to share any updates for this.

 

Beta hey ! How many times in a week you feel like being beta tester with Teams? :cryingwithlaughter:

Copper Contributor

@Petri X :cryingwithlaughter: something like everyday ten times a day i think :) 

im actually quite ok with that, but it is a pain, when it comes to migrating your users, trying to explain that features that has been in Zoom/Telegram from the getgo 5 years ago, will come to them somewhere approximately in 2-3 months ) I mean, i'm still amazed by the lack of reply option in chat on desktop. thought this is like 101 for any chat application if youre not building oldschool ICQ -_-

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