Teams turns on video using Enter key

Brass Contributor

(I originally entered this as a reply on another discussion, but it seems worthy of its own discussion.)

 

I encountered a significant flaw in the New Meeting Experience today. If you use the kebab menu (e.g., to turn on focus and "fullscreen"), and then (perhaps accidentally, or just let your cat do it as happened to me) hit the Enter key on the keyboard *****SURPRISE!!!***** you just enabled video when you didn't mean to!!! This is bad bad bad bad bad! It's okay to have a shortcut key combination (Ctrl-Shift-O) so that I can do that intentionally when I want to, but it should NEVER happen unless I want it to. Thankfully, I was in a meeting where it didn't matter that I showed up in a t-shirt and not really presentable, but it could have been a very important meeting and I could have been much less presentable (if you catch my drift). THIS HAS TO BE FIXED!!! PLEASE!!! This is a privacy matter. Microsoft this is literally exposing your customers to serious risk!

 

I don't know what causes things to rise up in the MS backlog, but please let me know how to escalate if you know how. Do replies and likes help?

2 Replies

Sorry, read to fast. Thought you meant the recording. If I select "fullscreen" (without the camera on) and just hit enter afterwards the camera is turned on for me as well. Let's see if @Sam Cosby got a moment. Is this expected behavior Sam?

@ChristianBergstrom Thank you, Christian. Here is a less hyperbolic description of the issue, FWIW:

 

Issue: Teams turns on camera unexpectedly

 

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Start in a meeting with the camera off
  2. Use the “meatball” menu to change a meeting setting. (The problem behavior was observed after turning on the “Fullscreen” option; however other menu selections may lead to the same result.)
  3. Press the Enter key on the keyboard.
  4. ** Problem: Teams turns on the camera.

 

Concern: This behavior causes the camera to be turned on unexpectedly, and potentially in unwanted situations. At best, it can create a distraction on a call; at worst, it exposes the Teams user to an invasion of their privacy, and could have damaging and costly effects. We have many calls—both internal and with clients—on which camera sharing is not expected or needed, and employees should not need to be concerned that their camera may be turned on without their doing so intentionally. There is a defined shortcut key to turn on/off the camera that is suitably complex (Ctrl+Shift+O); the Enter key is way too easy to press accidentally.

 

Notes: This is presumably an unintended consequence of the UI state following the use of the meatball menu, as Enter is not a documented shortcut key to turn on/off the camera. Note also that pressing the Enter key again will not turn off the camera. Instead, it toggles the next control in the UI – the mute button – further indicating that this behavior is an unintended flaw in the UI.

 

Workaround: Clicking somewhere else in the UI after using the meatball menu (e.g., click on the mute/unmute control after changing to fullscreen) should prevent the problem; however this only helps if you know about the issue and know (and remember) to do it.