Tone-only now in Public Beta for PSTN Conferencing
Hi everyone, We are excited to announce that we have now released Tone-only Entry and Exit notifications for our PSTN Conferencing service in preview. Participants can now get notified by a tone when a dial-in user enters or exits instead of having the service read out full names. In order to enable this in your tenant, please follow these steps: 1) Go to the Office Admin Portal. 2) Under “Admin Centers” go to “Skype For Business”. 3) Select “dial-in conferencing” along the left side. 4) Select “Microsoft bridge settings” within the top menu. 5) Check “Enable meeting entry and exit notifications to be turned on.” 6) Under “Entry-exit announcements type,” use the drop-down menu and select “Tones (Preview).” 7) Click Save. This feature is on a per tenant basis, therefore this setting update will take affect for all meetings with dial-in conferencing. To learn more about the released version of this feature, please visit our Office Support Page about entry and exit announcements. If you have any feedback on the product, (improvements or changes), please submit those here: https://www.skypefeedback.com/PSTN Calling for Ireland and the Netherlands is now in General Availability!
We are happy to announce that PSTN Calling for Ireland and Netherlands has become Generally Available! Since the number acquisition process has changed slightly and varies from country to country, please refer to this blog for more information on how to get phone numbers for Skype for Business Online. To get a complete list of GA countries for PSTN Calling, please refer here. For any questions or feedback, we encourage you to let us know in our community.Skype for Business on Mac - September Insider Fast Release is available!
During the summer months, we focused on quality and bug fixes. However, we are back this month with some new and exciting features! What’s New Simplified sign-in experience and support for certificate-based authentication On initial sign-in, users are now only required to enter their sign-in address. Based on the sign-in information, we will ask for additional information (such as password) only when necessary. If your organization supports certificate-based authentication and the certificate exists on the machine, you will sign in automatically. We have moved some of the less-used options (such as user name) to the Advanced Options page to simplify the experience and avoid unnecessary confusion to the end users. Meetings improvements Earlier this year we added support for joining a meeting through phone. We listened to your feedback and have now added the additional option to join a meeting without audio. Users can choose to hide or show content that another user is sharing in a meeting. When someone is sharing their screen, select to “Turn off content” under the More options menu. If content is available but not displayed, the option will show “Turn on content”. The “End Meeting” option was added last release. This option allows a presenter to end the meeting for all participants before leaving a meeting. Where can I find more information? Please see our release notes for the full list of features and improvements. We update our client on a regular cadence and encourage you to download the latest client when possible. See “What is Office Insider” section below on how to get the latest build. The changes in this blog will appear on Insider Slow channel shortly. What is Office Insider? The Office Insider program for Mac allows users to install early builds of upcoming Office and Skype for Business on Mac releases to test new features before other they will be released publicly. For more details see this blog article: How to access early Skype for Business on Mac versions. If you have any comments or questions on this Insider Release, feel free to post in our Community. You can provide feedback directly to the Microsoft product team by using the Report an Issue link under Help menu of the Skype for Business on Mac app. Chermaine Li Senior Program Manager, Skype for BusinessSkype for Business: New Voicemail User Settings Features in Preview
We are happy to announce that we are opening a new preview program for the New Voicemail User Settings features for Skype for Business Cloud PBX. This preview is scheduled to start at the beginning of August. Voicemail user-settings is a web portal that gives Cloud PBX users control of their voicemail preferences using virtually any standard browser. Entry-point into the portal will be available in most Skype for Business Apps, as well as in the voicemail email body. The portal will authenticate users using their corporate credentials. Currently, users will be able to: Deactivate Voicemail: disable messages temporarily or permanently for users that prefer not to receive voicemail messages Change Prompt Language: change the language of the prompts played to callers, as well as the language in which their messages will be transcribed in Customized OOF greeting: play a different greeting message to callers while out of office Below isa snapshot of the voicemail web portal. We invite all customers to join the preview of this new feature before general availability. Please go to www.skypepreview.com and sign-up for the Cloud PBX Voicemail User Settings Preview Program to learn more.Skype for Business: New PSTN Conferencing Enhancement Features to Preview
We are happy to announce that we are opening a preview for the following feature enhancement for PSTN Conferencing for Skype for Business Online: providing administrators with additional user-level controls for toll-free and dial-out destinations for Skype for Business meetings. This preview is scheduled to start at the begining of August. Control which users can leverage toll-free numbers This feature will allow tenant administrators to enable or disable the usage of toll-free numbers for the meetings of any organizer on a per user basis. When toll-free numbers are disabled for a given user: A toll-free number will no longer be included in the meeting invites of the organizer. Toll-free numbers will no longer be listed in the "Find a local number" page that is referenced in the meeting invites of the organizer. While toll-free numbers will stop showing up on the "Find a local number" page of an organizer, participants won't be able to join the meeting if they dial a toll-free number of the organization. Participants can continue joining meetings of the organizer using toll numbers. Restrict dialing out in meetings for specific users This feature will allow a tenant administrator to control which users can dial out from within a meeting. This would include: Control dial out capability for organizer's meeting Permit dial-outs that are domestic only to the assigned location of the meeting organizer. Allow international and domestic dial-outs. These two features can be leveraged only by tenants that are enabled for PSTN Consumption billing. To learn more about PSTN Consumption billing, see What is PSTN Consumption billing? We invite customers to join the preview of these two services before general availability. Please go to www.skypepreview.com and sign-up for the PSTN Conferencing Feature Enhancements Preview Program and learn more.Skype for Business on Mac – June Insider Fast Release is available!
Thank you for continuing to support our Skype for Business Mac client. Due to quality concerns, we have skipped ourMay release and are focusing our effort on a great June release. This month we’re adding support for non-federated meeting join and ability to see contacts that have recently added you. We’ve also added a new split UI that let you see screen-sharing or PowerPoint presentations side-by-side with the active speaker, and touchbar support. Please see release notes for more full list of features and improvements. We update our client on a regular cadence and encourage you to download the latest client when possible. See “What is Office Insider” section below on how to get the latest build. What’s New Users can now join non-federated meetings directly from Skype for Business, rather than having to join in their browser. New Contacts tab shows who has added you to their contacts list in Skype for Business. Users can now join a Microsoft Teams meeting directly from the Meetings tab in Skype for Business . Users can close the "On Hold" overlay while in a meeting. Held calls can be resumed from the new More Options button (...). Users can view screen-sharing or PowerPoint presentations side-by-side with active speaker. Touch bar support for various functionality. What is Office Insider? The Office Insider program for Mac allows users to install early builds of upcoming Office and Skype for Business on Mac releases to test new features before other they will be released publicly. For more details see this blog article: How to access early Skype for Business on Mac versions. If you have any comments or questions on this Insider Release, feel free to post in our Community. You can provide feedback directly to the Microsoft product team by using the Report an Issue link under Help menu of the Skype for Business on Mac app. Chermaine Li Senior Program Manager, Skype for Business
