What’s New in Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft has introduced an auto-expiration feature for Teams meeting recordings. Recording files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint will be automatically deleted after a preset period of time. 

The IT Services knowledge article Teams Meeting Recordings explains how auto-expiration is configured for Queen’s users. Microsoft’s support article Manage the expiration of a meeting recording provides instructions for adjusting the default expiration date of Teams meeting recordings. 

Microsoft Teams users can now set individual "Show As" statuses for meetings. The default "Show As" value for all the meetings an organizer creates is "Busy". 

When creating the meeting, meeting organizers can choose to set the "Show As" status of the meeting from the action bar (shown in the image below). When participants RSVP, the selected status will be automatically assigned while they are in the meeting. Users can also create private meetings and appointments within their calendars and indicate the status that should be displayed using the "Show As" feature. 

As a participant, you can choose to set your individual status of the meeting through "Show As" independent of the status set by your RSVP. The updated status will reflect on your calendar. 

The rollout has begun and is expected to be completed by late June, to see the progress check the Microsoft roadmap.  

Organizers will soon be able to assign the "co-organizer" meeting role to up to 10 people they invite to their meeting.

Co-organizers will be granted most of the capabilities of the organizer in the meeting, including being able to access & modify the meeting options for the meeting. Usage of the co-organizer role for a meeting will be optional. 

Once this feature has been enabled, a “Choose co-organizers” option will be available when creating new meetings. The default value for this option is “None.” The feature operates similarly to when “Specific people” are selected as presenters for the meeting. The meeting organizer can click on the selector box to open a dropdown menu where they can choose a "co-organizer" from the list of meeting participants. 

Co-organizers will be displayed as additional organizers on the meeting roster and can do the following: 

• Access and change meeting options
• Bypass the lobby
• Admit people from the lobby during a meeting
• Lock the meeting
• Present content
• Change another participant’s meeting role
• End the meeting for all

Co-organizers cannot do the following: 

• Create & manage breakout rooms
• View & download attendance reports
• Manage the meeting recording
• Edit the meeting invitation
• Remove or change the Organizer role

The rollout is currently in development and testing and is expected to be released by late June to early July. To see the progress of this feature, check the Microsoft roadmap.  

Colour code your calendar with categories. Just like in Outlook, you can assign one or more categories to each meeting in your calendar. There are several ways to assign categories:

1. Right-click an event in your calendar and select Categorize, then pick a color:
    
2. When scheduling a meeting, select Category at the top of the scheduling form.
    

    

• At this time, category names and colors can only be edited from Outlook.
• For recurring meetings, categories can only be applied to the series, not an individual occurrence.
• Currently, categories cannot be applied to channel meetings.

Before a Meeting

When scheduling or editing a meeting in your Teams calendar, use the "Add required attendees" or "Add optional attendees" box to search for and invite people to the meeting.

Use the scheduling assistant to see times when everyone is free to meet. 

During a Meeting

When you're in a meeting, select Show participants in your meeting controls to see the people who were invited but haven't joined yet.

To ask someone who was invited to join the meeting, point to their name and select Request to join.

You can also type a person's name or phone number in the search box to add someone who was not previously invited.

Invite people outside your organization 

Teams lets you invite people outside your organization, including those who don't have a Teams license. You'll need their full email address to invite them.

1. In your meeting, click on Add required attendees. If anyone is an optional attendee, select Optional instead.
2. Type the person's full email address (ex: Joe@example.com).
3. Select Invite. They'll receive an email with a link to the meeting.

After you've invited people to your meeting, you can add up to 10 co-organizers to help manage your meeting. Before adding co-organizers, make sure the people you want to add are already added as required attendees and then follow the steps below:

1. Select your meeting and then select Edit.
2. Select More options > Meeting options.
3. On the meeting options page, next to Choose co-organizers, select the down arrow and choose the name of the co-organizer.
4. Select Save at the bottom of your screen.

As an organizer, you can set the "Show As" status of the meeting in the action bar. When participants RSVP, their status will automatically reflect the status the organizer set.

 As a participant, you can choose to set your individual status for the meeting through "Show As" independent of the status set by the organizer. The updated status will reflect on your calendar. The default "Show As" value for all the meetings an organizer schedules is Busy.

Any Teams meeting or call can be recorded for future viewing. The recording captures audio, video, and screen sharing activity, and you can share it securely across your organization. A recording will expire and be automatically deleted after a set period of time. The length of time it is available is set by your admin, but you can change the expiration date of any given recording.

Start recording

When you start recording a meeting, you also turn on live transcriptions.

1. Start or join the meeting.
2. Go to the meeting controls and select More actions > Start recording.
    

    

• Everyone in the meeting gets notified that recording and transcription have started.

Stop recording

1. Go to the meeting controls and select More actions.
2. Choose one of the following:
   • Stop recording: Stops the recording and live transcription.
   • Stop transcription: Stops just the live transcription. The recording continues until you select Stop recording.

Find recordings

Recordings are available in different places depending on the type of meeting.

• The recording is processed and saved to SharePoint if it was a channel meeting or OneDrive if it was any other type of meeting.  

• The meeting recording shows up in the meeting chat or channel conversation (if you’re meeting in a channel).

Manage the expiration of a meeting recording

Your admin's settings determine whether (and when) a recording will expire. If your recording has an expiration date, you'll see a message indicating that when the recording pops into the meeting chat after the meeting ends. 

Open the details pane to view or change the expiration date.

There are a couple of different ways to get there:

1. Click on the recording to open it in your browser. Once the browser page has opened, select  in the upper right to open the details pane.

2. Or, go to My files in your OneDrive or SharePoint site and view as a list. Mouse over the recording in question, select Show actions (the three vertical dots to the right of the file name), and then choose Details.

When the details pane is open, look for Expiration date. Here's where you'll see the date that's currently set. 

If you're organizing a meeting with multiple attendees, you may want to assign roles to each participant to determine who can do what in the meeting. 

There are two roles to choose from: presenter and attendee. Presenters can do just about anything that needs doing in a meeting, while the role of an attendee is more controlled. 

Below are the specific capabilities of each role:

Capability	Organizer	Presenter	Attendee
Speak and share video
Participate in meeting chat
Share content
Privately view a PowerPoint file shared by someone else
Take control of someone else's PowerPoint presentation
Mute other participants
Prevent attendees from unmuting themselves
Remove participants
Admit people from the lobby
Change the roles of other participants
Start or stop recording
Start or stop live transcription
Manage breakout rooms
Change meeting options
Add or remove an app
Use an app*
Change app settings

* – Some apps may limit what certain roles can do.

As the meeting organizer, you get to decide who gets into your meetings directly, and who should wait for someone to let them in.

If you choose to have people wait, you (and anyone else allowed to admit people) will see a list of people in the lobby. From there you can choose whether to admit or deny them.

You may want to receive an alert when someone calling in by phone joins or leaves your meeting. 

To change this setting, select the toggle next to Announce when callers join or leave from the Meeting options window.

Before the meeting

After scheduling the meeting and sending out the invite, the meeting organizer can disable the mics and cameras so that attendees can't use them during the meeting. All attendees (but not presenters) will join the meeting with mic and camera off. 

1. Go to Calendar and double-click the meeting.
2. Select Meeting options near the top of the screen.
3. Turn off the Allow mic for attendees? or Allow camera for attendees? toggle and select Save.

During the meeting

The organizer and presenters can disable the mic or camera of all the attendees, or of individuals, at any time during the meeting.

To disable all attendee mics or cameras

• Select More options  next to Participants and then Disable mic for attendees or Disable camera for attendees.

To disable an individual's mic or camera

• Select More options next to their name and then Disable mic or Disable camera.

Organizers may choose to lock a meeting to prevent subsequent attempts to join. Anyone attempting to join a locked meeting from any device will be informed that the meeting is locked.

To lock a meeting, select Schedule a meeting > Join > Participants > ... > Lock the meeting (or unlock it when locked).

When a meeting is locked, no additional participants will be able to join, but invitees can still access the meeting chat, recording, and other meeting info.