Through a digital briefing, Microsoft announced that it has reprioritized and accelerated these new Teams features to better serve customers as the coronavirus pandemic continues to change the way people work and learn These new features include a dynamic display called Together mode, live reactions, live transcription with speaker identification, and an integrated task app The upgrade is an effort to reduce meeting fatigue, make virtual collaboration more inclusive and engaging, and streamline tasks to save time Microsoft's official announcement follows earlier reports of upcoming updates, including increasing the number of participants in video calls to 49

In addition to the larger gallery view, the biggest new feature is Together mode, which uses AI segmentation technology to give users the feeling of sitting in the same room as their meeting collaborators switching on Together mode will allow up to 49 participants to Instead of being displayed in a grid, they are displayed in an auditorium-like setting

When someone is speaking, heads turn toward the speaker, creating a more natural gaze Microsoft also states that it makes it easier for people to take turns speaking More settings, such as virtual meeting rooms and cafes, will be coming soon

In Gallery View mode, Teams will support live reactions, allowing participants to "like" something using animated emojis They can now clap, applaud, or raise their hands Chat bubbles appear in the participant's grid window, showing what the participant has typed Live captioning transcribes the speaker's words into text, and live transcription summarizes what everyone is saying in the video conference on the spot

Improved conference views prioritize video participants and provide a wealth of options during screen sharing and presentations

Microsoft also announced deep integration of the Tasks app and voice assistant Cortana in Teams; as Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of Microsoft 365, said in a briefing, we witnessed "two years' worth of digital transformation in two months" due to pandemic quarantine" COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way we work"