Two new video meeting options in Teams

Office-Watch.comLast updated: 11 July 2020

Microsoft has added two genuinely new and interesting video meeting options to Teams. Together mode and Dynamic View plus some useful video filters.

Both are innovative ways to display a large number of people in a virtual meeting.

Having been caught napping by a combination of Coronavirus and Zoom, Microsoft has worked hard to bring the video conferencing / virtual meeting side of Teams up to date.

However, as usual Microsoft is being a bit ‘previous’ with these announcements. Digging into the fine print, it’s clear these options won’t be available until sometime next month.

All you can do is check the Teams video settings to see if these promises have been fulfilled.

Together Mode

This puts all the meeting participants in an auditorium style view like this:

For smaller meetings there are more intimate options including a library and a café.

It’s a clever reuse of the same video trickery that enables virtual backgrounds. Instead of putting the head/shoulders of the person into a background, it’s added into the together/audience/classroom view.

Microsoft says Together view is good for situations with multiple speakers and brainstorming sessions. It seems better suited for classroom or lecture scenarios with one speaker who can ‘look out’ to the audience and gauge their reactions.