Microsoft launches new Teams, LinkedIn features focused on hybrid work

Microsoft right now introduced new options for LinkedIn and Microsoft 365 designed to handle the wants of corporations transitioning to hybrid work through the pandemic. In an announcement, CEO Satya Nadella mentioned that the capabilities, most of that are anticipated to launch inside weeks, are meant to make software program and companies extra dynamic because the well being disaster disrupts deliberate returns to the workplace.

“Our new information exhibits there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all method to hybrid work, as worker expectations proceed to vary,” Nadella mentioned. “The one approach for organizations to resolve for this complexity is to embrace flexibility throughout their whole working mannequin, together with the methods individuals work, the locations they inhabit, and the way they method enterprise course of.”

Outlook, Groups, and Viva

In 2019, Microsoft launched Teams Rooms, a convention room management platform paired with a rebranded launch of Skype Room Techniques. After previewing earlier this yr new AI-powered instruments heading to Groups Rooms, Microsoft right now detailed what it calls “a brand new class of clever cameras,” powered by lively speaker monitoring, a number of video streams, and folks recognition.

Lively speaker monitoring permits in-room Groups Room cameras to make use of audio, facial actions, and gestures to detect who within the room is talking — and zoom in for a better perspective. A number of video streams enable in-room members to be positioned in their very own video pane. And folks recognition identifies and shows the profile identify of enrolled customers inside their video pane.

Microsoft says that each one three new options can be accessible to OEMs together with Jabra, Poly, Neat, and Yealink within the coming months and roll out as updates over the course of the subsequent yr. One of many OEMs, Logi, plans to introduce a complementary docking station with built-in speakerphone and contact controls optimized to work with Groups.

Above: The brand new Logi docking system for Microsoft Groups Rooms.

Picture Credit score: Microsoft

Different new Groups options introduced right now embody Dynamic view in Groups, which robotically adjusts parts of the assembly in order that attendees can higher see the room and content material. There’s additionally updates to the Companion mode within the Groups cellular, which provides in-room attendees fast entry to engagement options like chat, stay reactions, Whiteboard, and assembly and machine controls like the power to hitch a gathering, forged a PowerPoint, mute the room, and switch room cameras on and off.

New apps in Groups conferences help real-time interplay, permitting members to share and work together with app content material within the assembly stage. In the meantime, new lighting corrections, which is able to arrive within the coming months, are designed to assist attendees present up in video-on conferences in low-light environments.

In PowerPoint, Microsoft is introducing a brand new characteristic referred to as Cameo. Set to debut in 2022, Cameo integrates the Groups digital camera feed right into a presentation, permitting the presenter to customise how and the place they need to seem with slides. One other new AI-powered characteristic, Speaker Coach — additionally set to launch subsequent yr — privately shares steering on customers’ tempo, notifying them in the event that they’re interrupting somebody and reminding them to test in with their viewers.

Scorching desking and CarPlay

One other Groups functionality unveiled this morning is help for warm desking, which permits individuals to find and reserve versatile workspaces of their places of work. Workers can ebook areas upfront utilizing Outlook or Groups to entry their private Groups calendar, chats, conferences, and extra. Accompanying new Outlook RSVP and Working hours options let individuals specify whether or not they’ll attend in-person or on-line and permit them to incorporate work schedule specifics of their calendars.

Groups shows can be utilized as a standalone machine or second display screen with the recent desking expertise. Upon signing out, private info is faraway from the machine. Microsoft says the Lenovo ThinkSmart View will help the characteristic by the top of 2021, forward of the arrival of Working hours and RSVP early subsequent yr.

Above: Microsoft Groups will quickly help CarPlay.

Picture Credit score: Microsoft

Lastly on the Groups entrance, Microsoft is including help for Apple CarPlay. Customers can be part of Groups conferences and make calls hands-free on the street in supported automobiles beginning this month — Siri pulls up conferences when prompted.

LinkedIn and Viva

Microsoft additionally introduced a public preview of the Viva Connections cellular app, which is ready to roll out in September. Viva Connections builds into Groups and offers a degree for information and conversations inside a customized feed. Within the dashboard, workers can discover assets and actionable duties like submitting expense stories, requesting day without work work, or verifying vaccination standing to return to the workplace.

On the LinkedIn aspect, the platform is rolling out devoted job search filters to assist extra simply floor distant, hybrid, and onsite alternatives. LinkedIn will quickly additionally present an area in firm profiles the place corporations can specify whether or not open roles would require vaccination, and whether or not the corporate plans emigrate again to an workplace, keep distant, or go hybrid.

To advertise reskilling and upskilling, LinkedIn says its skill-building platform, LinkedIn Studying Hub, will turn into typically accessible in two weeks. Within the meantime, the social community has made almost 40 LinkedIn Studying programs free till November 9, 2021.

“The shift to hybrid work is thrilling however can be a problem for each chief and group. Organizations that embrace the change and incorporate flexibility into their working fashions will create higher and extra inclusive work environments,” Microsoft Groups common supervisor Nicole Herskowitz wrote in a weblog put up. “At Microsoft, we’re dedicated in supporting a hybrid work tradition the place flexibility leads the way in which — giving our prospects and our workers the facility to work from wherever, anytime, and take management of their private growth and wellbeing.”