Microsoft Teams, Fluid, and Viva receive major improvements

Reading time icon 3 min. read


Readers help support Windows Report. When you make a purchase using links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Tooltip Icon

Read the affiliate disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report effortlessly and without spending any money. Read more

Key notes

  • Microsoft announces some of the enhancements they brought to Teams meetings, as well as Microsoft Teams Rooms.
  • The company makes interactions feel more natural and gives all in-room participants a greater sense of connection to the remote participants.
  • Some of the changes to Teams include the video gallery being moved to the bottom of the screen.
  • Paying more attention to remote work, Microsoft brings a completely new, hybrid work-focused Whiteboard experience.
New hybrid work innovations in Microsoft Teams Rooms, Fluid, and Microsoft Viva

Along with all its other major projects, that are in development as we speak, Microsoft keeps constantly improving all means needed to effectively collaborate from remote locations.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on many businesses and, as a result, virtual communication and collaboration methods have come a long way since this situation first started.

Microsoft keeps working on improving Teams

Today, Microsoft announced some of the enhancements they brought to Teams meetings, as well as Microsoft Teams Rooms that were built to create engaging experiences for all participants.

The tech giant also says that, over the course of this year, they will roll out front row in Teams Rooms, which is a more immersive room layout.

This will make interactions feel more natural and give all in-room participants a greater sense of connection to the remote participants.

Microsoft Teams is mission-critical to this vision for a more flexible world of work. Teams is unique in that it brings together meetings, chat, calls, collaboration, and business process automation in a single app.

The video gallery was also moved to the bottom of the screen, so that remote participants can be face-to-face with the ones in the room.

To better help everyone involved to actually stay engaged, meeting content is decorated by contextual meeting information such as the agenda, tasks, and notes.

Among the new features included in this enhancing process, are live reactions, spotlight, as well as the ability to pin multiple video streams.

As we also covered in a previous article, besides the enlarging of the participants’ video grid, Microsoft will also introduce chat bubbles, when using the classic video grid layout.

Microsoft creates new Whiteboard experience

Seeking to empower all remote participants to initiate, as well as facilitate their own whiteboard sessions, Microsoft brings a completely new, hybrid work-focused Whiteboard experience.

Using this feature, all attendees can visually collaborate across the same digital canvas.

The tech company also states that starting with this summer, these new features will enable users to bring already existing content to Whiteboard to co-author.

Also worth knowing is that new templates will help groups start brainstorming aster, thus improving their ability to follow along with contributors and other partners.

Microsoft also presents the new PowerPoint Live features that help create a shared space for collaboration and contributions from everyone in the meeting.

As you can remember, Microsoft has recently touted new Fluid components that create live, collaborative experiences which can be edited in real-time and shared across Teams and Office apps.

So, as of today, the Redmond company is announcing the expansion of Fluid components for Teams meetings, OneNote, Outlook, and Whiteboard.

They hope that this initiative will make it easier to collaborate synchronously and asynchronously across Teams and Office apps.

More about the topics: Microsoft Teams