Steve Goodman at Practical 365 has updated his article on Teams background effects and how you can set a custom background.
MVP Josh Blalock has a great video overview of the Poly CCX 500 Deskphone for Microsoft Teams.
Paul Lange on Twitter points out that LongestIdle as a new routing method for call queues in Microsoft Teams:
Welcome our new member in the CallQueue game – LogestIdle 😀 pic.twitter.com/RG7ZrR1xng
— Paul Lange (@pl_lange) June 8, 2020
Tony Redmond has another great article talking about why Teams is the Most Difficult Office 365 Application to Backup.
MVP Tom Arbuthnot explains the differences between Microsoft Teams Rooms vs Microsoft Teams Collaboration Bars. The collaboration bars are a newer device type that might leave admins wondering where to use it. Tom has a second article where he walks through some hands on experience with the Yealink VC210 Microsoft Teams Collab bar.
MVP James “UcMadScientist” Arber has great time saving script on how to export on-premises LIS data for importing into the Call Quality Dashboard.
Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jared Spataro gives some great links to download custom backgrounds to use in Microsoft Teams, including XBox and classic solitaire theme images.
Filipp Seljanko gives some fantastic news that Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) are now certified for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing. This will help organizations leverage their existing infrastructure to integrate with Teams and avoid deploying a separate SBC from another vendor.
Road Map Updates
Safe Transfer
Teams users will be able to transfer a call between Teams and Skype for Business. If the target user doesn’t answer the call, it is sent back to the transferrer (this must be the safety part to make sure it is answered). The person transferring the call must a Teams users, and the person receiving the transferred call can either be a Teams or Skype for Business user in the same tenant or a federated tenant. Expected release is July 2020.
Tagging by Shifts
This feature automatically assigns users with tags matching their schedule and shift group name for the Shifts app in Teams. Expected release is July 2020.
Use Sensitivity Labels in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Groups, and SharePoint Sites
Sensitivity labels created in the Microsoft 365 compliance center can be applied to the following containers: Microsoft Teams sites, Microsoft 365 groups, and SharePoint sites. Expected release is June 2020.
Teams Meetings Background Effects and Policy Administration for GCC, GCC High, and DoD Tenants
Users in government tenants are getting the ability to customize their background by uploading their own images. Tenant administrators are also getting the ability to assign user-level policies to control which background effects users can have. Check out my article on how to create and assign these policies here. Expected release is June 2020.
Tip of the Week
Donovan Brown of Microsoft has a great video on how to configure a PowerPoint presentation in a Teams meeting so each presenter can advance their own slides and avoid saying “Next slide please!”.
