Having to hide or mute apps or programs during a video conference call or meeting for fear of embarrassing messages or pop-ups could soon be a thing of the past as a new project from Microsoft comes to fruition.
The company is reportedly working on a new feature that will allow users to completely hide specific apps during a Microsoft Teams call, meaning you should be protected from alerts or notifications that you’d rather keep private.
The patent for the feature was noticed by Windows reportwhich noted that the feature may not be limited to the desktop or to the Windows operating system as a whole, meaning any app or feature could be completely hidden, saving you from having to explain what exactly that WhatsApp message or Slack DM is meant your boss.
Hide it all
Windows users can currently minimize apps during a call, but this only sends them to the taskbar, meaning they can still show notifications or pop-ups unless they are manually disabled.
But this new patent describes a way to completely hide entire apps or even parts of the Windows user interface for a period of time. Once hidden, the system can keep them on pause in the background, ready to be reactivated once the time period has expired, but cannot display any updates in the meantime.
This would also mean that the hidden applications consume less computing power and resources, hopefully leading to better performance on the device.
If you have an outdated laptop or work computer, you’re probably well accustomed to closing apps and browser windows to ensure your video stream remains reliable during a call. This could be over soon.
So the feature sounds like it could be a win-win for users, not only helping to avoid embarrassing mistakes, but also improving device performance and reducing distractions.
We’ll now have to see if the patent makes the leap from idea to reality, so we’ll keep an eye on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap to see if there’s any progress soon.