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A new view designed to highlight a specific speaker in Microsoft Teams calls appears to help the platform prepare for the likes of Zoom and Google Meet.
Video conferencing platforms were all the rage as workers were forced to pack their backs and work from home. Despite many employees now returning to the office, such tools have remained an important part of our daily lives, to the point that companies regularly add new features to keep up.
Microsoft Teams now hopes it can prevent people from exploring other options by offering yet another view for video callers.
Microsoft Teams speaker view
In a listing on the company Microsoft 365 roadmap (opens in new tab), the company specifies that the speaker display “emphasizes the active speaker while still allowing the rest of the meeting participants to see.” It’s unclear how many other participants can remain visible when speaker view is enabled.
Like the view of the speaker on other video calling platforms, chances are the primary view dynamically adjusts to whoever is speaking.
End users can switch to this new display type via the display switcher that already allows for other screen layouts.
The plans suggest the new feature will be available in web and desktop instances first, indicating that the large screen size is a top priority for the company.
With this in mind, it’s possible that mobile devices will soon get the update too, for those who prefer to work on the go.
General availability is slated for March 2023, which means if you’ve previously considered switching to something like Google Meet because of the speaker view, you might want to wait a few more weeks.