Microsoft Ignite 2020: Here are the top features coming to Microsoft Teams

Microsoft is also increasing the participant limit in Teams. Teams will support up to 1,000 participants with the full meeting experience by the end of the year.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella was addressing the Ignite event, held virtually for the first time. (MINT_PRINT)

Microsoft kicked off the Microsoft Ignite 2020 conference on September 22 with CEO Satya Nadella announcing a bunch of new updates for the company's various software and services. At the keynote address, Nadella not only made announcements regarding various software and services such as Microsoft Orbital and Azure Communication Services, but he also talked in length about Microsoft Teams, a service that is powering hundreds of companies worldwide.

At the Ignite 2020 event, he shared a host of new features that will be available in Microsoft Teams in the coming days. 

So, here are all the features that are coming to Microsoft Teams:

-- Microsoft Teams will get Together Mode Scenes, which includes auditoriums, conference rooms, and a coffee shop, later this year. This feature will enable presenters to select a scene from the gallery as the default for all meeting attendees. Additionally, the company is introducing ML in Together mode. This will automatically scale and center meeting participants in their virtual seats, regardless of how close or far they are from their camera, creating a more realistic visual experience.

-- Microsoft also announced custom layouts that will be available in Microsoft Teams later this year. This feature will allow presenters to customise how content shows up for participants during the meeting.

-- Microsoft Teams is also getting a new Breakout Rooms feature next month. This feature will allow meeting organisers to split up participants into smaller groups to facilitate brainstorming sessions or workgroup discussions. Presenters will also be able to hop between breakout rooms, make announcements to all breakout rooms, and close the rooms to return everyone to the main meeting.

-- Another feature coming to Microsoft Teams is ‘Recap'. This feature will let users recap with the meeting recording, transcript, chat, shared files, and more. This feature will help move work forward for both meeting participants and for those who were unable to attend a meeting. The Recap will also be available in Outlook calendar by going to the meeting event. “And soon, meeting recordings will be automatically stored—like other files are today—in Microsoft 365 so they can be shared, easily and compliantly, with external participants,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post.

-- Microsoft is also improving the Calling experience within Microsoft Teams, by including a streamlined view that shows contacts, voicemail, and calling history at once, making it easier to initiate or return a call with a single click.

-- Microsoft is also increasing the participant limit in Teams. Teams will support up to 1,000 participants with the full meeting experience by the end of the year. For larger meetings and events, Teams will soon seamlessly scale to support 20,000 participants in a view-only meeting experience that includes the ability to use live captions.