Microsoft’s latest improvement to the video side of its Teams collaboration platform let users swap content when participating in a gallery with up to 49 people on the screen.
“When you have a meeting and someone shares content, you can now click on participant videos in gallery view to swap the content with gallery,” Microsoft explains.
The content sharing feature is available in public preview, so it may still have bugs, but it does allow users in the 49-person gallery mode to click on participant videos in gallery view to share content across the virtual room. Microsoft introduced the 49-person grid view in late 2020, six months after users complained that the then-9-person view was not enough for large lockdown meetings.
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Users can also launch the 49-person large gallery mode when someone else is sharing a screen. Previously, large gallery was disabled when content was shared, so this is equally about removing an obstacle as it is enabling a feature.
In gallery view in a meeting, when someone else shares content, the content appears in the center and videos move to the side or top, according to Microsoft.
“By clicking on participant videos, you are able to swap. So you can bring videos to the center and content like shared desktop/window, PowerPoint Live presentation or Whiteboard to the side/top,” it notes in a blogpost.
The move is Microsoft’s latest effort to beef up Teams and align the platform with customers, competitors and its own shifting plans around when workers return to work in the face of the Delta variant of the coronavirus currently sweeping across the world.
Microsoft chief Satya Nadella earlier this year said Microsoft wanted Teams to recreate the water-cooler experience. Microsoft would, he said: “develop company-wide norms to create inclusive meetings – from configuring meeting rooms to optimize for remote participants, to encouraging onsite participants to join Microsoft Teams as soon as they enter the room, so remote participants don’t miss out on the informal banter crucial to rebuilding social capital and connection.”