Blog Post

Nonprofit Techies
2 MIN READ

Cool Features in Microsoft Teams Meetings (Part 1)

KenelleMoore's avatar
KenelleMoore
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Dec 06, 2022

Greetings to our lovely NTA non-profits. This article will help you uncover some pretty cool features within Microsoft Teams that can help take your meetings to the next level. 

 

Live Transcription 

 

This first awesome feature was created for accessibility purposes as well as making your designated note taker's job 100% easier. The automatic transcribing feature is perfect for someone who may have missed the meeting and wants to later go back to the meeting recap in the chat to read everything that was discussed or for someone who needs to read captions in real time due to, for example, a hearing impairment or language barrier.  

 

This visual aid appears along the right-side of the meeting screen and is labeled by the speaker's name as well as the time spoken. Check out the link in the photo caption below to learn how to enable live transcription. 

 

 

Photo Cred and more info: View live transcription in a Teams meeting - Microsoft Support 

 

Speaker Coach 

 

As someone who experiences presenter's anxiety, this next feature is something I personally find very helpful. Speaker Coach provides live feedback on your presentation that is only visible to you. You will be able to gain insight on things such as the pace you are speaking, potentially insensitive wording and phrases, too many filler words, or if you are simply reading only the text from your presentation slide. 

 
At the end of your meeting, Speaker Coach will generate a report to conclude all of these insights and present suggestions that can help improve future presentations. Check out the link in the photo caption below to learn how to enable Speaker Coach. 

 

Photo Cred and more info: Preview: Speaker Coach in a Teams meeting - Microsoft Support 

 

 

Together Mode  

 

Last but not least of our highlights is a fun feature called Together Mode. Together mode allows you and your organization to virtually appear as if you are together in one room instead of individual call cells. This feature will encourage members of your organization to turn on their cameras in order to engage with one another and have a more interactive discussion. Together mode is best suited for verbal meetings that don't require visuals, presentations or screen sharing. To access Together Mode, start a meeting and select View in the top menu bar. Select together mode from the menu. 

 

Photo Cred and more info : Custom Together Mode Scenes - Teams | Microsoft Learn 

 

 

These are just 3 of the cool features in Microsoft Teams that you can use to maximize your organization's meeting experience. Be sure to look for more in future articles, Non-profits, and thank you for allowing us to serve you and in turn help better serve our communities!  

 

Updated Jan 26, 2024
Version 11.0
  • Cloud-Pia's avatar
    Cloud-Pia
    Brass Contributor

    Speaker coach - cool. But why is it so hard to turn on? I want it to be turned on always. I'm a consultant and have a lot of types of meetings. This should be something that I turn on in Viva for my profile and I can switch it off for certain units and apps (mobile). And that it turns off when I sign out. I can't turn it on now but I have to turn it on in a meeting to later turn it on in all meetings.. ? I mean... That is just... sloppy. Come on.