This Microsoft Teams update will help enforce social distancing rules

Keeping control of your Microsoft Teams meetings could soon get a lot easier thanks to a new update aimed at limiting participant numbers.

TheĀ video conferencing service has announced new meeting room capacity notifications for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android, hopefully helping prevent virtual overcrowding.

The feature could also help in-office staff decide whether to move an in-person meeting online as concerns over Covid continue to rise.

Overcrowded

According to its entry on the Microsoft 365 roadmap, users will now see a notification on the front of room display alerting in-room meeting participants if the room is over-capacity.

This decision is based on the capacity defined in a room account, which for Android users of Microsoft Teams can be limited in order to cope with computing power and battery life.

Microsoft notes that only cameras that support people counting will support this feature.

When a panel is deployed outside a Teams Room that supports this feature, an alert will also be visible on the Teams panel, notifying people outside the room that it has reached capacity.

Microsoft introduced people counting to Teams in 2020 as more and more users flocked to the platform after being told to work from home. Currently, up to 1,000 people can chat and call in to a Microsoft Teams meeting, although this number rises to up to 20,000 for view-only and listen-only calls, such as presentations or webinars.

The new meeting room capacity notifications are set to roll out in February 2022, with all Microsoft Teams on Android users around the world able to experience it.

Users will need to ensure their devices are running some of the latest Android builds, after Microsoft recently revealed it will soon revoke support for versions of Teams running on older versions of the software. Support will be pulled for Teams on Android 5 on March 1, 2022, while Android 6 and 7 will retain support until July 1 and September 1, respectively.

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Sony is encouraging social distancing by gifting two free PS4 games

Sony has some good news for all the gamers stuck in self-isolation this week: it’s giving away two of widely recognized and widely lauded PS4 games absolutely free.

The games up for grabs include Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection that rounds up the first three games in the series and remasters them for the PS4, as well as the PS4 port of Journey

According to a post on the PlayStation Blog, the games are part of the company’s new Play at Home Initiative that intends to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 and includes a generous $ 10 million fund for indie developers to help support them in this difficult time. 

The games will be available starting on April 15 at 8pm PST / 11pm EST and will be available through May 5, 2020 at 8pm PDT / 11pm EST. Once you redeem the games, Sony says, they are yours to keep and the post makes no mention of needing a PlayStation Plus membership to snag the games.

Unfortunately, Sony says these games might take longer to download than usual – as the company is complying with the governments' request to preserve internet bandwidth – but thankfully you have three weeks to jump on this deal.

Looking for other great PS4 games to buy this week? Check these out:

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