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Posts tagged "update"

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This Microsoft Teams update will help enforce social distancing rules
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Keeping control of your Microsoft Teams meetings could soon get a lot easier thanks to a new update aimed at limiting participant numbers.

The 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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Google Calendar update will prevent disastrous scheduling mishaps
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Keeping your work and personal lives seperate should soon be easier than ever thanks to a new update to Google Calendar on mobile.

The company has revealed it will be adding account profile pictures in the top corner of Google Calendar on mobile, whether you're on Android or iOS. 

This should mean that users are able to quickly and easily spot  which account you’re currently using and easily toggle between accounts – and hopefully not spam your work calendar with birthday parties and hospital appointments.

Google Calendar accounts

In a blog post announcing the update, Google said the change should also make it easier to work out which account you're using when creating an event – and you can switch easily by clicking the profile picture displayed, much like in other Google apps.

It adds that users will still be able to see events for all accounts you’re logged into in your calendar, as well as still seeing events in any other calendar account you may have added.

Your active account will always be listed at the top of the accounts in the overflow menu, hopefully minimizing any possible confusion.

Google calendar switch between accounts

(Image credit: Google)

The update is rolling out now to iOS and Android users, with all Google Workspace customers, G Suite Basic and Business customers, and users with personal Google Accounts able to download.

The news is the latest update to Google Calendar as the company looks to help employees embracing hybrid working that are splitting their time between the office and home.

Recently, it revealed a tool that means Gmail users will now be able to specify whether they will be attending a meeting either virtually or in-person in their email RSVP.

The news comes shortly after the launch of a new “Focus time” feature in Google Calendar that will allow users to block out periods of time where they can avoid meetings and get their heads down for actual work.

Setting such a marker in your Google Calendar will also allow users to automatically decline meetings, meaning no last-minute rush to finish off work.

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Microsoft Teams update will help you see eye-to-eye with co-workers
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Microsoft is readying an update for collaboration platform Teams that will supposedly help make video calls feel more natural in the world of hybrid working.

As per a new entry in the company’s product roadmap, Microsoft Teams users will soon benefit from an additional video call layout, called Front row.

“Front row is a new layout that enables better hybrid meetings,” explained Microsoft. “It brings remote participants to eye level with participants in [conference] rooms and adds additional data like chat to give in-room users better context of what’s happening in the meeting.”

The new layout is still under development, but should be available to all Teams users via the layout picker by the end of January.

Microsoft Teams calls

Since the start of the pandemic, vendors of video conferencing services like Teams, Zoom and Meet have fought to optimize call layout for maximum engagement and productivity.

Until now, the emphasis has been on creating new layouts that help remote workers present more effectively. In June, for example, Microsoft launched two new layouts for Teams, called Reporter and Side-by-Side. The former positions content above the presenter’s shoulder, as if they were a news anchor, and the latter displays content next to the presenter’s video feed.

On the side, there has also been a race to see who can support the largest number of video call participants on-screen at once. Currently, Teams and Zoom lead the way with massive 49-person gallery layouts.

Now, however, Microsoft appears to have turned its attention to augmenting its collaboration platform for hybrid working, whereby employees split their time between the home, office and any other location.

A major priority among businesses is to ensure meetings remain equitable when half the participants are in the room and the other half are dialling in remotely. According to Microsoft, a small change like the new Front row layout can help create “a more inclusive environment” and head off some of these potential issues.

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Microsoft Outlook update wants to boost the hybrid working spirit
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Keeping track of your team in this new hybrid working age should soon be more straightforward thanks to a new update to Microsoft Outlook.

The email service is working on a new feature that it says will allow workers more flexibility and efficiency when working away from the office.

According to an entry in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, the update, simply entitled “working hours and location” will allow users to set a notice showing where they are working, whether that be at home, in the office, or anywhere else in particular.

Flexible working

“New working hours and location options in Outlook lets people set more flexible working hours each day and specify the location from where they plan to work,” the roadmap entry adds.

The update is scheduled for general availability for all Web Outlook users across the globe, with a targeted release date of June 2022.

The news does mean that Outlook is finally catching up to some of its rivals when it comes to having flexible working-linked tools enabled.

Google Calendar launched a similar feature in August 2021, allowing users to highlight exactly where they would be working, with the options of home, office, or a specific other location.

Users can also create a weekly working location routine if they plan on going into the office on certain days and working remotely on others, which can be updated at any time if plans change. There was no information as to whether Microsoft's Outlook update will do the same, but we're hopeful it will.

In July, Google Calendar also added an option that allows users to specify whether they would be attending a meeting in-person or virtually using video conferencing software.

Outlook has released a number of updates recently as it looks to maintain its place as a leading email service for users across the world. Most intriguingly, the company says it is working on a tool that will help users eliminate mistakes from their messages with the launch of spelling and grammar checks for its Outlook on mobile platform.

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This Microsoft Edge update will help you spot why your browser is running so slowly
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Spotting potential browser slowdowns in Microsoft Edge could soon be a lot easier thanks to a new tool that will allow users to debug memory leaks.

Memory leaks occur when an application's JavaScript code retains more and more objects in memory that it no longer needs instead of releasing them for garbage collect (GC).

For apps that run for a long time without being closed, small memory leaks of only a few kilobytes can add up to noticeably degrade performance over time according to a new blog post from Microsoft.

Detached

React, the open source JavaScript library for building front end user interfaces, maintains a virtualized copy of the DOM (Document Object Model). However, failing to properly unmount components can lead to an application leaking large parts of the virtual DOM.

For this reason, the Microsoft Edge team worked together with Microsoft Teams to build the browser's new Detached Elements tool that allows users to investigate and resolve DOM memory leaks.

Although there are valid reasons for detaching elements, DOM memory leaks occur when an application keeps references to more and more detached elements without actually reusing them later. As the code used in applications grows in size and complexity, it becomes easier to make mistakes and forget to clean things up which could unknowingly lead to keeping DOM elements in memory. 

This is particularly a problem for long running applications. For instance, if an email client detaches DOM elements every time an email is opened and closed and a user keeps the app running for a whole week, it could amount to really high memory usage and slow down a user's business laptop or workstation over time.

While Microsoft's new Detached Elements tool has been available in Edge Canary since version 93, it will roll out to the stable channel of Microsoft Edge when version 97 of the browser launches this month.

To access this new tool early though, you'll first need to open DevTools in Edge by pressing F12 and click on the gear icon to open the DevTools Settings. From here, navigate to Experiments on the left side of the Settings pane, type in Detached Elements and click on the tool to enable it.

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Google Calendar update will stop people clogging your day with needless meetings
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Google is rolling out improvements for its calendar app that should help people better manage their busy schedules.

As described in a blog post, Google Calendar users will soon benefit from the ability to prevent unwanted invitations from being added to their calendar.

Under the updated system, users can choose for meetings and other events to be added to their calendar only after they have responded to the email invitation. The effect, says Google, is a less cluttered calendar interface and less time spent on administration.

The new Google Calendar feature should go live for all Workspace users (both business and personal) within the next two weeks.

Google Calendar invitations

Since the transition to remote and hybrid working, many more meetings have taken place over video conferencing and VoIP services. Managers have also been encouraged to check in more frequently with employees, in the absence of a quick chat or coffee break at the office.

All of this means a larger volume of meetings and more unwieldy calendars, which is somewhat of a nightmare for anyone who already spent more than their fair share of time in meetings before the pandemic.

With this latest update, however, Google Workspace users will be able to manage their calendars more effectively with less manual effort, as well as highlighting the events and meetings most important to them.

Of course, the ability to divert invitations doesn’t address endemic problems with meetings culture in this new world of hybrid working, but it will at least go some way to alleviating the symptoms.

To activate or deactivate the new feature, use the following pathway in the Google Calendar web app: Settings > Event settings > Add invitations to my calendar.

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Microsoft Teams update will eliminate a common business bottleneck
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Getting your next big project or idea approved by your manager or boss can often slow down productivity which is why Microsoft launched its new Approvals app in Microsoft Teams earlier this year.

The Approvals app can be accessed from any chat or channel conversation or by using the dedicated app entry point in the left navigation bar in Teams.

With the app open, all you have to do is fill in the details of the approval like the title, description and the users who need to approve it and hit 'Send'. However, you can also add attachments from Microsoft's office software or custom responses to tailor the request to your business needs.

Once submitted, the approvers are notified within Teams and can act on an approval request either from the chat directly using the Approvals card or from within the Personal app. They can also quickly review the details of the approval right within Teams before making a decision to approve or reject it.

Microsoft 365 groups as approvers

After launching in January of last year, Microsoft is now working on a new feature for the Teams Approval App that is slated to roll out next month.

According to a new post in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, the software giant is adding the ability to select Microsoft 365 groups as approvers when creating a new approval request within Teams.

For those unfamiliar, Groups in Microsoft 365 let you choose a set of people that you wish to collaborate with and easily set up a collection of resources for those people to share. These resources may include a shared Outlook inbox, shared calendar or a document library in OneDrive for collaboration on files.

When this new feature becomes available, Teams users will be able to send approval requests to their Microsoft 365 groups which could be useful if approvers aren't using the company's video conferencing software and online collaboration tool.

Looking to improve your video call experience? Check out our roundups of the best video conferencing software, best business webcams and best headsets for conference calls

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Google takes aim at Microsoft 365 with small but important update
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Google is taking the fight to Microsoft with an update for Workspace that introduces new synergies between its productivity and collaboration apps.

As detailed in a new blog post, Google Workspace users will soon be able to launch into various applications easily from within messaging platform Chat.

“While you’re having a conversation in Google Chat, you can now more easily take actions in other Google Workspace products. The options vary by context, and can include Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Photos and Calendar,” explained Google.

“This will make it easier to take action across Google Workspace and enable a faster and more seamless workflow.”

The update will begin to take effect for Android and desktop users over the next couple of weeks, but won’t land on iOS until the new year.

Google Workspace update

Since the birth of G Suite in 2006, Google has competed directly with Microsoft in the office software space, going up against the famous Microsoft 365 suite, which houses the likes of Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc.

One of the defining features of Microsoft’s offering is tight integration between apps and services, extending all the way out to the Windows operating system on which most business devices run. And although Google stole the march on Microsoft when it came to the cloud-based model, individual G Suite apps have historically felt much more isolated.

When Google rebranded its productivity suite as Workspace last year, however, the company announced it would make a concerted effort to create a more “deeply integrated user experience”, by improving the level of interoperability between its various productivity apps.

The latest Workspace update takes steps towards achieving this goal, but is just one of a number of improvements Google has made in recent months where interoperability is concerned.

In June, for example, the company announced an integration between Chat and Calendar, which helps users connect quickly with co-workers ahead of or after an upcoming meeting. This was later followed by a separate integration that allows users to share documents and messages with meeting attendees from within the calendar marker.

At its annual Cloud Next event, meanwhile, Google announced it will invest heavily in the Workspace Marketplace, the third-party app library that services its product suite. The goal is to create ways to expand the functionality of its services and cut the number of apps workers are required to juggle at once.

While these updates might appear insignificant in isolation, each contributes to the goal of stitching together Google Workspace in a way that will make the user experience feel less disjointed and more coherent.

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Microsoft Teams update will let you flirt with the forbidden fruit
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Microsoft is preparing an update for collaboration platform Teams that will help people make use of the full breadth of available features.

As per a new entry in the company’s product roadmap, Microsoft Teams will soon give users a way to petition admins for access to blocked apps and integrations.

“[The new feature will] enable users to discover Teams apps in the store and request approval from administrators,” the company explained.

The access request system is still currently under development, but is slated to roll out to all users by the end of next month.

Microsoft Teams apps

Since the start of the pandemic, the volume of third-party integrations available for platforms like Teams, Zoom and Slack has shot through the roof, affording users access to a wider range of functionality (e.g. cloud storage, CRM, calendaring etc.) from within a single client.

However, it’s not uncommon for administrators to limit the type or number of Microsoft Teams apps employees are allowed to install, in an effort to ensure neither security nor productivity is compromised.

But soon, if an employee feels a third-party application has been unduly banned, they will have a formal avenue through which they can request access.

This isn’t the only way Microsoft has attempted to augment the Teams app store in recent weeks, either. Last month, the company announced a new system to help identify the most useful and relevant apps on a user-by-user basis.

Once the update takes effect, users will benefit from intelligent recommendations and “a landing page optimized for ease of discoverability”. Microsoft also says it will rejig the app categories to make it simpler for people to find the services they are actively searching for, including those built and deployed by in-house developers.

Combined, the two updates should help reinforce the status of Teams as a central hub for working (a long-time goal of Microsoft’s), by ensuring users have access to all the functionality they need.

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