Microsoft Teams gets support for co-organizers to manage breakout rooms

Microsoft Teams gets a new update that provides co-organizer support for managing breakout rooms. The company recently announced that this feature will be rolled out in public preview to Windows and macOS desktop apps.

Like meeting organizers, Microsoft Teams now allows co-organizers to create and manage Breakout Rooms. The feature also allows co-organizers to add/delete rooms, open/close rooms, rename rooms, assign participants and make announcements. Co-organizers can configure breakout room settings to select additional administrators and perform other tasks.

“Users designated as co-organizers in the main meeting can create and manage breakout rooms on behalf of the organizer. They are also automatically assigned the role of co-organizer in breakout room meetings and can access meeting options for all breakout rooms/change. When rooms are opened, co-organizers will be treated as organizers with respect to the ability to participate in and move freely between Breakout Rooms, “Microsoft explained.

Microsoft also described some limitations worth noting. Currently, it is not possible to create breakout rooms prior to the meeting and assign participants in advance. This feature is only available to co-organizers during Microsoft Teams meetings.

Microsoft Teams adds new swap feature for video gallery in meetings

In addition, Microsoft has announced that support for paging on video gallery is now available in Teams meetings. As shown in the screenshot below, desktop users can use navigation controls to view video feeds that do not fit on the first page of the meeting stage. However, the number of videos may vary based on the type of content shared, Internet bandwidth and device configuration.

The switch feature is currently available in public preview for Windows and macOS devices. Microsoft says it should be a welcome addition for people with smaller screens. The company plans to make it generally available by the end of January.

source: petri