Microsoft Teams now allows users to send short video clip messages

The new asynchronous video chat tool is one of many Teams announcements from Inspire this week, including collaboration annotations and the Excel Live app in Teams meetings.

For those times when text messages and emojis just don’t cut it, Microsoft has given Teams users another option for communicating with colleagues: the ability to send short video clips using the chat feature.

It’s one of a handful of updates to Microsoft’s collaboration platform unveiled Tuesday at the Inspire partner event, including the addition of “stories” messages with the new Teams-based Viva Engage enterprise social network.

The video clip feature is accessed by clicking on a small video camera icon in the Teams text box, next to the Send button. From there, a user can record a short clip in a pop-up window and edit the length before posting in the Teams chat. Similar to a feature launched last year by rival chat app Slack, it offers an alternative to typing a message, either to save time or convey meaning more effectively.

Colleagues can then watch the clip whenever they want and add an asynchronous element to the chat platform.

Following the announcement of PowerPoint Live last year and the Live Share SDK for Teams two months ago, Microsoft also unveiled Excel Live. This brings the app to the Teams meeting screen for co-editing, where participants can load a spreadsheet and make changes to the document in real time without switching between apps or having to open Excel separately.

If a user has already opened a spreadsheet during a meeting and wants to bring it to Teams so colleagues can work on it, this can be done by clicking on the “share” menu and selecting the “Collaborate in Teams” option.

Excel Live will be available as a public preview in late August.

A number of previously announced features are now generally available: Teams Connect Shared Channels, which allows communication with external Teams users, and collaborative annotation. The latest brings tools from Microsoft’s Whiteboard app to Teams screen sharing to allow participants to interact with content during a meeting.

Source: channelasia