Microsoft Teams: Turning on the New Meeting Experience

Overview

Microsoft Teams is an easy way to pull together a group to share, collaborate and communicate in one central location without the use of phone calls that take time away from our day or emails that can easily get buried.  From directly within Teams we can bring everyone together to share information, securely edit files live and at the same time, bring together Microsoft Office 365 apps (OneDrive, OneNote, Planner, Forms, etc) and third-party apps and websites in one place, tag members of the team in conversations or actions and customize the work through adding notes (OneNote and others) and other applications.  

Within Teams, there are a number of options for meetings.  Some of the newer features (Large Gallery, 3x3, All Together Now, and more) are only available if you turn on the New Meeting Experience in Teams.  Here is how you turn on New Meeting Experience, and what's is different about it!

Note: Once New Meeting Experience is enabled, you will need to completely exit, and reload Teams to enable it.  This setting is also per-computer, which means when you go to another classroom, you will need to do it again.

For a more in-depth walk-through with Microsoft Teams, view the Tech Talk video training.

Microsoft Teams "New Meeting Experience"

1. First, make sure you are using the Microsoft Teams application, and not accessing Teams through a web browser.  While New Meeting Experience works in Chrome and Edge, we highly recommend using Teams in the desktop application for the best, and most consistent experience in your meetings.  To do this, make sure you are launching Teams from an icon on your desktop, in the Start Menu (Windows), or the Applications section of Launcher in MacOS.
2. Once you are in the desktop application in Teams, find your picture (if you have not yet uploaded a picture, they are mandatory for all employees, click here to learn how to do it - but in the interim, click your initials) in the upper-right corner of Teams and click on your picture/initials.
   
   
3. Once you've clicked on your picture or initials, you will see the menu below, click Settings.
   
   
    
4. You will be taken to the Teams Settings --> General page.  On this page, scroll down until you see the Application section as shown below.
   
   
    
5. Click the check box for Turn on new meeting experience (New meetings and calls will open in separate windows. Requires restarting Teams.)
6. Then click the X in the upper-right corner of the dialog box to close, changes are saved automatically.
7. Now, find the Teams icon in your taskbar (bottom of your screen) and right-click on it.  When you do that, you will see a menu like the one pictured below.  Click on Quit.  This will exit Teams.  Note: simply closing the Teams window, or clicking the X in the upper-right corner does not exit Teams, and you will not get New Meeting Experience when you re-open the Window.)
8. Finally, open Teams again via the Start Menu, desktop icon, or Applications menu (MacOS), and New Meeting Experience will be enabled. 
   Here are the features included in New Meeting Experience - most features are accessible through the Action Menu (three dots).  Some features are not yet enabled and are coming as Microsoft rolls them out to us.
   - Meeting and call controls move from the bottom middle to the top of the screen in meetings.
   - All meetings open in a separate window and leave the full Teams application easily accessible behind the meeting.
   - Large gallery view allows you to see 7x7 (49) cameras on screen at once.  It requires more than 10 cameras to be turned on.
   - Together Now mode allows you to see your attendees who have cameras on in seats in an auditorium style view (more than 10 cameras must be on, and only those with cameras turned on are put in seats, everyone else is put at the bottom).
   - Meeting notes are now taken in the Meeting Notes tab in the main Teams window.  Access it view the three dots, then Show meeting notes.
   - Focus Mode is available when content is being shared.  This allows you to chose something on-screen to focus on, and not see anyone's video feeds.
   - Live captions show at the bottom center of the screen, instead of the top.
   - Breakout Rooms

Note: As other new features are rolled out to Teams meetings, New Meeting Experience will be required to take advantage of them.