New update. Microsoft has announced a bunch of new capabilities for Teams displays as part of the March 2021 update. And there’s plenty of good stuff in.
As the announcement post reveals, there are replaceable backgrounds, Cortana has gotten more useful, and there are AI based quick responses. Details on them below, but first let’s take a look at what Teams displays and what they do.
These are devices like the Lenovo ThinkSmart View, smart displays that run Teams as an operating system, allowing users to make calls and join meetings on the service.
Getting back to the new additions, we have replaceable backgrounds, which is a feature that has already been available on Teams for desktop PCs since 2019. Now, Teams displays can blur or completely replace the background of a video feed with a selection of included images.
Microsoft has also added in support for live reactions in meetings, meaning you can send things like a clapping emoji or heart in response to what other people said.
As for Cortana, she can now search the web for you. You can ask her questions about the time, weather, and so on. This allows you to quickly share the information with other people on a meeting.
On that note, Cortana support is coming to Teams displays in Canada, Australia, the UK, India — as long as you are using the displays in English. The abovementioned support for Bing searches is included too, so you get a complete package.
Speaking of completing packages, Microsoft has also added support for AI based quick responses.
When you get a message in a chat, the Teams display will suggest a response based on what the other person said, so you can simply just tap the option you want instead of typing it out.
Good stuff.
