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The Best 25 Features of Microsoft Teams in 2020

Posted: Aug 2020

Studies show that Microsoft Teams now has more than 75 million active users on its platform.

Have you thought about using Microsoft Teams for your business? Are you aware of all of its features? What questions do you have about getting started?

There are several components of Microsoft Teams that can help your business grow, communicate, and share.

Keep reading to learn more about the best features of Microsoft Teams:

Increased Accessibility

Microsoft Teams offers several features that allow for increased accessibility among its users.

1. Real-Time Collaboration

Collaboration is all about working together. Being able to complete tasks in real-time with Microsoft Teams will help foster the teamwork without any delays. Gone are the days of waiting for an email with instructions or spending hours editing and re-editing content.  

2. Access From Any Device

Do you travel for work? Does your company have employees all over the United States, or even international? Can you still work if you do not have access to your work desktop?

Accessibility is extremely important for employees at all times and the ability to access Microsoft Teams from a work-approved smartphone, tablet, or laptop would help to increase productivity when they are working outside of the office. When an employee is out on vacation, they can catch up on the business activities from home and not feel like they are out of the loop upon their return to work.

3. Reader

The immersive reader allows the consumer to translate, view, and hear the message. This opens up access to more individuals and gives them more options on how a piece of information is communicated.

This would allow access from anywhere in the world and be especially beneficial if your company employs contract workers that live in different places. 

4. Supports Third-Party Applications

Do you use applications that are not created by Microsoft? This is not a problem. Microsoft Teams supports third-party applications so that you don’t have to give up something that you enjoy using. 

5. Personal Availability

Do you ever wonder when your manager is available for a meeting? Have you ever missed a call from a client because you were in another important meeting? There is a ‘notify when available’ feature that can display your personal availability during the workday and communicates it to others.

Organization

Keeping your workspace organized is important in completing business tasks. There are several features of Microsoft Teams that are designed for increased organization within your workflow. 

6. Bookmark Content

Do you ever read an email and wish you could save it to come back to later? In Microsoft Teams best features, there is an option to bookmark content to save it for later.

This could be helpful when you are scanning your emails in the morning or taking a quick look at projects before taking the time to respond. 

7. Pin Your Apps

You may use several apps on a given workday but which ones do you use the most often? 

With Microsoft Teams, you can pin the apps that you enjoy using the most and not spend any time searching for them within the program. Efficiency is key and pinning apps will aid in your workflow.

8. Grid View

The grid view offers a simpler way to navigate through your different tabs and channels. You have the option to hide ones that you use less often and highlight the ones you use more frequently. 

9. Storage For Recordings

Did you miss the staff meeting last week? Were you on a client call and want to find out what happened? 

Microsoft Teams allows you to store recordings of the meetings to view later. This ensures that everyone can access the information of the meetings from an organized system. 

10. Analytics

Analytics are important within a business but need to be organized. Knowing where each area of statistics and feedback is stored will allow you to use them properly for the future when making business decisions. 

11. Scheduling Meetings

Calendar organization is crucial to business success. The ability to schedule meetings within Microsoft Teams is a huge benefit. Your team will be able to see when you are available and when you are on a client call without ever having to ask. 

12. Tabs

Tabs are extremely useful and creating ones that help you be as efficient as possible will improve your workflow. Through the use of these, you may discover new ways to complete daily tasks.

13. The “@” Feature

This feature operates similar to a tag on social media. You can search for conversations or topics by using this feature, as well as mention team members that are involved in the email, project, or subject. 

14. Less Email Clutter

The ability to sort your emails (before they arrive) will be very beneficial when it comes to the organization of your inbox. You can decide where you would like certain emails to go and not be bothered by non-urgent issues until you are ready to process the email. 

Security

As with any business operations that happen online, you want your information to be protected. Microsoft Teams has many benefits when it comes to security.

15. Background Blur

Do you have family photos in your office that you don’t want to share with a brand-new client? Are there important pieces of information that can be seen through a webcam?

The background blur feature helps with this because it leaves the focus of the camera on you and removes the background from being a distraction of any kind.

16. Grant Guest Access

Do you have a speaker coming to present to your staff? Is there a need for a person outside your network to share with your team?

You can give guest access to your Microsoft Team to interact and collaborate. While it is typically private to your business, you have the ability to change this if the need arises. This can be changed once the guest no longer requires this access. 

17. Private Channels

How does your management team communicate important business information?

With Microsoft Teams best features, you can create private channels that limit who can see the information. This differs from a normal channel in which the entire organization would have access. 

18. Authentication Measures

Microsoft Teams requires additional forms of verification in order to access an account. This is an important security measure in the event of a device or network being hacked. The additional steps ensure that only members with the correct account information will be able to access your account data. 

We can help to create a culture of security in addition to the features of Microsoft Teams, which will help your business be fully ready for any potential breaches and know what to do if they happen. 

19. Settings

You are able to control the settings at an organization level as well as specific areas of Microsoft Teams. There may be stricter privacy settings in one area of business and more relaxed settings in another. Adjusting this to meet the needs of your company is another one of Microsoft Teams benefits.

We have a large team of specialized experts that are available to help you with crafting these settings for your business. 

Best Features of Microsoft Teams

While there are so many great features of Microsoft Teams, there are a few benefits that stand out above the rest.

20. Meetings

Creating meetings within Teams will revolutionize the way that you conduct business. Gone are the days of printing the agenda, papers, and important information or keeping 10 tabs open on your laptop. 

Hosting meetings within teams makes that experience of preparation, action, and review seamless. You will have all the necessary information in one place without having to search for it. The recording of the meeting can also be accessed thereafter it is completed.

21. Less Email Dialogue

The chat feature allows you to attach documents without sending an email and cluttering your fellow employees’ inboxes for a two-sentence message. You can contact them directly through chat and have the necessary dialogue to complete tasks this way.

22. Customization Options

Everyone organizes their work differently and goes about the same daily task in a different way. The ability to organize your account to best suit your business workflow is a huge benefit when working in Microsoft Teams. 

23. Works With Microsoft 365

Since they are both Microsoft creations, you won’t have to give up any of the work that you were completing in Microsoft 365. They work together to help you complete tasks for your workday and there are no issues with compatibility to worry about.

24. Calls

Your entire team, regardless of size can meet in one place and do business from there, no matter where their physical location actually is. This keeps all of your calls in one place for easy tracking, call history, and reports in the future.

25. Notifications

You can control which notifications from Microsoft Teams you want to receive and which ones need to be turned off. You can choose which information is most important to get instantly and which tasks can wait to be addressed.

Contact Us Today

Please contact our team today to speak with one of our experts about the best features of Microsoft Teams. We are happy to walk you through options as you look to improve the IT portion of your business. Check out our blog for more helpful articles like this. 

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