Welcome to the No Jitter Roll, the regular round-up of news dedicated to the communications and collaboration industry. In this week's edition, we explore some recent updates made to Microsoft Teams and Zoom and then look at hybrid work-friendly devices coming out of the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) from HP.
Microsoft Wraps Year With Chat Updates
In its
last "What's New" blog post of 2022, Microsoft shared a slew of December updates for Microsoft Teams chat and supported Teams devices. For Teams chat and meetings, the company shared the following updates:
- A delete chat option: Teams chat users can now delete conversations by clicking on the ellipsis next to a person’s name in the chat window and selecting “Delete chat.”
- Using @mentions to add people to group chat: Teams users can now use an @mention to add a participant to a chat. Additionally, users can control how much of the chat history they want to share with the participant.
- Recommended colleagues for chats: When starting a new Teams chat, a user will now receive a list of recommended colleagues for you to chat with based on previous Teams engagements.
- More emojis: Teams now supports over 800 emojis for chat.
- Sign Language View and always-on caption for meetings: For Teams meetings, hosts can prioritize up to two video streams for the sign language interpreter with the Sign Language View. Also, meeting hosts can also now default captions for all meetings.
Microsoft also recapped a list of updates to its digital whiteboarding capabilities, including new ad-hoc and touchscreen support, as
shared in this previous No Jitter Roll. Additionally, the company shared a list of devices that recently received Microsoft Teams certification, including the Neat Bar Pro video bar, Jabra Evolve Buds, Jabra Evolve 2 55 headset, and the EPOS Expand Vision 1 webcam.
Zoom Rings in New Year With Meeting Features
To start its year,
Zoom shared in a blog several updates to its meeting service. These updates include:
- Meeting templates: Zoom users can now choose or create, then save specific sets of settings to a new meeting instance. The out-of-the-box templates pair collaborative features with specific types of meetings – like disabling screen-sharing for seminars or pairing polls and quizzes for K-12 educational meetings.
- Threaded messages and reactions for meeting chats: Zoom users will soon be able to create message threads and consolidate emoji reactions within the meeting chat. This feature is expected to launch later this month.
- Q&A in meetings: Previously available only for Zoom Webinars, the Q&A feature for meetings will allow meeting hosts to view, answer and dismiss questions. Additionally, meeting hosts will be able to determine if all meeting participants can view all questions submitted or only the ones answered. Q&A in meetings is available for Zoom One Business, Zoom One Business Plus, Zoom One Enterprise, and Zoom One Enterprise Plus customers.
- More avatar options: Expanding the avatar options announced at last year’s Enterprise Connect, Zoom has added customizable virtual avatars to its filter collection. Avatars will also mirror their movements and facial expressions. Avatars are currently available in beta for all Zoom users, with additional customization options on the way.
HP Announces Poly Devices at CES 2023
At the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) this week,
HP introduced a host of new devices, including new Poly wireless earbuds and an HP webcam.
The Poly Voyager Free 60 Series earbuds feature up to five hours of talk time with noise-canceling and background-suppression capabilities. The standard model of the device includes a charging case, which adds 10 hours of talk time, and the Poly Voyager Free 60+ will come with a charging case that features a touch-screen display for volume, muting, and insight on battery life and call status.
The Poly Voyager Free 60 Series earbuds are projected to launch this March and will be available through Poly's and HP's websites in either a carbon black or white sand color, starting at $299. A Microsoft Teams-certified version will also be available, and admins can manage the device with the Poly Lens Mobile App.
Additionally, HP announced the HP 620/625 FHD Webcam, a Zoom-certified webcam that comes with built-in noise-reduction microphones, auto-focus, AI-based face framing capabilities, and background light options. This webcam is expected to launch this month for $109.99 and will be available on HP's website.
Get Ready for 2023 With These No Jitter Articles
Following another year of tremendous change in the enterprise communications and collaboration industry, 2023 is already shaping up to be another transformative year. For a sense of what’s in store for 2023, check out these articles from some of No Jitter’s top contributors and their predictions for the year ahead:
