Do you want to participate in an online video meeting, but you’re not a fan of being put in the spotlight yourself? Microsoft Teams has the solution for you, as the company announced the rollout of its new Live Reactions feature to the service.
What Is Microsoft Teams’ Live Reactions Feature?
Microsoft announced the feature on LinkedIn. The new Live Reactions feature hopes to capture something that’s missing in a remote environment: people’s real-time reactions to statements and news.
Troy Batterberry, the Vice President of Microsoft Teams Meetings, feels that the software giant’s service could do with a personal touch. As he states in the LinkedIn post:
One of the things I miss about meeting in person is the rich flow of non-verbal communications. Various studies over the years have suggested that as much as 70%-90% of human communications are non-verbal. When meeting in person, everyone in the room can “feel” the energy from non-verbal reactions such as smiles, clapping, etc. For online meetings, having everyone turn on their video certainly can make a BIG difference helping convey non-verbal communication.
To solve this problem, Microsoft is rolling out a feature that allows attendees to respond to the meeting with various emojis. Did someone say something you agree with? Show your support by clicking the clapping emoji, and your response appears on everyone’s screen as a floating icon.
Bringing a Personal Touch to Remote Work
With the COVID-19 pandemic causing everyone to work from home where possible, we’ve lost an inter-personal link that only face-to-face communications can give to us. Instead of meeting up with co-workers and socializing during work, we’re stuck in a home office in dead silence—or worse, a noisy household.
Working from home can be a lonely experience, which not a lot of people can adapt to after getting used to a busy office. Microsoft has been trying ways to replicate that feeling in a digital environment.
For instance, the company recently implemented Starbucks gift cards into Microsoft Teams, so people could purchase a coffee for each other—even if it meant them having to actually go out and get it.
As such, Microsoft has its work cut out for it if it wants to recreate the office atmosphere in Teams. There’s only so much you can do when all your co-workers are reduced to webcam feeds, so we’ll have to see what the company does next.
Bringing a Team Together in Teams
With everyone working from home as much as possible, we’ve lost a personal touch that can only truly be expressed when meeting other people face-to-face. We’ll have to see if Microsoft can make remote meetings a more personal experience.
If you wish you were in the same room as your co-workers were in the same room, Microsoft Teams does have Together Mode. This feature snips out everyone’s background, then arranges them into a digital room for a more personal experience.
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