By Michele McCoy Jerome, MPA, CAE, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Operations 

Microsoft has been rolling out new features in Teams as quickly as possible to increase collaboration during this pandemic – and make us all feel a bit more connected. Two new features currently in the process of being rolled out are Large Gallery View and Together Mode. These features are for Teams meetings. 

Large Gallery View 

This view lets you see up to 49 video streams (people) at once. It shows in a 7×7 block – Brady Bunch style. Below is a sample. 

Together Mode

In this mode, Teams makes it appear as if the meeting participants are in the same room. You access these views in the meeting controls, which brings me to another upgrade…

 Meeting Controls 

Meeting controls are moving to the top of the meeting screen. And, they will be docked there so you always have access to them (without jiggling your mouse) and they’re out of the way of the content and video that’s being shared.  

Both Large Gallery and Together Mode are being rolled out gradually over the next few weeks. If you don’t see them right away, check again later. Let your colleagues know when you do see them as they likely will as well.