Join Teams work meetings from Microsoft Teams (free) and vice versa

Microsoft Teams (Free) users can currently join Teams for work (or school) meetings only as guests, which requires them to use a browser and results in a sub-optimal experience. The new feature rolling out will allow these users to join Teams for work (or school) meetings in one click, without being redirected to the browser or asked to fill in their name/surname. They will also be able to continue collaborating with the meeting organizer and other participants via meeting chat after the meeting.  The feature will work in the opposite way as well, so Teams for work (or school) will just as easily be able to join meetings hosted by a Teams Free user with one click. This is associated with Roadmap ID: 167326

A couple of favorite news on Teams this week

There have been a lot of news around Teams the past week(s), and I wanted to share some of the highlights I am excited about this week. The place to be to get these news firsthand is to be a member of the Microsoft Teccommunity, and to follow the Teams blog found right here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog

The first and most important post to read this week, is Ann Michel's post on news in the April release for Teams. There are a lot of cool new features listed there, such as:
- Skype for Business contacts coming to Teams
- Unified presence
- Out of Office messages
- Skype for Business Interop with Persistent chat
- Expanded Guest Access (I'll cover that as my favorite in a later post)
- New Admin Center
- Retention policies
- Teams installed as a MSI package
- Guest Access on mobile (all platforms)
Read the entire post right here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/What-s-new-in-Microsoft-Teams-April-update/ba-p/179801

Thomas Binder has a new post on "IT Pro readiness for Microsoft Teams". It's a quick intro to updated documentation on docs.microsoft.com, and a collection of tutorial every organization preparing for Teams should be familiar with. Take a look for yourself right here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/IT-pro-readiness-for-Microsoft-Teams/ba-p/179216

There is an in-depth post from Christian Schacht on the announced Microsoft Teams & Skype for Business Admin Center https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Announcing-the-new-Microsoft-Teams-amp-Skype-for-Business-Admin/ba-p/179534 The portal is just about to roll out, so it could take some time until you see it in your own tenant.

Another great announcement was the "Teams On Air" episode 65 on "Direct Routing for enterprise voice in Microsoft Teams". This is THE feature I've been waiting for, as Microsoft is not currently providing PSTN in my customer's region. It's also a great for those companies who need a co-existing scenario with their own on-premises pbx. Looking forward to test the setup and end-user experience here. Watch the show on Youtube:


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