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

Mute chat and hide your own video in Teams meetings coming

 Two new great tweaks are supposed to start rolling out in February.

Mute chat in meetings:
This is actually two settings described in one roadmap item. Some time ago, Teams introduced chat bubbles for users who closed their chat panel. Now, users get the options to mute these bubbles through a menu in the meeting. To enable this, just check the "Don't show chat bubbles" item. This is a per meeting setting.


The other option is to globally (per user) mute all notifications whenever you are in a meeting. This will also mute the chat bubbles. It will also mute all chat and other Teams related notifications from outside the meeting.

Hide your own video:
Another nice tweak coming soon, is the capability to hide your own video feed in meetings. This doesn't stop your video, but simply removes yourself from what you see on the screen.

None of these features will need any admin actions, but user manuals and training should be updated to make users aware of the new features.

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