We understand more now than ever small businesses are facing challenges they’ve never experienced before. We’re here to share some of the new and exciting features on Web that we find useful.

Introducing background effects on Web

Custom backgrounds are now available to web users. You can blur your background or select from Microsoft-provided backgrounds during your video meeting or call, making your meetings more fun and personal. Note that blurring or replacing your background may not prevent sensitive information from being visible to other people in the meeting.

CART captioning on Web

You can now view captions coming from a CART provider (real-time captioning) within the Microsoft Teams meeting window instead of a secondary window. Follow along with what is being said without having to choose between the captions and the presentation. Meeting organizers and participants can enable CART captions from their meeting options. Learn more here.

Live Captions in all available languages on Teams Meetings on Web

Live captions with speaker attribution allows you to see who is speaking along with what’s being said, making meetings more inclusive and easier to follow along. We have expanded to 27 new spoken languages, including German, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, and Hindi, to name a few. This provides flexibility and additional clarity for your participants to engage in meetings.

Live Transcript in all available languages on Teams Meetings on Web

Live transcription allows you to follow and review conversations alongside the meeting video or audio in real time. This promotes inclusivity for participants who have hearing disabilities or different levels of language proficiency. Attendees who joined late, or missed the meeting, can easily catch up by reading what was discussed from the transcript. We have also expanded to 27 new spoken languages, including German, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, and Hindi. Tenant admins have to turn on the Allow transcription policy to enable this feature.

To learn more about how small businesses are thriving during the pandemic with the help of Microsoft Teams, check out the blog series posts below:  

	‘Without Teams, my business wouldn’t be open right now’ Meet Core Fitness Miami, a small fitness and wellness business based in Miami that offers in-person and highly specialized training for clients alike. Due to the pandemic, the business found itself at a turning point and learned to creatively leverage Microsoft Teams to not only survive but thrive amid Covid-19.
	‘Teams has opened us up to a completely new way of thinking’ When COVID19 initially arrived in the U.K., Clifton Coffee Roasters had to find new virtual ways to host specialized barista training courses, coffee tasting sessions, and product launches. The small business turned to shifting operations online and grew the business by reaching more customers than ever.
	‘We didn’t know if we would make it to the summer’ Establishing and maintaining meaningful customer connections can be tough in a virtual setting. Priority Bicycles, a small business based in New York City, used Microsoft Teams to host virtual showroom visits to display their products and service customers via a digital medium.
	‘We kept our incredible team connected using Teams and Microsoft 365’ Prior to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, Cahoots ran more than 80 in-person camps and weekly workshops for young people living with disabilities or facing exceptional challenges. The Australian small nonprofit was then forced to pivot and found new ways to service its community safely with Microsoft Teams.

We are excited for what’s to come for the future of Small Businesses and are here to help drive those efficiencies. Learn more about what Teams can do for you and your small business.

Sourced from: Microsoft Teams Blog. View the original article here.