Microsoft Teams will soon have a new feature that will deliver high-quality video to event attendees. An upcoming update to Teams will add the option to share videos directly from OneDrive.

At the moment, sharing video during Teams events often requires screen sharing or embedding videos in PowerPoint. The first solution lowers quality and the second requires extra work. Being able to share a video directly from OneDrive will provide a smoother experience while also improving quality.

Microsoft detailed through the Microsoft 365 Message Center (archived here):

"Microsoft Teams will soon support sharing video directly from OneDrive during Teams events. Organizers and producers using Manage what attendees see can load videos from OneDrive and present them on stage without screen sharing a local media player or embedding videos in PowerPoint. This improvement provides smoother, higher-quality video playback for attendees and simplifies event production through built-in video playback controls."

The feature is expected to start rolling out in early November and should be available to all users by the end of December.

I run an American football team and we study film from games and practices. But because we are not attached to a specific school or building, our players and coaches are spread across the area. That makes film study events easier to schedule, but there are limits to presenting remotely. One of the biggest drawbacks is video quality.

In the past I've had to share my screen and play videos on my desktop, which is both awkward for me and a poor viewing experience for attendees. Videos shared this way can appear laggy and have lower resolution than videos played natively on a device.

I switched away from Microsoft Teams for film study a few years ago due to other changes made to Teams, but support for sharing videos directly from OneDrive will make me try Teams again.

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Microsoft Teams will soon let you temporarily pause notifications for a set period of time. Teams already has a variety of mute functions, but the new feature should make it easier to quiet down anything from Teams for a bit.

The feature starts rolling out this month and should be available to all users by early October.

The Microsoft 365 Message Center Archive has a record of the change:

"Microsoft Teams will introduce a new capability that allows users to temporarily pause notifications for a selected period of time. This feature gives users greater control over interruptions, helps reduce notification overload, and enables focused work, meetings, and other activities without requiring changes to existing notification settings."

All versions of Teams will have the option to temporarily pause Teams notifications for a set duration. The feature will be accessible through the profile menu in the upper-right corner of Teams.

The new capability in Teams is a bit like "Focus" in Windows 11, though it's specific to Teams. If you're working on a project, you may want to receive notifications through Windows 11 but keep Teams quiet.

Many workers have to use a variety of communication platforms. Pausing Teams notifications for a while could come in handy when presenting on Zoom. Microsoft accidentally shared discussions about other companies during a presentation by having a Teams notification appear. Pausing notifications would have prevented that.

It appears that one of the key differences in using this new feature compared to Do Not Disturb is how you'll appear to your colleagues. Setting Teams to Do Not Disturb is simple and effective, but it changes your public status indicator to red. I believe pausing notifications will leave your status unchanged.

Muting channels in Teams is also an existing feature, but it is done on a per-channel or per-chat basis. Pausing notifications should work across the board.

Neowin first spotted the new feature for Teams, but at the time details were scarce. Microsoft has since detailed how the feature will work and how the option differs from other methods of muting Teams.

It's unclear if pausing notifications will sync across all of your devices or if it is on a per-instance basis. I would hope there is an option to sync the pausing or pick which devices will continue to receive notifications.

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