Microsoft works on Hybrid working for Outlook, Teams and PowerPoint

Microsoft has recently focused heavily on the topic of hybrid working, ie solutions that closely link office and home office. A new smart camera was also presented yesterday and other software innovations have now been unveiled as well. The pandemic has changed much, if not everything. An important point here is the world of work because there will never be a classic office constraint because it feels like 90 percent of all companies worldwide have practiced in this form.

Mind you, the office also offers several advantages and that is also why Microsoft has been hitting the drum of “hybrid working” so hard in recent months and years. That was the motto of last year’s Build conference, and since then Microsoft has consistently steered its software in this direction. Now Microsoft has announced changes for Teams, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

back to office

That has loud The verge also has to do with the fact that employees in more and more companies today at least partially return to the office, but not only work there. This also affects meetings: Outlook is therefore getting a new feature that better shows whether colleagues can appear in person or not. This new Outlook RSVP solution is expected to launch in preview in the second quarter of the year. Once the meeting has started – and participants are wholly or partly in Microsoft Teams – the real and virtual work worlds should go hand in hand. The new Front Row layout also launches immediately, moving the video gallery to the bottom of the screen, allowing on-site attendees to see their remote colleagues in person.

At the moment you can and should use the smart camera presented yesterday, which should offer an optimal hybrid solution in combination with a Surface Hub 2. At the end of last year, the group from Redmond presented its solution, called the Loop, which is intended to enable joint “thinking, planning and design”. The first running components appeared in Teams in January and more are now being added to Outlook. Finally, Microsoft PowerPoint will also update, with “Cameo” you can integrate a team camera into the presentation, the whole can also be done with sound recordings. Incidentally, more innovations will follow shortly, because on April 5 Microsoft will hold an event about hybrid working.