11 Microsoft Teams Meeting Tricks to Enhance Your Experience

December 9, 2024

Microsoft Teams has become an essential tool for collaboration and communication. No matter how long you’ve been using Microsoft Teams, there’s always a new trick to learn, particularly for meetings in Teams.

In this blog, you’ll explore 11 Microsoft Teams meeting tricks that will help your meetings go smoother and be more efficient. From noise suppression and virtual background tips, to harnessing the power of the Teams Scheduling Assistant and screenshare capabilities, you’ll likely find an answer to a question you’ve had about Teams! Let’s start by talking about how to trim down sound disruptions during meetings.

Please note: Some of these features may not be available depending on your IT administrator’s tenant.

1. Extra Sounds in Your Environment? Use Noise Suppression

You’ve been in meetings before where distracting noises bleed through: Lawn mowers, fans, emergency vehicle noises, dogs barking, or aggressive keyboard typers. While you could use the mute function to prevent others from hearing your background audio, there is another option built into Teams. Use noise suppression to reduce background noise coming from your environment.

First, navigate to the Settings in Teams. Click on the triple-dots at the top right of the Teams window, then select “Settings”.

Next, navigate to the “Devices” settings in the left menu. At the bottom of the Audio section, make sure “Noise suppression” is toggled on.

2. Scheduling a Teams Meeting with Several Teammates? Use the Teams Scheduling Assistant

You could schedule a meeting by asking everyone their availabilities—but we all know that this creates chaos and time-consuming emails or messages, especially with more meeting attendees. To bypass all that back-and-forth nonsense, use the Scheduling Assistant in Microsoft Teams.

The Scheduling Assistant allows you to see the calendar availability of your teammates.

In the Teams app, select “Calendar” in the left vertical menu. Then, click on “New Meeting” at the top.

In the New Meeting pop-up window, you’ll see the “Scheduling Assistant” tab at the top. Clicking into that menu allows you to select a day and time range for your meeting. You’ll also be able to add required or optional attendees. When you add a new meeting member, you’ll see their availability appear on the calendar.

When you’ve selected the perfect date and time for your meeting, go back to the “Details” tab at the top. Once you’ve filled out the meeting information and are ready to send to your teammates, click the “Save” button at the top right.

3. Chat with Meeting Members Outside of a Meeting

To message people involved with a meeting, you could start a new message in Teams and manually add each member. But there is a faster and more organized method!

Click on Calendar in the Teams side menu. Find the meeting that you want to start a new message thread about and click on the meeting once. A pop-up will appear showing that event’s details. In that pop-up, click on “Chat with participants”.

This will open a new or existing message thread in Teams Chat. Using this method of starting a meeting thread is not only speedier, but also allows you to keep information relevant to that meeting organized to that Teams Chat thread.

4. Invite Someone to Your Teams Meeting—Whether or Not They Were on the Original Invite List

Need to bring someone else into your meeting? Click on “People” in the top menu. When the Participants sidebar appears, search for individual’s name you want to invite and click “Request to Join”. They will get a Teams notification letting them know about your invitation.

Alternatively, you can select the “Share Invite” option below that search box. That option will allow you to send them a link via email or copy the meeting link so you can share it.

Want to send a nudge to a meeting member who hasn’t appeared yet? You can use this menu to request them to join.

5. Want to Include Sound in Your Screenshare?

Sometimes we want to share a video during a live meeting—but then the sound doesn’t go through to your teammates. By default, Teams screensharing disables sound sharing. When starting your screenshare, click the “Include sound” toggle to the on position, then select on the screen you want to share.

If you are already screensharing, hover over the screenshare control panel at the top center of your monitor (the thing that says “You’re sharing your screen”). Click on the “Share Sound” option. Depending on which sound system you’re using (ex: a headset vs computer speakers), you may need to fiddle with your sound settings.

6. Moving Around the Screenshare Widget

Let’s talk about that “You’re Sharing Your Screen” widget that appears at the top middle of your monitor when using Teams to screenshare. Most of the time, you don’t even notice it. But when you really need to click on something behind that menu—be that a tab in your browser or the search bar in Excel—it can be irritating to work around.

Here’s the quick and easy fix: Click the dots on the left (the 2×3 dots) to drag the menu elsewhere. That’s it.

7. Preview and Modify Your Virtual Background Outside of Meetings

Did you know that you can preview and tweak your virtual background without being in a meeting? The process seems a little strange, but it’s one of the workarounds available in Teams since the option to modify your virtual background isn’t currently available in the Settings menu.

Navigate to your “Calendar” in the Teams left menu. Select the “Meet now” button, then “Start meeting”. This action will create a meeting session with just yourself.

On the initial meeting preview window that appears, click “Effects and Avatars” underneath your video preview.

Clicking “More video effects” will produce a larger menu on the right that allows you to select from more backgrounds, upload your own with “Add new”, mess with your Green Screen settings, or use filters.

8. Jazz Up Your Video with Virtual Backgrounds

Virtual backgrounds can add a splash of color, personality, or your organization’s branding to your Teams meeting video. Depending on the type of meeting you’re in, you may want to carefully select a particular background. For instance, you may use a funny background may spark conversations during an internal meeting. Using a business logo-branded background for client or vendor meetings sends a professional message.

The recommended dimensions for a virtual background in Microsoft Teams are 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels. The maximum dimension allowed is currently 3840 pixels x 2160 pixels. You’ll need PNG or JPEG image file types.

Tip: Double check with your internal HR or Marketing Team to confirm their recommendations and guidelines for virtual backgrounds. They may even have an existing set of files to choose from!

Idea: Creating a Frosted Glass Background with Your Logo

Looking to blur your normal office background while including your business logo? Here’s a trick!

In an image creation and editing software, like Adobe Photoshop or Canva, create a transparent image with the recommended Teams background dimensions: 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels. Then, add in your business’s logo (recommendation: insert it in the top left, top center, or top right). Save the final image as a PNG to retain the transparent background. You may need to work with your organization’s marketing team to create this background image.

To upload your new image as a virtual background, select “Add New” under Video Effects in the “Effects and Avatars” menu (Scroll back up in this blog for that walkthrough). Apply this background to have a frosted glass background effect. Here’s what that looks like with our Kite Technology logo:

9. Turning Notifications On or Off During Teams Meetings

Have you ever been in a virtual meeting where the screenshare showed a Teams message that really shouldn’t have been shared? To save yourself from awkward conversations, here’s where to find the hide or show notifications during Teams calls and meetings.

Click on the ellipses (three-dot) menu next to your image at the top right of Teams. Pick Settings from the dropdown menu. In the left panel, select “Notifications and activity”.

From there, scroll down to the “Display” section. Check “Show notifications during calls and meetings” to continue seeing your notifications or uncheck this box to hide notifications during calls and meetings.

10. Keyboard Shortcuts in Teams

For those who can’t add enough keyboard shortcuts to their mental library, here are a couple excellent ones for your Teams experience:

Ctrl + Shift + O: Toggle on/off camera
Ctrl + Shift + M: Toggle on/off mute
Ctrl + Plus Sign (+): Zoom into someone else’s screenshare (must click on the video first)
Ctrl + Minus Sign (-): Zoom our of someone else’s screenshare
Ctrl + Shift + K: Raise Hand

For a complete list of Microsoft Teams shortcuts, visit Microsoft Support’s website.

11. Share the Love. Use Reactions!

To wrap things up on a whimsical note, let’s talk about Reactions in Teams. Reactions are a fun way to engage and share the love—especially during meetings with lots of attendees. In your meeting menu, select “React” then choose from one of five reactions: thumbs up, heart, clap, laughing, or surprised.

When selected, these emojis will appear over your video feed when no screenshare is active. When a screenshare is happening, the reactions will appear at the bottom of that screen.

A great use case for reactions are during a large business-wide meeting where all but a few members are automatically muted. Get some great results as a company? Pick that heart emoji! Your coworker absolutely nail that last project? Send out that clapping hands emoji!

Better Harness Your Organization’s Microsoft 365 and Teams Capabilities

The above Teams meeting tricks are just some of the many cool features available in the application. We didn’t even touch on how Microsoft’s AI, Copilot, integrates with Teams here.

To learn more about how Microsoft 365 and Teams can be used to increase your organization’s efficiency and team collaboration, explore Kite Technology’s Microsoft 365 Consulting Engagements and Microsoft 365 Tenant Management services! We have a Microsoft MVP on staff, Adam Atwell, who helps KiteTech stay up-to-date with the latest and greatest features from Microsoft.

Reach out to our team today to start your Microsoft 365 discussion!