There’s exciting news for anyone wanting more from their Microsoft Teams experience, after the company revealed its new “premium” offering is now available to try out.
Officially called Microsoft Teams Premium, the new version of the video conferencing platform offers a range of upgraded features, alongside more customization and personalization options.
“Today, we are excited to share that we are making Microsoft Teams Premium broadly available for preview as a limited trial for our commercial customers through the Microsoft 365 admin center,” Margi Desai, a product manager for Microsoft Teams, wrote in a blog post (opens in new tab). “The features under this offering began rolling out this December and will continue to roll out through January.”
Microsoft Teams Premium
First revealed at the company’s Ignite event in October 2022, Microsoft Teams Premium has aroused curiosity across the technology space, promising to make meetings more personalized, intelligent, and secure.
The new launch will allow companies to add their own branding, customized backgrounds and Together Mode scenes to boost their presence in meetings. Setting them up will also be easier, with users able to choose from a range of meeting types that will be customizable by IT teams, to start with the right settings in place much faster.
Among the other new features are “Intelligent recap”, which uses AI to transcribe meetings, and can even translate them in real time into 40 different languages, helping to make meetings more inclusive. The AI can also label important moments and add chapters to recorded meetings for easy playback of relevant sections.
Advanced security features, such as watermarking confidential documents and limiting recording permissions, will protect businesses from leaks. End-to-end encryption for meetings is also offered, as well as sensitivity labels to prevent unauthorized duplication of meeting chats.
Webinars are also getting an overhaul, with Microsoft Teams Premium set to offer new host and event management controls, including a registration waitlist, manual approval, and custom registration start and end times alongside virtual green rooms and advanced virtual appointments.
Full guidance on how to enroll in the preview can be found in the Microsoft blog, with general availability scheduled for February 2023, when customers with existing Microsoft 365 or Office 365 licenses can purchase Teams Premium as an add-on to their existing Microsoft 365 services.
