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October-November developments


As with every new month, online platforms continue introducing updates and features to enhance user experience. This month, Microsoft Teams announced a notable addition: a recap notification. With this update, users will receive a notification in their team activity feed whenever an intelligent meeting summary is available for a meeting they have been invited to. Users will be taken directly to the summary by clicking on the notification, making it more accessible to catch up on key points and decisions.

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Meeting organisers now have enhanced control over attendee admission from the lobby, adding an extra layer of security. In Meeting options, organisers can choose whether they and co-organisers can admit attendees or extend this permission to presenters.

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(Source: Microsoft Teams)

Organisers and co-organisers can integrate external email automation platforms to manage communications with town hall and webinar attendees.

The latest Teams Q&A upgrades aim to increase interaction and improve organisation in online events like town halls, webinars, and training sessions. The new voting feature allows attendees to prioritise important questions by upvoting them. Sorting questions by votes or activity helps highlight relevant topics and ongoing discussions for participants and organisers.

Google Meet has introduced a new feature that displays user pronouns on individual video tiles during meetings. When users set their pronouns in Google Account settings (myaccount.google.com/profile/pronouns) and select ‘Anyone’ for visibility, they appear on-screen during web-based Google Meet sessions.

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(Source: Google Meet)

With this update, Admin can configure meeting recordings, transcripts, and the ‘Take notes for me’ feature to be enabled by default for newly created Google Meet meetings. Meeting hosts and co-hosts can easily modify these settings in the Calendar invite and optionally disable these features during the meeting.

This month, Zoom unveiled innovations for Zoom Workplace, its AI-first work platform. Key updates include AI Companion 2.0, an enhanced personal assistant that helps users manage their workday; Zoom Tasks, which leverages AI Companion to convert conversations into actionable items; real-time summaries and questions in Zoom Phone to keep users informed during calls; and AI-generated meeting agendas to ensure critical topics are addressed.

AI Companion 2.0 is a new feature in the side panel of the Zoom Workplace application that understands user context and provides suggested prompts to help manage daily tasks effectively. It consolidates information from Zoom Meetings, Team Chat, Docs, and more, allowing users to quickly catch up on updates and take necessary actions.

Zoom Tasks is another innovative solution powered by Zoom AI Companion. This feature works within Zoom Workplace to detect, recommend, and assist users in completing tasks based on conversations from meetings, calls, chats, and documents.

The updated Home tab is a centralised hub, allowing users to effortlessly view essential meetings at a glance and engage with AI Companion through prompts such as ‘Brainstorm ideas for a team bonding activity’ or ‘What meetings do I have today?’.

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(Source: Zoom)

Are you planning an online meeting or event and need urgent advice?

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Our ConfTech Help desk provides countries and organisations with immediate advice on how to organise and run online meetings and events. Get in touch with us at conftech@diplomacy.edu.

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