Microsoft Teams is packed with a lot of handy features, but right now, you need to use the desktop or mobile app to get the most of it. Microsoft is aiming to change this by bringing two useful features, Gallery View and Together mode, onto the browser version of Teams.
Microsoft’s Push to Update Microsoft Teams on the Web
You can see this planned update for yourself over on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. If you’ve been keeping tabs on all things Microsoft, you’ll know that the Roadmap is a fantastic way to keep on top of the software giant’s plans for its products.
The Roadmap gives the general public a way to see what to expect and when. Recently, a new entry made its way onto the Roadmap, with a feature ID 70573 and the title “Microsoft Teams: Large gallery view and Together Mode for web meetings in Edge and Chrome browsers.”
The description doesn’t waste words:
User can change layout to Together mode or Large gallery during a meeting in Edge or Chrome browsers.
“Together mode” places everyone’s webcam feeds in a scene to give the impression of being in a virtual room, while the large gallery view means you can see up to 49 attendees at once. The update is due to drop sometime in February 2021.
A Missing Entry in the Browser Trifecta
You may have already noticed that Microsoft explicitly names only two browsers. Microsoft’s Edge browser will enjoy this update, as can Google’s Chrome. Mozilla Firefox, on the other hand, is left well alone.
This is an interesting move by Microsoft, and its ramifications depend on what Microsoft has planned for Mozilla’s browser. Because both Chrome and Edge use a Chromium base, it’s likely that the programmers designed the feature for a Chromium browser first, and plans to develop it for other browsers later on.
However, this may also be a hint as to how Microsoft plans to solidify its lead ahead of Firefox. Microsoft’s browser recently overtook Firefox for US usage, and starving Firefox of features may be how Microsoft intends to keep the trend going.
So, if Microsoft is actually starving its competitors, how come Chrome is getting the feature, too? As it turns out, Microsoft is quickly becoming Chrome’s biggest ally due to it using Google’s Chromium codebase for its own browser. As such, this may be a way for Chrome and Microsoft to team up and take down one of its competitors.
Microsoft Teams’ New Update… but Only for Chromium
Some of Microsoft Teams’ handiest features are making their way to Chrome and Edge browsers, but the software giant is silent on if it’ll also come out for other browsers. Is additional support in the works, or is Microsoft trying to starve the competition out?
If you’ve been out of the loop for Roadmap news, you’ll want to check out a recent addition that states that the OneDrive upload limit is being upped from 100GB to 250GB.
