Microsoft releasing new Microsoft Teams client 2.0 has big performance improvements

Microsoft is preparing to launch a new Microsoft Teams client 2.0, which has many performance improvements and design changes to the client e.g. UI, Memory, CPU, Disk utilization etc.

In the earlier post, we reviewed https://m365community.blogspot.com/2022/12/teams-client-performance.html, with 20% performance improvement in switching chat conversations and 28% improvement in the channel conversation by upgrading the Teams framework to render chat using HTML tree faster, running JavaScript.

Starting next month, Microsoft releasing Teams client 2.0 for preview customers to start testing and evaluate the feature's parity. These changes are coming to the Citrix VDI environment as well.

Teams client 2.0 has 50% memory, CPU & Disk Utilization compared to current consumption. New client architecture is moving away from Electron/AngularJS, HTML5 to EdgeWebView2/Fluent/ReactJS based technology to improve the User Interface (Similar to Microsoft Loop).

This new architecture supports adding multiple work/school accounts in a single client, so you don't need to use a web browser to support/log in to another customer tenant account.

Microsoft Teams Room on Android Features upgrading to meet feature parity issues with Teams Room on Windows

Microsoft is trying to bring all Teams Room features across the Android and Windows platforms including User Interface changes for better usage/avoid any confusion.

With Microsoft Teams Room on Windows update 4.16 there are lots of UI changes coming (expecting 1st week of March-2023).

We see there are lots of new features coming to MTRoA devices in April 2023. See the list below,

• Front Row - Long waited and needed feature for Hybrid meeting experience. Meeting chat is added on different Views (Gallary, Large Gallary, ToGether mode).

• Computer Audio Sharing via HDMI.

• Chat messages will display during the Teams meeting on the Front Room Display to get attention alongside discussion.

• Enhanced Content Sharing.

• Automatic Screen Sharing via HDMI. IT Admin has control to enable/disable automatic sharing.

• If you are using a Teams Premium license, you can use watermarking. End-to-End meeting experience is not yet available.

• Users can view and add annotations to shared content when a desktop user starts a session in a meeting.

• Users can start Ad-hoc meetings using "Meet Now".

• Join Teams meeting with "Meeting ID & Passcode".

• Extend the current meeting reservation within the call.

Feel free to check the feature comparison chat for your reference -

Teams Rooms on Windows and Android feature comparison - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Apple CarPlay now supports Calendar View to Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

AppleCarPlay allows you to connect to Microsoft Teams meeting safely when you are on the road either initiating/joining from Teams Mobile or through Siri Voice commands.

If Voice Command is not working make sure your Intune admin configures the Device Security profile to use Siri.

Here are the things you need before using CarPlay -

• The vehicle that supports CarPlay.
• Teams Mobile App signed in with Teams.
• iPhone.

How to use Apple CarPlay -

Connect your Phone to your vehicle either through USB Cable or Bluetooth. Once you are connected to CarPlay, tab to the Microsoft Teams app.

Feature Supported for CarPlay -

• You can only use Teams Audio (No Video/Content Sharing, you need to use your Mobile Teams client to use these features).
• When you join the meeting, your mic will be by default muted.
• You can manage meetings e.g mute/unmute/end the call

Microsoft is now extending CarPlay features to include Calendar View for easy access to Teams calendar and join the ongoing call or upcoming meetings with one touch.

Things to keep in Mind -

• You can join Teams meeting 15 minutes in advance.
• You can only join 5 minutes late after the meeting started.
• If you have a conflict Teams meeting in your calendar, Teams will start joining the meeting that started first. However, if you have both conflict meetings started at the same time, it will use that started first in alphabetical order.
• You need to keep open your Teams app on the mobile to update the calendar on the Apple CarPlay.

Expanding up to 10,000 users in Distribution Lists for lobby policy in Teams meeting

Current Limitation -

Currently, when you schedule a Teams meeting with the "People I Invite (Turn off Allow Forwarding in the meeting invite)" under the Meeting Option and invite a larger distribution group that has more than 1000 users, only the first 1000 users are recognized and allowed to bypass the meeting lobby. All other users of the Distribution Group will be placed in the lobby.

New Limitation -

With the new Microsoft feature update - 93585, the current update will be increased to 10,000 users of the Distribution Group will be recognized and let bypass the meeting lobby.

Microsoft is deprecating Service Number usage in Teams Caller-ID policy.

Have you configured Teams Caller-ID policy to mask your user phone number or provide an alternative caller-id using Microsoft Service Numbers? Then it's time for you to migrate the Caller-ID configuration from Service substitute to Resource Account Substitute.

By default, the user with the LineURI attribute updated or assigned a dedicated DID/DDI number will display as caller-id and your registered CNAM as the display name using the Global Caller-ID policy.

If you have created a custom Caller-ID policy to block/provide alternative caller-ID using a Microsoft Service number e.g, Conference Number.

Microsoft depreciating CallingIDSubtitute attribute having "Service" starting mid-Feb'2023.

You must configure the Microsoft Teams "Resource" Account in the CallingIDSubtitute attribute.

New Caller-ID Policy -

You will get an error when you create a new Caller-ID policy with the Service CallingIDSubtitute. User latest PowerShell module 4.9.3.

Migrate Existing Caller-ID policy -

Resource substitution uses the phone number of a resource account associated with an Auto Attendant or Call Queue. It supports Calling Plan, Direct Routing, and Operator Connect phone numbers.


You need to create/use an existing Teams Resource account assigned Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account License (a.k.a Virtual User License) assigned the required phone number from either Calling Plan, Direct Routing, or Operator Connect.

Create a new caller-id policy with the existing resource account phone number via PowerShell -

$ObjId = (Get-CsOnlineApplicationInstance -Identity contoso-regional-caller-id@contoso.com).ObjectId

New-CsCallingLineIdentity -Identity Contoso-Regional-Number -CallingIDSubstitute Resource -EnableUserOverride $false -ResourceAccount $ObjId -CompanyName "Contoso"

Find all existing users who use the old caller-id policy and export the details in a CSV file then, you can use Grant-CsCallingLineIDPolicy to assign the policy.

Modify the existing Caller-ID Policy that has the Service CallingIDSubtitute attribute via TAC -

If you have an existing Caller-ID policy, you can modify the policy from "Service" to "Resource" and choose the correct account with the correct Phone number assigned.

Integrate ServiceNow with Microsoft 365 Service Health to Generate the alert/Create automatic Incidents for reach issues reported in M365.

Have you integrated Microsoft 365 support flow with ServiceNow then you have some good news! Service Now released a new app, version 2.1, which has new options to create an incident in ServiceNow based on the alert/incidents/health report generated on Microsoft 365.

Whenever there is an update to Microsoft Service Health Incident, it will also post the same update on the Incident Notes. You can also choose to close the ServiceNow tickets once the Microsoft incident is closed.

Map Microsoft and ServiceNow table mapping -

You need to map the Microsoft incident table with ServiceNow listed below,

Service Now Setup -

Log in to the ServiceNow instance as admin, select settings, and navigate to Microsoft 365 Support and select Service Health.

There are two option that improves the usage of the integration,

• Enable automatic incident creation for each Microsoft service health incident.
• Automatically resolve the incident when the Microsoft Service health incident is resolved.

You can also configure the specific ServiceNow Incident assignment group, so every time when there is an incident it will be sent to that group. 

When there is Service Health Reported it will create an incident and post the status message in the ServicwNow notes section.

Ultrasound Howling Detection when multiple users join the Teams Meeting in the same room with a Microphone enabled.

Currently, when you are joining Teams and meeting with other users in the same room with the laptop microphone/speaker enabled, it will create audio feedback that will cause an echo.

Microsoft is releasing an update that if multiple users are participating with laptops from the same room, Teams will notify the user that another Teams device has been detected nearby and is already included with audio in the current meeting. Teams will automatically mute the microphone and speakers of the person that joined when a user joins with audio on.

This will help many users who want to join the meeting from their laptops to keep their presence status & wants to share the content from their computer without moving around or using HDMI cable.

The update is coming to Windows and Mac endpoint users.

Microsoft Teams Room on Android devices are added to Microsoft Team Room Pro management portal

Excited news for those deploying the Microsoft Teams Room solutions in Android and Windows platforms using Teams Room Pro/Premium licenses. 

Now you can able to see all the MTRoA & MTRoW devices in one console to manage your AV inventory management.

You can log in to https://portal.rooms.microsoft.com/ and filter using either device model/hostname or OS Type and you will find all the Android devices.

You can get the following information,

• All MTRoA devices.
• Device Health Status (Healthy, Unmonitored).
• Device Type (MTR Android - Bar & Touch Console).

Individual Device Info -

• You can get device peripheral health monitoring severity.
• Device network connectivity status.
• Connected device peripherals' health status.

In the meeting tab, you will see the Teams app version,

In the Device tab, you see the Make, Model, S/N, Device Firmware version

More features to come in few months.

Microsoft Teams Shared Voicemail Now Supports Distribution Lists and Mail Enabled Security Groups

How Shared Voicemail works in Microsoft Teams?

You need Microsoft 365 Group it can either be Outlook Group or Teams Group. Either you can create a new one or use an existing one. M365 Groups are enabled for voicemail by default. So, no need for any configuration on the Group itself. Make sure the members who need to receive these shared voicemails are members of this group.

Once you have the M365 group, you can associate the group on the Auto Attendant or Call Queue to deliver the voicemail to the Outlook group or Voice-enabled Teams channels.

What is Voice Enabled Teams Channels?

Voice-Enabled Channels enable a call queue to be connected to a channel in Microsoft Teams. Users can collaborate and share information within the channel while taking calls in the queue. All Team members will be agents in that Queue and can easily opt-in or opt-out of the call queue from the Channel they can also see other agents call statuses, access shared voicemails, and call history and make outbound/call back from Channel.

New changes to Shared Voicemail settings in Teams -

Have you configured Microsoft Teams Auto Attendant or Call Queue in your environment and used Shared Voicemail with M365 Groups, then you have some good news for you. 

I recently noticed that Teams Call Queue/Auto Attendant allows you to send the voicemail to the Email Distribution Group.

Now you can distribute the voicemail to anyone in the distribution group and have everyone access to the voicemail within Outlook client.

Microsoft Teams Presenter window in Screen Sharing Improvement

Microsoft is releasing a new presenter window that gives you more awareness of meeting activity while screen sharing or multitasking away from the main meeting window.

Presenters in Teams meetings now have the new Presenter window during screen sharing when their main window is minimized. 

• A new control window is docked at the top of the window, which makes the active speaker's face clearly visible.
• Raise Rands, and other essential meeting notifications are apparent.
• The same presenter window is also available for attendees where they can easily control the meeting audio/video function e.g. Mute/Unmute/Disable/Enable Videoes, Disconnect from the meeting.

Currently, the feature is only available on the Public Preview version.

Initially, the feature is available only on Windows and Mac endpoints.

Microsoft Teams End-to-End Encryption for VOIP 1:1 & Teams Meeting

Microsoft Announced about Teams Premium feature at the end of last year and starting Feb'2023, it's now in General Availability. It might be the fastest I've seen any prominent new Teams feature go from the initial announcement to an actual implementation!

Teams use mutual TLS (MTLS), and Server to Server (S2S), OAuth for server communications within Microsoft 365. And also uses TLS from clients to the service. All traffic on the network is encrypted. MS Teams audio, video, and application sharing use Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) to encrypt the media stream with TLS 1.2 and AES-256 for UDP or TCP channels.

What is E2EE (End-to-end Encryption)?

End-to-end encryption or E2EE is the encryption of information at its origin and decryption at its intended destination without the ability for intermediate nodes or parties to decrypt. E2EE adds an extra layer of security to your Teams VOIP 1:1 or meetings.

How to turn on the E2EE feature?

• Login into the Teams Admin Center and navigate to Enhanced encryption policies.

• By default, there are 3 policies, You can either create a new policy OR modify the Global/User Controlled Policy and set the "Not enabled, but users can enable" option and click Save.

• Once you’ve finished creating the policy, assign the policy to users.

How to use the E2EE feature in VOIP 1:1/Teams Meetings?

Even though the E2EE policy is assigned to users, it's not enabled by default. 

How to Enable E2EE for VOIP 1:1 Teams Calls -

E2EE feature only supports real-time media flow, that is audio, video, and content sharing. Both users have to turn on the End-to-end encryption settings on their client.

End-to-end encryption, or E2EE, happens when content is encrypted before it's sent and decrypted only by the intended recipient. With end-to-end encryption, only the two endpoint systems are involved in encrypting and decrypting the call data. No 3rd party compliance recording has access to the encrypted conversation, including Microsoft.

The following advanced features aren't available during an E2EE call:

• Live captions and transcription

• Call transfer

• Call merge

• Call park

• Consult then transfer

• Call companion and transfer to another device

• Adding a participant

• Recording

• Access to Apps

How to Enable E2EE for Teams Meetings -

E2EE feature only supports real-time media flow, that is audio, video, and content sharing. 

It's an end-user-level setting, the user has to turn it on for each meeting under the "Meeting Options".

How to Confirm the meeting is in E2EE?

When the meeting is encrypted with E2EE, you will receive a notification when you join the call. Also, you will see the lock icon in the top left corner. When you click, you will see the encrypted code, which will be the same across all participants.

The following features aren't available during an end-to-end encrypted meeting:

• Live captions and transcription

• Recording

• Together mode, companion mode, large gallery view.

• Breakout rooms.

• Compliance Recording.

What features are not E2EE supported?

Apps, Avatars, Filters, Chat, Q&A, and Reactions, Live caption and transcription, Recording, Together mode, Companion mode, Large gallery, and Breakout rooms are not end-to-end encrypted.

Is there any meeting size limitation?

Yes, the meeting size is limited to 50 users,  If the 51st person tries to join an E2EE meeting, they will be blocked from joining.

Neat is released their New Device Management (Neat Pulse) solution to manage their devices remotely

Neat announced their device management solution at the ISE conference. Neat Pulse offers different features for their customers to manage the device's extended warranty, Technical support, and Device management, e.g., Add/Remove, Reboot the device, push the configuration items, etc.

Current challenges -

Currently, you have to manage all the device-specific settings on the room console physically,

• Updating neat framing
• Enabling 3rd party meeting support (WebEx & Zoom)
• Enabling Bluetooth
• Proximity-based meeting invitation.
• Collecting device logs
• Uploading internal certificate for 802.1x auth
• Firmware Update
• Change the firmware update channel.

Neat Pulse -

Neat Pulse is not a replacement for Microsoft Teams Admin Center, and it's still an essential tool for configuring and administering MTR devices. Neat Pulse is an additional cloud service that helps to manage Neat Hardware-specific features (like mentioned above).

Create a Neat device Inventory based on location, building hierarchy, or device type.

From the Neat Pulse, you can quickly identify how many devices are offline, online, and device types and create/add a new device to the online management.

Click Add devices, Type the Room Name, and Copy the registration code.

Login to Neat Console, Settings, Select Neat Pulse and enter the registration code for registration. You can filter the device based on status, location, device type, or configuration profile.

Device Management -

You can manage the individual device settings, monitor & troubleshooting e.g

• Assign the device configuration profile.
• Remote into the device.
• Restart the device
• Update the software
• Change the Audio/Video peripherals settings.
• Change the Time Zone settings.

Neat Pulse is coming as an annual subscription and the beta version is getting released in Q1 of 2023 and its GA in spring 2023.

Microsoft releasing a new set of IP address ranges for Teams Direct Routing

If you are using Direct Routing for your organization's PSTN calls to Microsoft Teams and you have a specific IP range allowed on your ACL rules in Firewall, you need to review your firewall rules and include the new IP ranges for signaling.

Microsoft Teams Direct Routing Global connection points FQDNs:

Configure these SIP FQDNs in the right order/priority with the same weightage.

sip.pstnhub.microsoft.com –  This is the Global FQDN and you must be configured on your SBC proxy set first. When the SBC sends a request to resolve this name, the Microsoft Azure DNS servers return an IP address pointing to the primary Azure data center assigned to the SBC. The assignment is based on the performance metrics of the data centers and geographical proximity to the SBC. The IP address returned corresponds to the primary FQDN.

sip2.pstnhub.microsoft.com – If the Primary FQDN is unavailable then the SBC will send the SIP request to Secondary FQDN and this is geographically mapped to the second priority region.

sip3.pstnhub.microsoft.com – If Primary & Secondary is not available then the SBC will send the SIP request to Tertiary FQDN before the call got disconnected and this is geographically mapped to the third priority region.

If you have configured a specific IP range in your internet egress firewall then you need to update your rules to continue the service.

Existing IP ranges allowed on the firewall: -

52.114.16.74/32
52.114.20.29/32
52.114.14.70/32
52.114.7.24/32
52.114.76.76/32
52.114.75.24/32
52.114.132.46/32
52.114.148.0/32

SBC connections to Microsoft Teams: -

New IP ranges: -

To ensure that this change doesn’t affect your service availability make sure that your Session Border Controller and Firewall are configured to use the below-recommended IP ranges.

52.112.0.0/14
52.120.0.0/14