This new Microsoft Teams feature could stop you from making a career-ending video call error

This new mic mute and unmute feature for Microsoft Teams could be a job-saver

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Keeping your mic muted or unmuted on aMicrosoft Teamscall could soon be a lot simpler thanks to a new update - but you might need to make sure you’re being very careful how you use it.

Thevideo conferencingplatform has revealed it is working on a new feature that will allow users to mute and unmute their audio simply by clicking the mic icon in the Windows taskbar.

In theory, this should make it even easier to make sure your mic isn’t accidentally on when it shouldn’t be - but having such controls in such an obvious location might also put users at risk of an accidental click.

Microsoft Teams mic mute and un-mute

Microsoftsays users will be able to control their audio from a meeting by selecting the mic icon on your taskbar, or by pressing the Windows logo key + Alt + K to mute or unmute.

In its entry on theofficial Microsoft 365 roadmap, the feature, described as “control your mic state during meetings” is noted as only being available in the new Teams for Windows experience, currently on offer to desktop users on Windows only.

Microsoft Teams revealed a whole host of updates and upgrades recently as it looks to ensure the platform stays intuitive and useful for customers everywhere.

This includesa major AI upgrade thanks to Microsoft Copilot, which will power a number of new features, including the ability to not just be able to summarize and write up meeting notes - but also draw them using the company’s Microsoft Whiteboard platform.

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Copilot will continue to be able to take notes throughout a meeting, before creating and sharing summaries with users at the end - with new “Collaborative notes” automatically taking live notes so that users can focus on the meeting.

Outside of a meeting, Copilot will also be able to quickly summarize past conversations in a Microsoft Teams channel, meaning users won’t have to trek through reams of past messages.

It’ll also allow users to write messages in their Teams chat and channels using the new Copilot compose box, allowing generative AI to tweaking the tone and length of messages before being sent off.

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Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK’s leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he’s not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.

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