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customer satisfaction by offering personalized call treatment.10 Microsoft Teams Tips and Features You Should be Taking Advantage of in 2026
by Shaundalee Carvalho | Published On March 18, 2022 | Last Updated March 6, 2026
Discover 10 Microsoft Teams features and settings you may not be using, from AI-powered tools to collaboration tips that can improve productivity.
Microsoft Teams has continued to rise in popularity since its release in 2017, now serving hundreds of millions of users worldwide and acting as a central hub for communication, collaboration, and productivity across organizations of all sizes. With the rise in remote and hybrid work – and the introduction of AI-powered collaboration – there have never been more active Teams users than there are today. And for good reason!
Teams is a fantastic platform with plenty of features that make collaboration easy and effective. However, many organizations still use only a fraction of what Teams can do – missing opportunities to improve productivity, reduce meeting overload, and streamline communication. Make sure you’re not one of them! Read on to learn 10 ways you should be using Teams to make the most of your user experience.
10 Microsoft Teams Optimization Tips for Smarter Collaboration
1. Background Effects
The background effects feature lets you change the background that appears behind you when on a video call. This can be especially helpful if you’re joining a meeting from home without time to tidy up, or if you’re working in a busy office environment where a neutral background can help minimize visual distractions.
Background effects allow you to blur your surroundings, choose from preset images, or upload your own custom background. Some organizations even create branded backgrounds featuring their logo or company visuals, helping maintain a professional and consistent look across meetings
Teams also supports improved edge detection, helping create a more professional and polished meeting experience.
To add or remove a background before a call, navigate to Effects and avatars and select the Video effects tab. During a call, select the dropdown button next to the camera and navigate to Video effects and settings. Both methods will give you the option to select from built-in backgrounds provided by Microsoft, blur your current camera background, or upload your own custom backgrounds.
2. Noise Suppression
If you’ve ever been on a call when there’s ongoing construction, heavy traffic, or other excessive noise nearby, you know that it can be distracting for everyone.
Teams includes AI-powered noise suppression to help keep conversations clear during meetings. You can choose between Background noise only and Voice isolation depending on your environment. Background noise only reduces common distractions like keyboard typing, office chatter, or ambient sounds while keeping your voice clear. Voice isolation goes a step further by detecting and filtering out other nearby voices and focusing only on the speaker’s voice, which can be especially useful in busy offices or shared workspaces. This is particularly valuable in hybrid environments where participants may be joining meetings from a variety of locations.
To access these settings, select the three dots beside your profile picture on your main Teams window and navigate to Settings. Select Devices and find Noise suppression. During a call, select the dropdown button next to the microphone and navigate to Noise suppression.
3. Microsoft Whiteboard
For large group calls, Teams provides a virtual whiteboard where members of the call can write notes, draw diagrams, and collaborate in real time. This feature lets you take classic whiteboard collaboration into the modern era of remote and hybrid work.
Microsoft Whiteboard now includes templates, sticky notes, reactions, and real-time co-authoring features that make brainstorming sessions more structured and interactive – particularly useful for workshops, training sessions, and project planning meetings.
To access Microsoft Whiteboard during a call, select More on the top bar of the chat window with the other action buttons. Navigate to Start a Whiteboard and choose from the built-in templates from Microsoft to get started or start from scratch with a blank canvas. Once created, your team can collaborate and organize thoughts and ideas effectively during important meetings.
4. Dark Theme and High Contrast Theme
There are a few reasons you may want to set your Teams application to Dark Theme. For example, Dark Theme may be easier on your eyes in low-light settings and save device battery relative to the Default Theme. Similarly, High Contrast Theme may be desired for improved readability and accessibility.
Optimized display settings may seem minor, but small adjustments like these can improve comfort and reduce digital fatigue for employees who spend hours in meetings each day.
You can select either of these themes under Appearance in the Settings menu, accessed from your main Teams window.
5. Recording, Transcription, and Intelligent Recap
Recording and Transcription enable you to have a record of precisely what was said during a meeting. Recordings provide a complete record of all audio, video, and screen shares from the meeting, which can be set to record automatically as soon as a meeting begins, while transcriptions automatically convert the audio to text. Transcriptions can be especially helpful if you are trying to find a certain part of the call and want to search for a specific keyword.
Teams now offers AI-powered meeting recap features that automatically summarize discussions, identify action items, and highlight key decisions. This reduces post-meeting administrative work and ensures accountability across teams.
To enable recording and transcription during a call, select More on the top bar of the chat window with the other action buttons. Navigate to Record and transcribe to start recording and transcribing. At the end of the call, a card is sent into the chat where you can recap the call to access recordings, transcriptions, shared files, attendance, and more.
Depending on your IT admin, you may also have the option to record automatically as soon as a meeting begins. To record and transcribe automatically in Teams, select an upcoming meeting you want to record in your Teams calendar. Select Edit and navigate to Options in the first card with the filled meeting details to access meeting options. Select Recording & transcription and toggle the switch to enable Record and transcribe automatically.
6. Turn On/Off Incoming Video
Turning on video can help make a virtual meeting feel more personal and connected to your colleagues. However, there are circumstances when you may want to avoid being on video.
For example:
- Having a poor internet connection may cause videos to glitch and affect call quality
- Joining a meeting from a mobile device with video may unnecessarily use a lot of cellular data.
Turning off your own camera helps, but stopping incoming video from your colleagues can help even more. This setting is particularly helpful for large meetings where multiple video feeds may strain bandwidth or device performance.
To run off or on incoming video during a call, select View on the top bar of the chat window with the other action buttons. Navigate to More options and select Turn off incoming video or Turn on incoming video.
7. Pin a Message
If you want to keep important details or reminders top-of-mind for your team, you can pin a message to the top of a group chat window. This will ensure they see the message every time they interact with the rest of the chat until it’s unpinned.
Pinned messages are especially useful for sharing meeting links, deadlines, project updates, or key documents that teams need quick access to.
To pin a message, hover over it, select the three dots, and then click Pin for everyone or Unpin for everyone.
8. Microsoft 365 Copilot Integration
One of the most significant recent additions to Teams is its integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot – an AI-powered assistant that enhances collaboration by helping users quickly understand and act on information shared in meetings and conversations.
Copilot can:
- Summarize long chat threads
- Draft responses
- Extract action items from meetings
- Generate meeting summaries
- Highlight decisions and follow-ups
For organizations dealing with communication overload, AI-assisted collaboration can significantly reduce time spent reviewing chats and meeting recordings, allowing employees to focus on execution instead of administrative tasks
Copilot Chat in Microsoft Teams allows you to interact with Microsoft 365 Copilot directly within the Teams interface, acting as a conversational assistant that helps you quickly find insights from your files, meetings, and messages without leaving Teams. To access it, select Copilot from the left-hand navigation bar. This will open the Copilot chat window, where you can start a conversation by typing a prompt or question just like you would with a messaging app.
9. App Integrations and Workflow Automation
Teams integrates with hundreds of third-party and Microsoft applications, including CRM systems, project management tools, ticketing platforms, and approval workflows.
By connecting Teams with tools like Power Automate, organizations can build workflows that trigger approvals, notifications, or task creation automatically – reducing manual steps and minimizing context switching between platforms.
Instead of treating Teams as just a messaging tool, consider how it can serve as a centralized collaboration hub
To see all the apps available, select Apps from the left-hand navigation bar. From there, you can browse and add integrations that extend Teams with tools for productivity, collaboration, analytics, and more.
10. Analytics and Usage Reporting
Many organizations overlook the built-in Teams analytics available in the Microsoft Teams Admin Center, where administrators can review detailed insights on how Teams is being used across the organization.
Usage reports can help you:
- Monitor feature adoption
- Identify underutilized tools
- Understand meeting and collaboration patterns
- Optimize governance and permissions
With this information, IT and operations teams can make more informed decisions about training, feature enablement, and governance policies. For example, they may identify collaboration tools that employees aren’t using, uncover meeting trends that impact productivity, or determine whether certain features should be promoted internally. Reviewing analytics periodically helps ensure your Teams environment is configured in a way that supports productivity rather than contributing to digital clutter.
Start taking advantage of Microsoft Teams
These are just a few of the many features and settings available to make your Teams experience work for you. As Microsoft Teams continues to evolve, particularly with AI-driven capabilities and deeper integrations, regularly reviewing and optimizing your settings can significantly improve collaboration, reduce inefficiencies, and enhance the overall employee experience.
Are you looking to integrate your Teams environment with ice Contact Center? Check out ice Contact Center for Microsoft Teams to learn how you can connect your contact center with the collaboration tools your employees already use.
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