Find out more about making chat, audio and video calls and scheduling and participating in meetings with Teams.

Chatting

Start a new conversation with a person or group

• On the left side of the app bar, click on "Chat" > At the top of the left column, click on "New chat" icon.
• Enter the name of the person (s) you want to chat with in the field To.
• Enter what you want to say in the message box and click "Send".

In the To field you can add anyone with a UGent account.

Naming chat conversations (with several people)

Give your group chat a name that makes it clear what the topic of the conversation is so you can easily find it later.

• In a chat with more than 2 participants, a pencil appears next to the names, click it.
• Enter a group name.
• Click on "Save".

Viewing and adding participants in chat

Click on the "people" icon at the top right.

Attach chat at the top of list (for frequently used groups, can also be done for 1-to-1 chats)

Click the three dots next to the chat name and choose "Attach" or "Detach".

Mark as unread

With "Mark as unread" you place a time marker in your chat conversation: from here it is unread.

Mute/Unmute

When you mute a chat, you will remain part of the conversation, but you will no longer be notified.

Zie ook: Chat in Microsoft Teams

Compose messages

@Mention someone

An @mention is similar to a tap on the shoulder, a way of getting someone's attention in a chat conversation.

• Type @ in the box where you type the message and type the first few letters of the person's name.
• Select the person. Repeat this for anyone you want to mention via an @mention.

Any person you mention this way will receive a notification in the activity feed.
Check if you see a red circle next to your Activity to see if someone @mentioned you.

Share files

If you share a file in Microsoft Teams Chat, via a private conversation or group conversation, it will be saved in your own OneDrive for Business. You can easily navigate to your own files from Teams: click on Files in the app bar, the vertical toolbar on the far left of the screen.

Audio and video call

A quick conversation is sometimes more efficient than chat. You can start an instant "ad hoc" online meeting, where you can choose between an audio call and a video call

Ad hoc meetings: you start a meeting without prior invitation.

Start audio or video call via "new chat"

• Go to your chat list and click (at the top of the app / window) on "new chat".
• Type the name or names of your contacts in the field at the top of your new chat.
• Then click Audio call OR Video call.

Start audio or video call via "recent chat"

1. Go to your Recent Chats list and click on a chat
2. Then click Audio call OR Video call.

Start audio or video call via "contacts"

• Go to your Contacts and click on a name in the list
• Then click Audio call OR Video call.

While calling

While calling your correspondent, a menu will appear (below) with the following options

• Camera: turn on/off
• Microphone: turn on/off
• Show conversation: shows chat conversation with that person(s) in separate part of screen
• End a call

During the conversation

During the conversation with your correspondent(s) you can

• Show participants: shows a list of the participants of the Audio call OR Video call
• via the menu ... "More actions" including the "Blur background"

Changing the background of a Teams meeting

In Teams, you can "blur" the background of a meeting or replace it with another background.

See also: Change your background in Microsoft Teams meetings

Screen sharing

Screen sharing: share your desktop and applications, presentations, videos and photos from your (mobile) device.

See also: Share content in Microsoft Teams meetings

Schedule meetings

Organized meetings: unlike "ad hoc" meetings, you place this meeting in the agenda and invite the participants. Important: this way you can invite externals who do not have a UGent account (or have not been added as a guest to a Team).

Scheduling meetings can be done using the Teams calendar (which is the easiest way) or using the Outlook calendar.

Schedule meetings using the Teams calendar

See: Schedule a meeting in Microsoft Teams

Schedule meetings using the Outlook calendar

To schedule meetings using the Outlook calendar, the "Microsoft Teams Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Office" add-in is required. If the add-in does not appear for you in the Outlook calendar, you must first add it yourself.

Team meetings are online meetings; the procedure for scheduling them in Outlook is the same as for a meeting with a room; you can also use the planning assistant.

Inviting externals

You can invite external parties to your meeting with their e-mail address.

Set "Meeting options"

The meeting organizer can set "Meeting options" in meeting request/agenda

• Choose who should NOT wait in the virtual lobby, where attendees can wait before a meeting starts. Having someone wait in the lobby is ideal if you need to prepare some things.
• Choose who can present.

Participate in meetings scheduled through the Outlook calendar

• Accept the meeting request.
• At the time of the meeting, in the meeting request/agenda, click "Join Microsoft Teams meeting".
• Then adjust your audio and video settings.
• Then click "Join Now".

Recording and replaying meetings

• Who can record a meeting? Anyone with a UGent account. Guests, externals and anonymous participants can not. Note: everyone in the meeting will receive a notification that the recording has started.
• It is not possible to make multiple recordings of the same meeting at the same time.
• Whiteboards and shared notes are not currently captured in the recording of a meeting.
• Who can view a meeting recording? All participants/ invitees with a UGent account can view recordings of meetings in which they participated/invited. Guests and external participants can only view a recording if it is explicitly shared with them.

All meeting recordings are stored on OneDrive for Business and SharePoint. The storage location and rights to recordings are now the same as for files.

Recordings of Teams meetings are no longer stored in Microsoft Stream. A recording can still be placed (manually) on Stream though.

• The recording of a video call started from the chat/contacts/command box and the recording of a meeting scheduled (via the calendar) ends up in the OneDrive For Business of the person who started the recording. In the folder: My Files > Recordings.
• The recording of a video call started in a Team, in a channel ends up in the team's SharePoint site. In the folder: Documents Channel Name > Recordings.
• The recording of a video call started in a Team, in a private channel ends up in SharePoint site of the private channel. In the folder: Documents > Recordings
• The access rights ('viewing rights') to the recording can be adjusted after the meeting by the owner of the recording and this from the chat of the meeting but also from OneDrive/Sharepoint.