Microsoft is looking to fix a major issue for video conferencing users with a new preview update for Windows 11.
Windows 11 Insider Preview version 22494, which was released on the Dev Channel in early November, introduces a new way to mute and unmute your microphone, right from the taskbar.
The functionality will initially be limited to Microsoft Teams, the company's online collaboration app, but the company hopes developers will take it and add the functionality to other apps as well.
Mute Microsoft Teams
“We are beginning to roll out this experience to a subset of Windows Insiders with Microsoft Teams for Work or School installed and scale it over time,” Microsoft said in its announcement. “This means that not everyone will immediately see this with their Teams calls. "
As soon as a user enters a Teams call, Windows 11 adds a microphone icon to the bottom right of the screen, alongside the volume, battery, and Wi-Fi icons. By simply tapping / clicking on the l icon, the user can quickly switch between mute and non-mute states. The capacity only applies to the current call, the company added.
Right now, the functionality is limited to Microsoft Teams, but the company's plan is to bring it to chat from Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Teams for home) as well. He also said that other communications applications can add this capability, which means it is up to companies or individual users to see if it makes sense to add it.
"You can see the audio status of your call, which application is accessing your microphone, and quickly mute and unmute your call at any time," Microsoft explained.
There is also a keyboard shortcut to turn the microphone on / off: Win + Alt + K. This also only works in Microsoft Teams, for now.