blog Products Plans and pricing Sales: (877) 768-4369 Pick a topic RINGCENTRAL UPDATES Introducing Team Huddle, voice activated meeting rooms, and more Ben Wu Share 3 min read Highlights: Team Huddle: Start a persistent audio and video meeting where colleagues can come and go as they please—replicating the spontaneous conversations of office environments. Touchless meeting rooms: Control your RingCentral Rooms meetings with voice activation and remote controls straight from your smartphone (via the RingCentral mobile app). Fast chat on mobile: Open up a chat window with any meeting participant by long holding their portrait. For the past year, companies across the world have had to rethink work—and they succeeded. Many companies worked from home, added new technologies, encouraged time off, and completely shifted their stances on work culture. In many ways, these changes are likely here to stay. Chief among these changes is the freedom to work from anywhere. Studies show that business leaders are more open to hybrid work than ever. In fact, Deloitte just announced that employees can continue working from anywhere—joining the ranks of Google, Facebook, and Salesforce. As our customers decide on what’s best for them, we’re here to prepare their workers for anything. That includes giving them more options to collaborate both inside and outside of the office. In other words, our customers’ employees have everything they need to innovate, no matter where they are. Here are our latest features that make this possible: 1. Team Huddle: Hop in and out of conversations at any time When we worked in the office, having a quick chat was as easy as walking to a coworker’s desk. Group chats were the same—gather your team and head to an open space. These ad hoc conversations were often wellsprings of ideas that turned casual chats into deeper connections and ideas. But these conversations are often lost in today’s video-first world, where every interaction with colleagues is scheduled far in advance. Team Huddle is designed to recreate those spontaneous moments in RingCentral. Similar to services like Discord and Telegram, Team Huddle allows you to easily meet with teammates whenever you want in a persistent audio or video call. You, your colleagues, and even those outside of the organization are free to come and go as you please, creating a true office-like virtual environment. Use Team Huddle to create open channels for project discussions, casual conversations, urgent issues, or simply to just connect with your colleagues and see their faces. Team Huddle is part of our ongoing effort to make meetings move with you—with the freedom and mobility to collaborate from anywhere. Here are some other ways the RingCentral app makes this possible: Switch from call to video with one click No downloads required A single app for message, video, phone Call Flip: Switch devices instantly We’re proud that our Team Huddle service is the first in the industry with both audio and video capabilities, and we’re excited to see how you use them. 2. RingCentral Rooms: Now with voice activation and personal device controls Whether your company returns to the office completely or on a hybrid basis, meeting rooms are expected to make a comeback. But there might be several reasons employees are reluctant to get back into old habits—chief among them the cleanliness of high-touch surfaces. Now there’s no need to touch anything to get started. RingCentral Rooms can be controlled with either voice commands or right from your own mobile device’s RingCentral app. How does this work? For voice commands, participants in the room can say, “Hi RingCentral, join meeting” to join the next meeting on the calendar. The host can then control the meeting from their own mobile device (via RingCentral app). Learn more in our post, “New touchless features for your meeting rooms now available”. 3. A much quicker way to send messages during meetings In our increasingly busy schedules, meetings can often be hard to keep up with. And if you want to chat with another participant in a meeting, you have to jump through several cumbersome steps on your smartphone to open the chat window. Now, participants on mobile devices can long hold a participant’s portrait to open up a chat window with that person. This allows you to quickly message someone while the topic is still relevant and jump right back into the conversation. Recent releases In addition to the latest and upcoming features, here’s a look at what we released in the last few months: Windows Rooms Logitech Rally family for RingCentral Rooms Mobile participant pinning Overlays Video virtual backgrounds Picture-in-picture mode Perfecting your meeting experience Whether it’s a spontaneous conversation or a group discussion for an upcoming project, we’re here to give your teams the best meeting experience possible. Try out these new features in your RingCentral app today. Originally published Jul 07, 2021, updated Aug 23, 2021 The 3 different types of hybrid work Which hybrid work model is best for you? Read the blog Up next RINGCENTRAL UPDATES STIR/SHAKEN: How we drastically reduce robocalls Highlights: From disruptions to packed voicemails, robocalls have a huge impact on a business’s productivity and bottom line. But businesses can’t simply ignore calls from unrecognized numbers. RingCentral has implemented STIR/SHAKEN, a new protocol that screens phone numbers before they reach employee phones. If a call is spam, the caller ID will read “SUSPECTED ROBOCALL”. ... Learn more Share SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER A monthly digest of business news, delivered to your inbox What digest would you like to receive? Small business news Larger business news Send me all of it! Related content RINGCENTRAL UPDATES New participant pinning, meeting room features, and more now available Learn more RINGCENTRAL UPDATES Call Flip: Switch from your PC to mobile (and vice versa) with a single click Learn more RINGCENTRAL UPDATES New touchless features for your meeting rooms now available Learn more Bring everyone and everything together on RingCentral See pricing View demo United States PRODUCTS RingCentral MVP™ Meetings Team messaging Fax Contact center Engage SOLUTIONS For small business For enterprise By business need By industry PARTNER PROGRAMS Service providers Channel partners Platform partners Connectivity partners Partner portal Referral program DEVELOPERS Developer platform Integrations APIs App gallery Developer support Developer community ABOUT US Why Ring Central Leadership Awards Press Analysts Investor relations Events Careers RESOURCES Case studies Videos Webinars Releases Analysts reports Blog Support Service status Join a meeting RC App Legal Privacy Notice Cookie Preferences Contact Us © 2021 RingCentral, Inc. 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