mikeymikec
Lifer
I'm asking because aside from a stint in which I tried to get a second-hand boardroom videoconferencing camera working with Teams, I've barely used it myself.
A customer (home user) who had been using Skype and migrated on to Teams presented me with a problem whereby their webcam feed drops within a second or so of starting a video call (but the mic feed from the webcam carries on working). Once I established that they were using the web version of Teams, I suggested giving the desktop version a try (just based on my normal 'wisdom' that the desktop version of a video calling app is usually a bit better designed/stable/faster than the web version). They were using Win11 so they already had Teams installed, and it was logged in as their wife's account.
As I didn't want to mess with the desktop client configuration too much (it didn't look like the wife used it, but I wasn't 100% sure), I wanted to add the husband's account so that they could easily switch. The software then informed me that it can't handle personal accounts in this way. Fine. I then signed out of the wife's account and logged in with the husband's account, but then the chat system was "temporarily unavailable" (and that's how he normally initiates a new video call with his son). I played around a bit then consulted the Internet, an app reset was suggested so I did that, but the problem persisted. I then noticed that the husband's user was marked as 'offline' but every time I marked it as online/available it immediately went back to offline. At some point during all of this, Teams helpfully suggested to me that did I know I can just switch accounts rather than sign out? Facepalm.
I then noticed that the computer had two Teams clients installed (I was using the one with the more modern icon), so I quit the client I had been using and switched to the other which immediately informed me that it was out of date. Fine, uninstall that. I went back into the Start menu again and another different Teams client popped up in the app results called "Teams (personal)" (approximately), which wasn't there before. At some point I also went into Windows Settings and marked both MS accounts to give the user the option to sign in as them rather than assuming that it's OK. I I fired up "Teams (personal)" which appeared to show the correct user straight away and as online and the chat system working. Hurray! I then checked the binary locations for each of these Teams apps and found they were actually the same app.
Then I wanted to do a webcam test in the client. Easy, right? Every video calling app has an option to see the webcam feed in the settings area. Except Teams of course. I consulted the Internet, which suggested two things (including an official MS source): 1) you can do a test call from within audio settings (you can't really), 2) The Echo Sound Test Service (suggested by a random user, but then the "test service" has a weirdly-placed full stop in the username which made me suspicious), but with that one can't test the webcam anyway, apparently.
I just don't understand how Microsoft got as successful as they did when they've persisted in these clownshoes tactics for *years*, like the six or so editions of Skype they had knocking around for various tiers of users (e.g. enterprises), followed by multiple editions of Teams, multiple products named the same thing, etc.
A customer (home user) who had been using Skype and migrated on to Teams presented me with a problem whereby their webcam feed drops within a second or so of starting a video call (but the mic feed from the webcam carries on working). Once I established that they were using the web version of Teams, I suggested giving the desktop version a try (just based on my normal 'wisdom' that the desktop version of a video calling app is usually a bit better designed/stable/faster than the web version). They were using Win11 so they already had Teams installed, and it was logged in as their wife's account.
As I didn't want to mess with the desktop client configuration too much (it didn't look like the wife used it, but I wasn't 100% sure), I wanted to add the husband's account so that they could easily switch. The software then informed me that it can't handle personal accounts in this way. Fine. I then signed out of the wife's account and logged in with the husband's account, but then the chat system was "temporarily unavailable" (and that's how he normally initiates a new video call with his son). I played around a bit then consulted the Internet, an app reset was suggested so I did that, but the problem persisted. I then noticed that the husband's user was marked as 'offline' but every time I marked it as online/available it immediately went back to offline. At some point during all of this, Teams helpfully suggested to me that did I know I can just switch accounts rather than sign out? Facepalm.
I then noticed that the computer had two Teams clients installed (I was using the one with the more modern icon), so I quit the client I had been using and switched to the other which immediately informed me that it was out of date. Fine, uninstall that. I went back into the Start menu again and another different Teams client popped up in the app results called "Teams (personal)" (approximately), which wasn't there before. At some point I also went into Windows Settings and marked both MS accounts to give the user the option to sign in as them rather than assuming that it's OK. I I fired up "Teams (personal)" which appeared to show the correct user straight away and as online and the chat system working. Hurray! I then checked the binary locations for each of these Teams apps and found they were actually the same app.
Then I wanted to do a webcam test in the client. Easy, right? Every video calling app has an option to see the webcam feed in the settings area. Except Teams of course. I consulted the Internet, which suggested two things (including an official MS source): 1) you can do a test call from within audio settings (you can't really), 2) The Echo Sound Test Service (suggested by a random user, but then the "test service" has a weirdly-placed full stop in the username which made me suspicious), but with that one can't test the webcam anyway, apparently.
I just don't understand how Microsoft got as successful as they did when they've persisted in these clownshoes tactics for *years*, like the six or so editions of Skype they had knocking around for various tiers of users (e.g. enterprises), followed by multiple editions of Teams, multiple products named the same thing, etc.
