Desktop and application sharing has long been a thing in collaboration systems like OCS, Lync, Skype for Business, and Teams. However, one of the shortcomings has been that sharing a video that has audio, or audio on its own was not optimal. The video did not match up with the audio and the experience was very choppy.
In 2019, however, Microsoft released the ability to incorporate the option to share the audio from the host system via a Teams meeting or sharing session (which is now outdated info). This was a welcome change as it was frequently asked for. Share system audio was something that I frequently show people when doing training sessions. Much to my surprise though, in a recent training session I was unable to find this option. After a bit of poking around, I found that the option had been moved to an inconspicuous location without any notification (at least to my knowledge)…so is life in “the cloud”!
How Do I Share System Audio Now??
Never fear, it is still very easy to share system audio if you can’t find it elsewhere though! There are a couple of things you’ll need to do. Keep in mind that this will share ALL system audio…so if you get dings and whistles from new email alerts, etc those will also come through to the attendees so you may want to go into focus mode or do not disturb ahead of time.
- Start a meeting or chat with a person or group
- Connect to the audio
- Once you’re connected to audio in a Teams meeting or chat, share either your desktop or a specific window that will include the object that you’re wanting to share audio from
- Hover at the top of the screen until the presentation toolbar appears.
- You’ll see an icon between “Give Control” and “Stop Presenting” that allows you to share the system audio:
That’s it, now you can play your video or audio clip and the attendees will hear it in near real time!
Have a Microsoft Teams quick tip that you think should be included in a future post? Comment below or connect with me on social media!
It's Partly Cloudy 