Overview 

This article provides some of the technical requirements to help your Teams experience is as smooth as possible.  

There are several components to this article:

1. General Recommendations
2. Connectivity Recommendations
   1. How to check your Internet Speed and Internet Provider Outages
3. Video Quality Recommendations
4. Hardware Recommendations
5. Where to get Teams Training

Associated with the article are two documents: (i) a Faculty/Staff Teams Guide, and a (ii) Student Teams Guide. 

General Recommendations 

1. Use the Desktop App.  There is both a desktop app and a web app. It is recommended that you download Teams to your desktop–the functionality is more robust. If you use the web app, choose Chrome or Edge as your browser if possible. 

2. Choose a laptop/desktop over a phone/tablet. Mobile devices such as tablets and phones limit full engagement and connectivity. Mobile phones tend to be better with connectivity (if using data rather than WiFi). But, mobile devices limit engagement options by reducing the availability of ad-ons such as whiteboard, screen sharing and chat box use. 

3. Use Headsets or earbuds with microphones. Headsets, earbuds, microphones improve meetings for everyone by reducing background noise and feedback. 

Connectivity Recommendations 

The audio and video quality of a Teams call/meeting depends on several factors, such as the quality of WiFi.  A high-quality video connection with require 1.5 Mbps/second internet speed. Further tips include: 

1. Hardwired to the internet through an ethernet cable is best. Upload and download speeds are both improved as well. 

2. If using WiFi, try to be as close to the router as possible. Being only as distant as another room decreases connectivity. 

3. If using WiFi, disconnect as many other devices in the home as possible. It does make a difference. 

4. If using WiFi, avoid streaming during meetings (ask family/roommates to refrain from Netflix, YouTube, etc. while in live sessions). 

When more bandwidth is available, quality and usage will increase to deliver the best experience. Just remember that the more participants there are in the video conference call, the more bandwidth is required. When internet access suffers, so does the Teams experience.  When bandwidth is insufficient, Teams prioritizes audio quality over video quality. 

Check your internet speed and provider status

Check your speed with: https://www.speedtest.net/.

Determine whether your Service is down (check your provider): https://istheservicedowncanada.com/

Video Quality Recommendations

If you are having issues with your video quality, try these two things:

1. Turn off your Video feed (just leave audio)
2. Turn off our incoming video; turn off the video of others coming into your meeting. 

Hardware Recommendations

All of the minimum requirements in the following sections apply to both the Microsoft Teams desktop app and the Teams Web app. 

Teams Training

How to use Teams can be found in several places: 

• Technology Services, and
• Learning Technology and Instructional Design (LTID), and
• Microsoft Learning and
• The Internet