While working from home as its fair share of challenges, such as screaming children and pets begging for attention, the worst part of the adjustment has to be the increased strain placed on data caps. South Africans have no doubt battled with their data since video calls become the primary method of working. So if you’re still stuck working on your couch, cursing the ridiculously priced data bundles our country, then this Microsoft Teams update should help set your mind at ease.

A “low data mode” is soon coming to Microsoft Teams that should help with those oppressive data prices. It will prove especially useful for folks who can’t afford to keep topping up their data every few weeks (or days, some people are very busy on Teams) and for anyone stuck in a location with poor connectivity. It’s a basic solution that will allow Teams users to set a limit on the data the app is allowed to use during video calls.

Microsoft Teams dreams

One can only hope that means you’ll be able to determine how much data is dedicated to the app and not simply place a cap that cuts your connection off when it’s reached. That would only be solving half the problem. Still, the feature also includes the ability to adjust your Team’s setting to better optimise your connectivity settings in different network environments.

There’s no precise date for the update just yet but the roadmap for Microsoft Teams lists a launch window of March 2021, so expect it sooner rather than later. While the ability to limit how much data is used on Teams is a great addition, one has to wonder why Microsoft didn’t roll it out sooner. Something like this would no doubt have helped a great many people when the world was still in a hard lockdown, but better late than never, I guess.

Source: TechRadar