Microsoft has updated its Lync app for iPhone and iPad to help users better manage their meetings.

New features in the release include Gallery View, Lobby Control and the ability to promote or demote any Lync participant from an attendee to a presenter status, or vice versa.

With Gallery View, iPad users can now share the same experience as those using a desktop or Lync for Windows 8, which means they can see up to four active speakers’ video streams in a Lync meeting at the same time. According to Barak Manor, product manager for Lync Mobile, Lync automatically detects and shows the video streams of the most active speakers in the meeting. This allows users to feel like they’re in the middle of the action and focus on what the speakers are saying.

The update also gives greater control to meeting presenters by allowing them to control who can join the meeting and then determine who has presenter or attendee status. “A presenter with Lync 2013 for iOS will receive a notification that there are new people in the lobby waiting to join the meeting,” explained Manor in a Lync Blog. “After opening the roster, a mobile presenter is able to either admit or deny people that sit in the virtual lobby.”

Manor has promised more updates like this in the near future as his team continues to deliver on Microsoft’s vision for universal communication.

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