This post is about enhancements in Microsoft Teams Calling regarding the reverse number lookup (RNL). It’s an incredibly important and small feature with high impact on usability for Teams calling capabilities.
In general, RNL resolves a caller’s phone number to contact information (for instance the contact’s display name). E.g. if +49 711 987654321 is calling me and this number is stored in my contacts as Anna it will tell me that she called me in my journal etc.
Microsoft’s 365 roadmap says that the following aspects are improved:
- Display name in your Activity Feed
- Display name in your Call History
- Display name in your Voicemail
Conclusion, opinion and summary
As far as I could see, it’s already live in my tenant. Still, obviously not the full display name is shown in the activity feed. It looks like it is trimmed to the first word of the display name.
I’m hoping to see the full name there, too, or a changed order, e.g. the last word of the display name (last name, usually). The latter is helpful especially if you receive many calls a day from people outside your organization. For what I can say, here in Germany, it’s more common to talk to someone using his/her last name except you already know the person for a longer period and/or agreed on a more informal form to talk to each other using “Du” instead of “Sie”. That’s why it would be nice to see the full name directly in the activity feed, too, in case you directly call back the caller listed in your activity feed as missed called.
erik365.blog 