July 22, 2016 11 min to read

Microsoft Stream Vs Office 365 Videos

The announcement of Stream from Microsoft proves their passion to extend their wings wide and flap fast as social butterfly in this modern world with high demand for social(online) presence and collaboration. In stream anyone with company mail address can sign up, upload/share videos, also we can feel that the video upload time is comparatively less than Office 365 Video. Moreover, stream does not depend on SharePoint Online for storage.

In our previous blog, we have had a glance on some of the common questions raised among the existing Office 365 Video users on the announcement of Microsoft Stream. So in this blog, we will compare the features of Microsoft Stream with Office 365 Video and explore the features of Stream.

Some of the highlighted features available in Stream are:

• Socialize video
  • like
  • Embed, share
• Follow Channel / Watch list
• Single video can be placed in multiple channels
• Quicker processing of the uploaded video

Note: Microsoft recommends Office 365 users with A / E / G SKUs to continue to use Office 365 Video, until Office 365 Video is converged with Stream and rebrand of Office 365 Video to Stream is complete.

Search

In Microsoft Stream portal, you can search both videos and channels. For searching the uploaded videos, click the search option in the home page ( https://web.microsoftstream.com), then click Videos tab and search for videos using the numerical points as highlighted in below screenshot. Similarly, you can search for channels by selecting Channels tab.

Video Information

Once you open the video you can view the below highlighted information.

Multi-channel Support

You can tag videos to multiple channels, by login to Microsoft Stream portal (https://web.microsoftstream.com), in which navigate to My content menu and select My videos. In the uploaded videos, click the ellipsis (…) for your required video and click Edit. Then in the video editing page, select your required channels for tagging the selected video in those channels using the numerical points as highlighted in the below screenshot.

Direct share link

To get the direct share link for your required video, navigate to My content menu and select My videos. In the uploaded videos, click the ellipsis (…) for your required video and click Share. Then in the resulting window, click Shareto get the direct share link for your video.

Even though the user holds the direct share link, the user is allowed to view the video only if he is authorized.

Embed Video

To generate the embed code to play your video in web page, login to Microsoft Stream portal ( https://web.microsoftstream.com), in which navigate to My content menu and select My videos. In the uploaded videos, click the ellipsis (…) for your required video and click Share. Then in the resulting window, click Embed and perform the steps using the numerical points as highlighted in below screenshot.

Only the authorized users can view embedded videos.

Channel cover Image

To set cover image for your channel, navigate to My content menu and select My channels. In the available channels, select your required channel, click ellipsis (…) and click Edit. Then in the channel editing page, scroll down and select the video, whose thumbnail you required to set as cover image for your channel and apply the cover image using the numerical points as highlighted in the below screenshot.

Organize channels/videos

You can organize channels and videos using Follow and Watchlist respectively. To organize channel using Follow, navigate to My content menu and select My channels. In the available channels, select your required channel, click Follow. To organize video using watchlist, navigate to My content menu and select My videos. In the uploaded videos, select your required video, click ellipsis (…) and click Add to watchlist.

Finally, you can view the videos in watchlist and followed channels in the main page of stream portal, as highlighted in the below screenshot

Permissions

Channel Permission: To set channel permission, navigate to My content menu, select My channels. In the available channels, select your required channel, click ellipsis (…) and click Edit. Then in the channel editing page, set permission to your selected channel using the numerical points as highlighted in the below screenshot.

Video Permission: To set video permission, navigate to My content menu, select My videos. In the uploaded videos, select your required video, click ellipsis (…) and click Edit. Then in the video editing page, set permission to your selected video using the numerical points as highlighted in the below screenshot.

Disable Microsoft Stream

To disable Microsoft Stream for entire tenant, you can use the following PowerShell command,

Set-MsolCompanySettings -AllowAdHocSubscriptions $false

NOTE: There is no direct method to disable only Microsoft Stream. But as the Microsoft Stream is an email-based subscription, therefore we use the above command to block users company-wide from signing up for email-based subscription as individuals.