Latest Updates In MS Teams

With 250 million active users, Microsoft Teams is growing at a rapid rate. Below we have compiled a list of new and upcoming features which will help drive efficiencies across meetings, webinars, and chat functions. Some of these features have already been launched, some are currently being rolled out, while other features in development are set for release in the coming months. It is worth bearing in mind that the dates given below are US release dates and that typically the updates are released in Ireland a few weeks later.

Meetings

The captions feature has become more convenient as you can now view captions within the Microsoft Teams window without the need to open a secondary window. This is useful as you can watch captions and presentations at the same time. (Scheduled for release, January 2022)

There is another new addition which is content from camera. This feature enables the intelligent capture of physical whiteboards or documents, allowing you to share such images in a high-quality way. The intelligent content capture can detect, crop and frame the asset while the person standing in front of the asset becomes transparent. (Launched, October 2021)

Also, word cloud for polls in Teams now allows a visual representation of answers on top text phrases people replied with. (Scheduled for release, December 2021)

With the new attendance dashboard, organizers can view an attendance report along with information on when people dropped off during the meeting. This information is also useful for webinars. Webinar participants can now be followed up through exporting this data to Dynamics 365 for Marketing where you can create customer journeys and send personalized follow-up emails to webinar attendees. (Scheduled for release, December 2021)

Another interesting feature that has been added is the virtual laser pointer and ink annotations for PowerPoint Live. This feature enables presenters to point to and mark aspects of their slides in which they want to draw the attention of the audience to. (Phased roll out launched, June 2021)

There is also a new update in presenting from PowerPoint to Teams. There is a “present in teams” button in PowerPoint now which improves the flow of your presentation, making presenting easier and more intuitive. (Launched, August 2021)

Along with this, Microsoft has introduced presenter mode “standout” in PowerPoint Live. This allows a presenter to overlay their video feed on their PowerPoint deck during a Teams meeting. (Phased roll out launched, October 2021)

Finally, there is the All-New Whiteboard in Microsoft Teams. It has been rebuilt to provide a rich visual collaboration workspace with 40+ new customizable templates. Users will also have the ability to insert images and shapes. (Launched, June 2021)

Chat and Collaboration

Microsoft Loop components is a feature being rolled out whereby the user can edit messages within the Teams chat. This will help prevent long threads of messages as you will be able to create live, collaborative components that can be edited in the flow of your work, whether in chat meetings, email or documents. Items such as tables and lists can also be created and co-authored within Teams chat. (Launched, November 2021)

There is also a new search results section with top hits. This will gather the most relevant search results for you across all search domains, reducing the need to scroll through all results. (Phased roll out launched, October 2021)

There is also an updated search results page in teams which is powered by AI-based on the people and content you engage with the most. (Phased roll out launched, November 2021)

Microsoft has now integrated Headspace with the Microsoft Viva App within Teams. This provides a curated set of guided meditations and mindfulness exercises, enabling you to start your day with a clear state of mind. (Scheduled for release, January 2022)

You can now pin a message and reply to a specific message in Teams chat too. Pinning chat messages help drive awareness and provide your chat members easy access to important content. Replying to specific messages helps people within the chat to understand the context of the message more easily. Pinning messages will launch in January 2022 while replying to Specific messages has already been launched as of September 2021.

If you would like to learn more about how Microsoft Teams can make your working life easier, check out our webinar on "Accelerating Microsoft Teams as your Central Digital Workspace".