What’s New in Microsoft Teams | May 2025 - Build Edition
If you’ve never participated in Microsoft Build (and even if you have), now is a great time to check it out! Digital access is free, and there are lots of different ways to make the most of it. You can immerse yourself in interactive coding labs and demos, learn from senior Microsoft leaders and industry experts, build skills, connect with colleagues, and stay up to date with all of the new and upcoming innovations Microsoft has to offer. And if you’re reading this after it’s all over, don’t worry, you can visit the archives to view selected sessions from this year and past years as well. Speaking of “new and upcoming innovations”, the Teams team is excited to be highlighting some impressive and useful features at Build. We’re launching new ways to discover and add agents in Teams on mobile devices, updating the Teams AI Library to enable developers to build more powerful collaborative agents for Teams, and introducing Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A), that enables developers to build agents for Teams that can exchange messages, data, and credentials without relying upon centralized intermediaries. So, read on to see what’s coming! New features released in May*: Platform Chat and collaboration Meetings, webinars, and town halls Teams Phone Workplace: Places and Teams Rooms Certified for Teams Devices Fundamentals and Security Frontline Worker Solutions *All features are generally available unless otherwise noted. Platform Microsoft 365 Copilot interaction export APIs The new Interaction Export APIs enable customers and ISVs to export Copilot interaction data for processing in their security and compliance (S+C) applications. These new APIs capture the user prompts and Copilot responses in the Copilot private interactions and provide insights into the resources Copilot has accessed to generate the response. These new APIs will be available in Public Cloud for General Availability. Updated Teams AI library: Available in public preview The updated Teams AI Library enables developers to build more powerful collaborative agents for Teams. With the enhanced version in preview for JavaScript and C#, the library simplifies the creation of custom agents and provides access to the latest capabilities including Agent-to-Agent collaboration (A2A), Model Context Protocol (MCP), agentic memory, and more. Learn more about the updated Teams AI Library here. Model Context Protocol (MCP): Available in public preview The Teams AI Library now supports Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP can drastically enhance the abilities of the agents you build, enabling agents to leverage external AI services and vastly expand their skill/action set. This vendor-neutral protocol lets AI agents share memory and tools over a common interface, enabling complex multi-agent workflows. You can now create an agent that uses MCP servers. Connect your agent with our MCP server guide. Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A): Available in public preview Developers can build agents for Teams using the A2A protocol that enables secure, peer-to-peer communication between agents. These agents can exchange messages, data, and credentials without relying upon centralized intermediaries, so they can tackle complex enterprise tasks more effectively and efficiently. For example, planning a multi-city business trip might involve one AI agent handling flights, another handling hotels, and another checking your calendar – A2A lets them coordinate that plan together seamlessly. Using advanced agent orchestration capabilities, like A2A, only takes one line of code—drastically reducing the time it takes to create advanced agents. Agentic memory on Teams: Available in public preview Agentic memory allows AI agents in Teams to remember past user interactions, enabling more personalized and context-aware experiences. Instead of treating each interaction as isolated, agents can recall previous conversations, preferences, or user roles to tailor responses accordingly. This memory helps: Maintain conversation state across sessions Reduce repetitive prompts Improve decision-making accuracy Build user trust through familiarity and continuity It’s especially useful in long-running or multi-turn interactions, where agents need to retain context over time. Learn more here. Automated agent validation: Available in public preview This feature enables developers to run automated compliance checks on their agents directly within the Teams Developer Portal. It ensures that agents meet Microsoft Store policies, are optimized for high performance and align with responsible AI practices. This streamlines the publishing process and reduces the risk of agents being rejected or underperforming once deployed. Adoption & engagement insights: Available in public preview The Developer Portal provides analytics to help developers track adoption and engagement with real-time insights, providing key metrics to refine and optimize agent performance. Developers can track adoption rates, user engagement patterns, and key performance metrics. These insights help teams refine their agents, prioritize improvements, and demonstrate ROI. It’s particularly valuable for product marketing and engineering teams looking to optimize agent performance and user satisfaction. Interactive Agents for Teams Meetings and Calls: Available in public preview Now you can seamlessly invite AI-powered agents—like those built in Copilot Studio or available from the Teams Store—into your Teams meetings and calls. These agents can: Join group or private conversations during meetings. Interactions with agents in Teams are private by default. When used privately, agents don’t appear in the meeting roster and therefore, your conversations with the agents are truly private. Offer real-time assistance without needing a prompt (zero-state prompts) Suggest helpful prompts to guide your interactions Support a wide range of tasks, from answering questions to tracking action items Whether you're collaborating with your team or presenting to stakeholders, these agents act like virtual teammates—ready to help, whenever you need them. Enhanced GitHub app for Teams We enhanced GitHub app for Teams. The app is now faster, more intuitive, and includes new features. Enjoy improved notification cards, streamlined actions with slash commands, and organized PR conversations. GitHub app enhancements are now generally available. Seamless Agent experiences on Teams mobile (iOS & Android) We have streamlined the agent acquisition and interaction flow on Teams mobile, so users who spend their day away from a laptop can still get AI assistance exactly when and where they need it. From any chat, channel, meeting, or personal app tray, users can find and install agents from their in-context store or via @mentions in the compose box--so they can engage with an agent without leaving their workflow. Agents on mobile bring zero-prompt entry, contextual suggestions, real-time streaming replies, AI-generated labels, inline citations, sensitivity labels, and a feedback loop—everything tuned for fast, compliant, on-the-go reads. Built on the Teams extensibility framework, they require no extra dev work and unlock hallway, site-visit, and commute-time usage moments that drive higher engagement. Meeting AI Insights API: Available in Public Preview This API empowers developers to deliver intelligent meeting experiences—such as surfacing key takeaways or generating follow-ups—without the need to build or maintain their own AI infrastructure. Insights are generated after the meeting concludes and are accessible via Microsoft Graph API endpoints. This API is part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot API, and the results can only be retrieved on behalf of Microsoft 365 Copilot-licensed users. Chat and Collaboration New chat and channels experience The new chat and channels experience is designed to help you collaborate more efficiently and effectively. It’s simple by default, enabling everyone to stay on top of what matters, and it’s powerful on demand, allowing you to organize information and communicate your way. Catch up on chat, channels and teams in one place, use filters to triage messages, create custom sections to organize conversations by topics, and more. Learn more here. Customize your keyboard to match shortcuts from other apps: Available in public preview now, Generally available by end of May Keyboard shortcuts help you work efficiently without lifting your hands from the keyboard. Now you can apply the same shortcuts you are accustomed to from other chat and meeting applications to Teams. To do this, access the keyboard shortcuts dialog from the ellipsis in Teams top bar-> Keyboard shortcuts. Then, at the top right you can select keyboard shortcut from other apps from the drop down menu. Improvements in code block sharing Over the past year, code blocks sharing has been enhanced. When you type or paste code, it defaults to your last-used language, allows quick creation with shortcuts or slash commands, and support seamless copy-paste. Improved readability with fixed sizing, scrolling, and word wrap ensures a better viewing experience, along with expanded support for more programming languages. Name pronunciation You can now record and share the correct pronunciation of your name, fostering inclusivity and ensuring colleagues pronounce names accurately. Simply open your profile card to make a recording. This recording will be accessible on your profile card to individuals at your workplace or school using Microsoft 365. With a single click, you can listen to your colleagues' name pronunciations. Resize Teams windows and panes Teams now offers more options to arrange your Teams app window across your screen real estate, allowing you to keep your communication in context, tailoring it to your needs. Learn more here. Resize Teams app: snap and resize the Teams app with Windows 11 Snap layouts to efficiently multitask by viewing multiple applications side by side. You can snap Teams app to one of the different layout, keeping it visible alongside other apps. Resize Teams panes: adjust the size of your Teams panes to prioritize what is currently most important to you, and Teams' fluid experience will instantly adapt to fit the new layout. For instance, you can expand the meeting chat pane during a meeting. Simply hover over the edge of the chat, channels, meetings or activity panes, and drag the arrows to resize the panes Zoom levels: Teams now offers additional zoom levels to help you find the size that works best for you. Whether you're using a 6k display or have low vision and need larger text, icons, and controls, you can zoom in without sacrificing functionality or needing to scroll in two directions to read the text. Share a file (forward) in chat You can now directly share a file from chat or channel conversations to other chats or channels, making sharing easier with fewer clicks. To share a file, select the file’s ‘share’ icon. You can add additional content to the message to provide context and clarity for the recipient. You can share in 1:1 chats, group chats, or channels. Search keywords for standard emojis Emoji and reaction search is now more intuitive than ever! Users can search any terms related to the emoji they're looking for to find related results across thousands of standard emoji. Meetings, Webinars, and Town halls Real-time text available in Teams meetings and calls Real-time text (RTT) is an accessibility feature in Microsoft Teams that allows text to be transmitted instantly, character by character, as it’s typed, without needing to press "send." This enables more immediate and natural conversation, particularly benefiting users who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech or cognitive disabilities. In 1:1 calls and meetings, RTT appears in the same pane as Live Captions, creating a unified communication stream where spoken and typed input coexist. This integration reduces the need to switch between interfaces and supports mixed-modality conversations, such as when one participant speaks and the other uses RTT to respond. By preserving conversational flow and reducing cognitive load, RTT helps ensure more accessible, inclusive, and equitable communication for all participants. This is available for Teams on desktop, web, and mobile (iOS and Android). Teams Webinar in DoD Teams Webinars are now available for the Department of Defense (DoD) cloud. Schedule webinar instances with internal audiences for up to 1,000 attendees and leverage capabilities such as creation of event pages, manage attendee registrations, incorporate co-organizers, enable breakout rooms, and access attendee reporting. Control shared content in ‘Manage what attendees see’ before sending it live The "Manage what attendees see" feature in meetings, town halls and webinars helps organizers deliver polished events more easily by simplifying the attendee view and keeping the focus on participants who have been brought on screen. An enhancement to the 'Manage what attendees see' feature allows organizers, co-organizers, and presenters to control when shared content is made visible to attendees. This ensures smooth transitions and prevents unintended screen sharing. Learn more. Teams Phone Delayed simultaneous ring for GCC-High and DoD Clouds For teams with shared call responsibilities, delayed simultaneous ring will ensure calls configure the intended recipient first, instead of notifying everyone the moment a call comes in. This helps reduce noise and minimizes distractions —especially for roles like delegates and customer service teams. Peripherals: Teams button support across multiple connected peripheral devices: Available in public preview You can now use the Teams button across peripheral devices without having to manually select a specific device in the Teams devices settings. This ensures a more seamless experience navigating across multiple certified for Microsoft Teams personal peripheral USB devices (with a wire or a dongle) connected to the same host device (such as your laptop). For example, you can use the Teams button on headset A to bring up the meeting pre-join screen, then use the Teams button on headset B to join the meeting, and then use the Teams button on your connected speakerphone to raise hand in the meeting, etc. Phone devices: Line key support for shared line and call transfers This feature will enable you to assign shared lines to a line key and view the boss and delegates of the line along with their presence on Teams Phone devices with touch screens. This feature allows delegates to pick up calls on behalf of the boss by pressing the line key and join active calls. Additionally, users will be able to assign the transfer action to the line key, enabling them to transfer active calls by simply pressing that line key. Phone devices: Add or edit external contacts Teams Phone certified devices now support the ability to add and edit external contacts directly on the device. Previously, users had to switch to the Teams desktop app to manage external contacts—now, you can stay in the flow of work without leaving the phone device. With just a few taps in the People app, you can enter contact details, assign them to an existing group, or create a new one—all from the convenience of your Teams Phone device. You can now also assign external contacts to line keys so that contact names are displayed instead of numbers. Workplace: Places and Teams Rooms Find certified for Teams devices for all types of spaces and uses at aka.ms/teamsdevices. Auto detection of room audio in BYOD rooms expanded to audio devices with video The room audio auto-detect and pre-select feature for BYOD rooms in the Teams desktop app, released in October 2024, now also activates the video component of composite audio-video peripherals (e.g. video bars) and automatically uses that camera in Teams. This ensures that Teams users in BYOD spaces, after plugging into an audio-video peripheral, can automatically default to both the audio and now video feeds of that device to easily enable high-quality meeting experiences. Learn more. Streamlined, unified role-based access controls (RBAC) for Teams device management IT admins now benefit from unified role-based access controls across both the Teams admin center and Teams Rooms Pro Management portals. This simplifies device management and ensures seamless support for users transitioning between the platforms or managing both environments. Learn more. GCC-H support in Teams Rooms Pro Management GCC-H customer tenants now have access to the Teams Rooms Pro Management service and portal, enabling them to use the device lifecycle management features of the solution while meeting high security and privacy standards. Learn more. Join town halls and webinars as an attendee from Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows You can now join town halls, webinars, and structured meetings in Teams as an attendee from Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows. Now, both attendee and presenter roles are supported for these large-scale events in a Teams Room on Windows. This feature is available in Teams Rooms Pro. Learn more. Local Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera controls for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android If the camera is not currently auto-framing the room, in-room users can control the Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) of the active camera from the in-room console to ensure a more inclusive environment for all participants. Learn more. Speaker recognition and attribution in Teams Rooms on Android Already available in Teams Rooms on Windows, now Teams Rooms on Android can identify who is speaking during live transcription, ensuring clear and precise voice capture for every participant who has enrolled their voice profile. Intelligent speaker functionalities are brought to existing speakers via the cloud. This feature enables intelligent meeting recaps, enhances the value of M365 Copilot and agents by attributing content and actions to individual speakers, and enables AI-enhanced audio and video experiences for meeting participants. Note: for voices to be identified, participants will need to set up a voice profile. It’s easy and secure to enroll your voice in Teams settings. Learn how to Set up your digital voice profile. Available in Teams Rooms Pro. Learn more. Certified for Teams Devices Logitech H570e (Teams version) Stereo, USB-C Headset Enjoy clear audio on Teams calls with Logitech H570e, certified for Microsoft Teams. This entry-level headset delivers better sound with easy controls for enhanced communication and productivity. It features enterprise-quality audio with dual noise-canceling mics and a 30 mm driver. Convenient inline controls and a dedicated Teams button make it easy to manage calls, adjust volume, and mute or unmute. Designed for sustainability and comfort, H570e offers a lightweight design with a minimum of 45% post-consumer recycled plastic(1) in the plastic parts, padded headband, and replaceable earpads. It’s perfect for long online calls and meetings. Learn more. Poly Voyager Legend 50 UC Legendary audio. Legendary design. The Poly Voyager Legend 50 UC takes the iconic Bluetooth® headset to the next level with NoiseBlockAI - to deliver a consistent call experience anywhere, no matter the conditions. Learn more. EPOS ADAPT E1 True Wireless Earbuds - Scandinavian Black Whether you are joining a Teams meeting, taking a call, or enjoying music, the ADAPT E1 delivers an exceptional experience wherever you are. With Microsoft Teams and Made for iPhone certifications, multi-point connectivity and an impressive 50-hour battery life you will experience seamless calls and communication throughout your day. Leveraging AI and a database of over half a million ear scans, EPOS IntelligentFit™ guarantees unmatched comfort and acoustic performance without the feeling of blocked ears. Experience exceptional sound that makes your music come alive and hybrid active noise cancellation that makes concentration effortless. Whether you need to navigate a busy day of calls or want to immerse yourself in music with rich sound, the ADAPT E1 is your new go-to earbud. Learn more. Fundamentals and Security Detect sensitive content while screen sharing [Premium] When enabled by meeting organizers, Teams will proactively analyze onscreen content and alert meeting organizers, co-organizers, and presenters if the presenter shares sensitive information such as bank information, credit card numbers, etc., on the screen. This helps to limit the exposure of the presenting organization and adds a layer of security to meetings and events. Frontline Worker Solutions Simplified UI for frontline Frontline Workers now enjoy a simpler default experience with more intuitive app names for better organizational connection. The Connections app becomes 'Home' with a new icon in the Tailored Frontline App, creating a clearer mobile experience. Find the Engage app pre-pinned to the navigation bar for fast access to Communities. Flexible membership extends to existing teams Save time with flexible membership for existing frontline teams. Link teams to the workforce management tool on the Manage frontline teams page to sync membership automatically with Microsoft Entra attributes. Frontline managers can then easily add or remove members. Learn more here.What’s New in Microsoft Teams | April 2025
Welcome to the April edition of “What’s new in Teams.” Last month, we shared a TON of news about the Teams features leading the future of collaboration that were announced at Enterprise Connect. Some that we highlighted in March weren’t generally available yet, but are now, so we’re sharing them again here. Like the valuable Teams Phone feature “Queues app: barge/whisper/monitor/takeover”, which helps team leads and supervisors manage and coach agents effectively, and “DVR support for town halls” that enables event attendees to pause, rewind, or fast-forward a live streaming town hall just like a recorded piece of content. There are some brand new features to check out as well, like enhanced OneDrive navigation, and the ability edit your display name in meetings. Take a look at the full list below. And don’t miss our post next month, where we’ll announce a ton of new features in our Microsoft Build focused edition! Chat and Collaboration Meetings, Webinars, Town Halls, and Immersive Teams Phone Workplace: Places and Teams Rooms Fundamentals and Security Frontline Worker Solutions Chat and Collaboration Enhanced OneDrive navigation in Teams Users can now seamlessly return to the exact spot they left off within the OneDrive application when navigating across Teams. This feature enhances user experience by saving the last location for easy retrieval of content, ensuring continuity and reducing the time spent searching for files or information. By automatically displaying the last known state upon return, OneDrive provides more efficient navigation and access to content within the Teams desktop client, significantly improving productivity and collaboration. Custom file download location for Mac Mac users now have more control over their file management process and can customize the file download location when saving files shared in a Teams chat or channel. Personalize your file download process, reducing the need to move files post-download. To get started, navigate to Settings and select Files. From there you can choose a default file location for your downloads, and toggle on/off the option to always ask where to save downloaded file. Improved Microsoft Lists links in Teams messages Links to Lists, list items, and Lists forms in Teams will automatically unfurl for greater visibility, making it simpler to locate and access these links within both Teams messages and the 'Shared' tab of chats. Additionally, the links include details like title and path, helping users identify specific List link types and find pertinent information with ease. Forward messages with app cards You can now forward messages containing app cards in chats and channels. Previously, forwarding app cards was restricted, but now you can simply navigate to the “more actions menu of any message containing an app card, and select "Forward". Tag Mentions filter in Activity To view all your tag mentions, select the tag mentions filter in your activity feed. The ‘@Mentions’ filter allows you to catch up quickly on personal mentions, while the ‘Tag mentions’ filter helps you catch up on the Tag mentions you are part of. Increased drop zone for chats when uploading files The drop zone in chat is now larger, making it easier to share local files easily. This update will soon be added to channels as well. Meetings, Webinars, and Town Halls IT administrators can upload multiple themes for branded meetings [Premium] Visual branding is essential for creating a memorable experience. Whether it’s a professional client meeting, an internal meeting, or a festive seasonal event, the right theme sets the tone and strengthens your brand’s presence. Now, IT administrators can create and upload up to five brand themes to a customization policy in Teams admin center. Meeting organizers who have the policy assigned to them will be able to choose from different brand theme options when scheduling their meetings, offering flexibility to customize their brand theme for every occasion. This capability is available with a Teams Premium license. Admins can disable ability to send messages in meeting chat before and after the meeting We are expanding the existing ‘Meeting chat’ control in Teams admin center so admins can control who can send messages during and after meetings. Admins can select the “In-meeting only” value to disable participants’ ability to send messages in the meeting chat before or after the meeting, for meetings organized by specific users in their tenant. Learn more: Manage chat in Teams meetings - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn Information barriers moderated meetings With this feature, organizations with information barrier policies are now able to hold meetings with participants who have conflicting policies, in the presence of an approved moderator. Meeting attendees will remain in the lobby until the moderator joins, unless the moderator has specified the ability to bypass the lobby. This feature is ideal for regulated industries, ensuring compliance while facilitating necessary communication. Edit display name in meetings Teams meeting participants will be able to edit their display name, enabling more flexibility in their meeting presence, regardless of their tenant set display name. Users can make this change during the meeting and it will persist only throughout the duration of the meeting. Notification that intelligent recap is ready for calls from chat and ‘Meet now’ meetings Notifications for Intelligent recap for calls from chat and ‘Meet now’ meetings are now available. You will receive a notification in your Teams Activity feed and on the banner when an intelligent meeting recap is ready. Clicking on the notification in Activity feed will take you right to the recap. You can configure the notification settings to control where the notification is surfaced, as well as which meetings have notifications enabled. Set chat notification preference via meeting RSVP Teams now helps you manage your notifications more effectively by integrating chat notifications with meeting RSVP status. If you decline a meeting, you won't receive notifications or see the chat in your list, while accepting a meeting ensures you receive all relevant notifications. Bi-directional calendar syncing between Google Workspace and Teams Businesses using Google Workspace for email and calendaring can now enable bi-directional synchronization with Teams through the Teams Admin app. This update ensures that events created in either platform are seamlessly reflected in both improving scheduling efficiency and minimizing the risk of missed meetings. With this update, all calendar events - incoming, outgoing, existing, and new - are fully synchronized. This feature is currently available for Teams Essentials customers. It will be available to all Teams customers soon. Learn more here. DVR support in Town hall Digital Video Recording (DVR) functionality in town halls now enables event attendees to interact with an instance of a live streaming town hall instance in the same way they would a recorded piece of content, when viewing via desktop or web. This makes it easier to digest the content being presented, giving viewers the ability to pause and move forward or back within a town hall, navigate to any previously-streamed timestamp, and interact in other ways that make viewing a town hall more convenient. This feature is available for all town halls regardless of license assigned to the organizers. Post and reply to questions as an organizer Town hall and webinar organizers now have the ability to post and reply to questions using the title “organizer” in the Q&A experience, instead of their individual names. This feature allows instance organizers to present a unified and official voice when responding to attendee questions. Teams Phone Teams Phone extensibility for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center We introduced at Enterprise Connect Teams Phone extensibility for Dynamics 365 Contact Center and certified ISV solutions to help customers benefit from and extend their existing telephony investment with Teams Phone into the contact center. Beginning this month in public preview, customers with Teams Phone and Dynamics 365 Contact Center will be able to leverage Teams Phone as a single, integrated solution to power calling across their unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS) solutions—streamlining the deployment, management, and billing of their telephony infrastructure. Teams Phone extensibility will also be supported by ISV solutions in the future that leverage Azure Communication Services (ACS) for this integration, offering customers a wide range of options to bring Teams Phone to their preferred contact center app of choice. Learn more. Queues app: barge/whisper/monitor/takeover The "Queues app: barge/whisper/monitor/takeover" feature in Teams Phone helps team leads and supervisors manage and coach agents effectively. This feature allows supervisors to: Monitor: Listen to the conversations agents are having with callers without being heard Whisper: Provide assistance to agents during a call without the caller hearing Barge: Join a call in-progress to assist both the agent and the caller Takeover: Remove an agent from a call and take over the conversation, if necessary These capabilities are particularly useful for teams that have to manage a lot of inbound calls to serve internal or external customers - such as IT help desk center environments – and where supervisors need to provide oversight in helping agents follow the right procedures when handling customer calls. The feature is part of the Queues app, which is available with a Teams Premium license. More seamless migration from on-premises Direct Routing phone numbers to online phone numbers Teams now supports more seamless migration of on-premises synced Direct Routing (DR) phone numbers to online options - including Direct Routing, Operator Connect, and Teams Calling Plans - without the need to unassign numbers from users or resource accounts. This enhancement enables administrators to make changes to on-premises DR numbers directly via Teams admin center or PowerShell, ensuring all assignment data remains intact. Operator Connect partners leveraging the Transfer API can streamline migrations while preserving user assignments. Direct Routing Call Troubleshooting via SIP Ladder We are launching the SIP Ladder diagram tool in Teams admin center to enable admins to troubleshoot their Direct Routing calls in a self-serve way. This feature will be available via the Usage reports page under Teams admin center. It will also enable admins to view the SIP requests, responses and associated SDP data between Microsoft teams proxy and the SBC through which the call was routed. This data will be available for all calls made more than 30 minutes and less than 30 days ago. Workplace: Places and Teams Rooms Find certified for Teams devices for all types of spaces and uses at aka.ms/teamsdevices. Book an individual desk by plugging into a peripheral Instantly reserve a desk and automatically update your workplace presence just by plugging into a peripheral on a shared desk, enabling a more streamlined workplace experience for employees. IT admins also benefit from access to desk utilization data in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Learn more. Live transcription and controls on Teams Rooms on Windows You can control live transcription (start, stop, show) during a meeting from a Teams Rooms on Windows device. The real-time transcript includes each speaker's name, including those in a room that have enrolled their voice profile in Teams, and timestamp. You can also change settings including the spoken language, the translated language, and whether the original and translated transcript would show side by side. This feature is available in Teams Rooms Pro. Learn more. Live captions translation in Teams Rooms on Windows While live captions display in the spoken language by default, on a Teams Rooms on Windows device, meeting participants around the world can choose their preferred translation language for real-time translation without affecting what other meeting participants see, ensuring a more inclusive experience for everyone. Admins have controls for system default captions enablement and profanity filtering in captions and transcripts with settings from Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. This feature is available in Teams Rooms Pro. Learn more. Updates to gallery view in Teams Rooms on Windows You can experience a consistent meeting experience across the Teams desktop and Teams Rooms with the updated gallery view in Teams Rooms on Windows. The gallery view will automatically arrange all participants in consistent tile sizes, prioritize video on the meeting stage, offer additional layout options, and increase the number of participants shown on single and dual displays. Admins have controls to set default views, and in-room users can adjust views during the meeting. Learn more. Occupancy status on Teams panels Teams panels can now utilize signals from Teams Rooms devices or occupancy sensors that have been paired with the panels to indicate when a room is in use (e.g. LED glow). These signals mean you’re no longer surprised to find an available room is actually occupied. Requires a Teams Rooms Pro or Shared Devices license for the room. Learn more. Fundamentals and Security Admins can choose automatic or manual adjustment of meeting sensitivity based on the sensitivity level of shared files in Teams meetings [Premium] Microsoft 365 E5 and Teams Premium customers can now leverage sensitivity labels from Microsoft Purview Information Protection to help set the right data protection settings in meetings. Admins can choose either an automatic label inheritance policy for meetings, or a label recommendation notification. When an attendee shares a file in meeting chat or via Live share that has a higher sensitivity than the meeting: If the admin has enabled the automatic label option, the meeting's sensitivity will be updated automatically to match the sensitivity of the shared file. If the admin has enabled label recommendation, the organizer will receive a notification that recommends the organizer upgrade the meeting’s sensitivity to match the shared file. Both options help to keep a meeting’s sensitivity level aligned with the content shared. Brand impersonation phishing protection for GCC, GCC-H and DoD This feature first launched for commercial users in January, and now is available for the GCC, GCC-H, and DoD audiences. If an initial contact in a chat message with an external user is identified as potential spam or a phishing attempt, the user targeted will be notified. IT admins will also be notified that an external user is targeting their enterprise using brand-impersonation-based phishing attacks. Background blur, virtual and user uploaded backgrounds the new VDI solution With this new feature, users on the new VDI solution for Teams can blur their background, choose a Teams virtual background, or replace their background entirely with any image they want by uploading it through the "Video effects and Settings" option. AVD Screen Capture Protection and Microsoft Teams compatibility Users who have Screen Capture Protection (SCP) enabled to block screen capture on the remote desktop client (Block screen capture on client) can still share their screen and apps while using the new SlimCore-based optimization for Microsoft Teams. Cross cloud support for the new optimizations for VDI Users on the new optimizations for VDI can now access and interact with resources across different cloud environments. This includes enabling features like Cross Cloud Authentication, Management, and Guest Access, along with various improvements in user experience and functionality. VDI users can join optimized meetings with people in other Microsoft 365 cloud environments (e.g., a user in GCC-H joining a meeting in commercial, GCC, or DOD) through three options: authenticated access via cross-cloud meeting connection, authenticated access using a guest account, or anonymous access. These scenarios require Slimcore-based optimization. Manage location sharing in Teams Microsoft is updating its policies regarding the sharing of user location data to enhance privacy, improve data security, and ensure compliance with evolving regulatory standards. To enhance transparency and user control, Teams is introducing a new app location consent experience that gives users the choice of when and how Teams can use their location data (specifically SSID & BSSID). All new and existing Teams users on Windows, Mac, and Mobile will be prompted to specify if they want to keep location detection on for emergency calls only, or if they consent to allow location access used for IT Admin Insights or troubleshooting. Learn more here. Monitor Teams client updates in Teams admin center IT Administrators can now monitor Teams client version update adoption and access detailed adoption information. This feature enables administrators to proactively understand version adoption, assess version health, and access granular details about devices and users who are on the latest client versions. Additionally, it provides visibility on recency of client versions. Administrators can now proactively view insights and address issues preventing users from automatically updating to the latest and most secure version of the Teams client. Teams client health dashboards in Teams admin center IT Administrators can view and monitor the health of Teams desktop clients on both Windows and Mac platforms. This feature offers comprehensive admin-actionable insights into client health metrics, including client crashes and launch failures. With these dashboards, administrators are equipped with detailed information on issues, insights, and mitigation tools to promptly and effectively address any potential client health problems. Remote contact management for Teams Phone devices in Teams admin center IT admins can now remotely manage contacts to ensure crucial contacts are available for users on their Teams Phone devices. Admins can push a set of contacts from the Teams Admin Center (TAC) to Teams Android-based devices as speed dial contacts. Frontline Worker Solutions Wired headset support to Walkie Talkie on iOS Wired headsets are now supported in the Walkie Talkie app for iOS, providing greater flexibility and convenience for frontline workers. Users can connect generic wired headsets with a play/pause button to enable toggle-to-talk mode, allowing hands-free operation with a single tap. Specialized push-to-talk (PTT) headsets are also supported, enabling traditional push-to-talk functionality. This feature ensures workers can stay connected without needing to pull out their devices. Storyline in Teams Storyline provides a centralized place for corporate communications to foster better communication and alignment across the organization. It enables leaders to connect directly with their workforce through targeted posts, like sharing policy changes or celebrating company milestones. Learn more about Storyline capabilities. Engage in Teams mobile The Engage app is now available on the Teams mobile app, delivering a full communities experience directly into Teams. This feature empowers organizations to drive news delivery, strengthen leadership connections, foster relationships, all from a single platform. Learn more. Flexible membership for deploying Teams at scale This new feature empowers IT admins to create location-based teams quickly while giving frontline managers the ability to make manual adjustments, like adding or removing an employee, as needed. This additional capability provides greater control for frontline workforce management and is now generally available.What’s New in Microsoft Teams | February 2025
Hi everyone, and happy February. This may be the shortest month, but there’s no shortage of new updates for Teams! This month, we’ve got some really intelligent and time-saving features to talk about. Right at the top of the list is the ability to add agents or bots to a chat that everyone in the chat can use and interact with. There’s also the newly added functionality that allows you to schedule messages in channels to send at a specific day/time, just like you already can in chats. Another feature that both Teams Webinar and Town Hall users, as well as Teams Rooms users will find useful is the ability for a Teams Room to join an event as a presenter, allowing you to manage an event from the console of a live meeting room just like you can from your computer. Stay warm and scroll through all of the new features we’ve released! Chat and Collaboration Meetings, Webinars, Town Halls, and Immersive Teams Phone Teams Rooms and Devices Frontline Worker Solutions Chat and Collaboration Add agents or bots in Teams chat Whether answering questions or taking care of mundane tasks, agents and bots in Teams save you and others time so you can focus on what's most important. You can now add an agent or bot in your 1:1 or group chat and access it directly from that chat. To add, click on ‘Add people, agents and bots’ -> ‘Add agents and bots’ and search for the agent or bot you want to add. Once added, everyone in the chat can interact with the agent. Users can '@mention' the agent along with a relevant prompt, and everyone in the chat will see the agent’s response. This update is available for Teams on Windows desktop, Mac desktop, and the web. Learn more here. Scheduled message delivery in channels Similar to delaying the delivery of chat messages in Teams and emails in Outlook, you can now manually select the future date and time for a channel message to be published. To schedule a channel post or a message reply, click on the plus icon and select schedule message from the menu. This will open the date picker, where you can choose the desired publishing time. This feature allows you to send channel messages confidently, knowing they will be delivered at the right time. Whether you're coordinating with team members across different time zones or scheduling a message to be sent after a meeting, scheduling channel messages provides flexibility and control over your messages. Customize notification location on screen Enhance your focus and productivity by customizing the location of notifications. Previously, Teams notifications would appear in bottom right corner of the screen, but now you can set them to appear in the most convenient and least intrusive location for you: the bottom right, top right, bottom left, or top left. To change the location of the notifications, open your settings > Notifications and activity > Display and select the location that suits your needs and preferences best. Users can easily discover apps previously used Easily find apps you've used in group chats, channels, meetings, and other Teams areas. This enhancement streamlines the app installation process by prominently displaying apps you've previously installed in group chats, meetings, or channels when searching for an app. This app list is unique to each user, based on the apps they have used and installed. Meetings, Webinars, Town Halls, and Immersive Intelligent Meeting Recap for events (Premium) Intelligent recap is now available for town hall and webinar event instances, just like the intelligent recap experience you are used to in meetings. Event organizer, co-organizers, and presenters can now easily explore the meeting recording by speakers and topics, and access AI-generated meeting notes, AI-generated tasks, and name mentions. In addition to availability with a Teams Premium license, intelligent event recap features are available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Meeting recap can be shared via link Meeting participants can now share a link to the meeting recap from the meeting thumbnail in chat and the recap tab, making it easier to reference and share the meeting recap insights with others. Meeting participants can share the meeting recap link with anyone in their organization. Users who don't have access to the recording or transcript, can request recording and transcript access. New admin policy to enable Copilot for multi-tenant organizations This new admin policy in Teams admin center allows admins to enable or disable access to Copilot in meetings between Business-to-Business members in Multi-Tenant Organization set ups. Teams admins can toggle the ‘Allow Copilot for B2B members’ setting in the Teams admin center or with PowerShell. This setting is turned on by default, allowing B2B members within the multi-tenant organization who have Copilot licenses to use Copilot when they join meetings hosted by their organization. For more details visit Manage Copilot access for B2B members within multitenant organizations (MTO) in Teams. Meeting organizers, co-organizers, and transcript initiator can change spoken language setting The default permissions for who can set the spoken language for a meeting have been updated. Now, when transcription is enabled (whether by itself or when recording or Copilot are enabled) only the meeting organizer, co-organizer, and person who initiated the transcript can change the spoken language for the meeting. This is to ensure accurate transcription of everyone’s speech during the meeting since the spoken language setting and the spoken language used during discussion must match for transcript accuracy. If transcription is not enabled, all meeting participants will be able to change the meeting spoken language. Copilot in Teams meetings now available for GCC Copilot helps you run more effective meetings, get up to speed on the conversation, organize key discussion points, and summarize key actions so it’s clear what you need to do next. Users can type any question or use predetermined prompts during or after the meeting, and their interactions with Copilot are only visible to them. This feature is already available in worldwide multitenant and is now available for customers in GCC. Default policy for transcription updated to “on” The default policy for transcription has been updated from “off” to “on” for any new tenant, aligning the default transcription policy with that of recording. For tenants that never set their global policies, their transcription policy will be changed to “on” from the previous default setting “off.” This change doesn’t mean that every meeting will automatically have transcription enabled, it means that transcription is available, and users will have the ability to turn it on if needed. Teams meeting Notes now available in Microsoft Teams for Education Teams meeting Notes, powered by Loop, is now available in Microsoft Teams for Education. Notes are Loop components in Teams meetings and chats that allow end users to co-create and collaborate on their meeting agenda, notes, and action items that can be co-authored and edited by everyone. Since Notes are Loop components, they stay in sync across all the places they have been shared. Assigned tasks automatically sync with ToDo and Planner. Enhancements to Apple CarPlay for iOS devices The Teams view in Apple CarPlay has been updated with improved visuals to provide a clearer view of your mute/unmute state, and the option to raise your hand has been added. These updates to CarPlay expand your ability to navigate meetings and messages hands-free, safely participate in meetings, catch up on conversations, and initiate urgent communications while on the go, without the need to divert your attention from driving. For more details please visit Place Microsoft Teams calls with Apple CarPlay. Enhancements to iPad Teams calendar We’ve updated the iPad Teams calendar to leverage the iPad’s form factor and make the scheduling process more seamless for iPad users. Users will now enjoy a default 5-day work week view, with options to switch to agenda, day, and 7-day week views. Enhanced features include a join button for easy access to upcoming meetings, synced category colors from the desktop, and the ability to reschedule events by simply dragging and dropping. Join and present events from Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows devices can now join events in Teams (webinars and town halls) as presenters. See full description in the Teams Rooms and devices section. Allow presenters to moderate Q&A in Town hall and Webinars Organizers of town halls and webinars can now select and assign presenters to also be Q&A moderators, allowing them to manage and publish questions asked during the event. This feature lets organizers make changes to the group of moderators at any time, before or during the event, and it is available to all users organizing a town hall or webinar, regardless of license. Automatic installation and update of the Network Device Interface (NDI) in Teams (Windows Only) This update now enables users to install and update the Network Device Interface (NDI) automatically in Teams without any manual process. This allows organizations to broadcast audio and video streams from Teams instances to a user's local network. It is currently available exclusively on Windows devices. End the Session for attendees and presenters return to green room Organizers and presenters can now end the session with this new "End Event" button for town halls, webinars, and structured meetings. After selecting this button, attendees will see a message on stage stating that the session has concluded, and presenters will return to the Green Room. Teams Phone Extensibility for PSTN calls Third-party application developers can now extend the PSTN calling experience in Teams with contextual information, making it possible for Teams users to access relevant data without leaving the call experience. This brings additional context and workflow integration into calling experiences and makes customer-facing professionals more efficient by having data from line of business applications readily available. This functionality is available for developers to integrate their applications and add new functionality to calls. Learn more through related developer documentation and admin documentation. Delayed simultaneous ring For teams with shared call responsibilities, delayed simultaneous ring will ensure calls configure the intended recipient first, instead of notifying everyone the moment a call comes in. This helps reduce noise and minimizes distractions —especially for roles like delegates and customer service teams. Direct Routing phone number management Tenant administrators can now more easily manage Direct Routing (DR) phone numbers. The new capabilities can replace manual management of DR phone numbers in Excel or with third-party tools through the ability to upload unused or unassigned DR phone numbers to the Teams Phone Number Management system and manage these numbers within Teams admin center (TAC) or via Teams PowerShell cmdlets. Admins can also leverage TAC or Teams PowerShell cmdlets to manage existing assigned on-premises DR phone numbers, making it easier to convert any on-premises sourced DR phone numbers to online sourced DR phone numbers. Teams Rooms and Devices Find certified for Teams devices for all types of spaces and uses at aka.ms/teamsdevices. Join and present events from Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows devices can now join events in Teams (webinars and town halls) as presenters. You can present directly from the Teams Room, with features like green room access and stage control for presenters, supported on both single and dual screens. This feature requires a Teams Rooms Pro licensed room. Learn more. The Owl Bar Newly certified for Teams, the Owl Bar is a 4K front-of-room camera, microphone, and speaker device with a 30MP lens, four omnidirectional microphones, and an integrated speaker. It can work alone or pair with the Meeting Owl to focus on speakers and switch cameras for remote participants. The Owl Intelligence System™ uses visual and audio cues to capture the best view of in-room speakers, ensuring effective hybrid discussions. Ideal for huddle and small meeting rooms, the Owl Bar can also pair wirelessly with a Meeting Owl for larger spaces. Yealink MCore-OPS-T The Yealink MCore-OPS-T is a modular computing solution specially designed meeting board for Windows systems. With its powerful processor, it delivers enhanced computing performance and efficient graphics processing, allowing you to run multiple applications simultaneously without any lag. The sophisticated structural design eliminates the need for external equipment, greatly simplifying installation and deployment. Rally Board 65 for Teams Rooms on Android The Rally Board 65 for Teams Rooms on Android is the ultimate all-in-one video conferencing solution for meeting rooms and open spaces. The expansive 65” touchscreen enables seamless and intuitive collaboration in any environment. Enjoy quick setup, flexible installation options for natural eye contact, and innovative AI-driven features. Simplify the way you meet and collaborate. Frontline Worker Solutions QR Code Authentication Multiple frontline workers often share the same device across shifts throughout the day. Manual sign-in processes are time consuming and decrease productivity, especially on shared devices. Beginning this month in Public Preview, Microsoft will be launching a new, simple authentication option – QR code. This new, highly requested feature enables sign-in with the scan of a unique QR code and entry of a personal PIN number, significantly decreasing time to log in without affecting security. Learn more about QR code authentication and how to enable it. Shared Device Mode – iOS support for Jamf Shared Device Mode now enables more efficient and secure device sharing for Frontline workers. Microsoft's Shared Device Mode (SDM) allows frontline workers, whose device may be shared among multiple users, to login once to access the device and every app on the device and sign out across apps so the device is ready for the next user. In addition, SDM enables conditional access policies to enable customized security policies. This month, we’re excited to announce that Jamf support for Shared Device Mode is now generally available. Customers with iOS Jamf-managed devices can now enable Shared Device Mode at scale with zero-touch provisioning and leverage device compliance conditional access. To learn more about supporting Shared Device Mode and about managing shared frontline devices, click here.What's new in Microsoft Teams at Enterprise Connect 2025: Leading the Future of Collaboration
Enterprise Connect 2025 (March 17-20, 2025), is the premier conference for enterprise communications and collaboration in North America, and we were excited to attend to highlight some of our newest Microsoft Teams innovations. Ilya Bukshteyn, CVP of Microsoft Teams Calling, Devices, and Premium Experiences, delivered a keynote address to introduce and demonstrate some of these advancements. The features he highlighted and others announced during the event represent different areas of Teams, including Places, chat and collaboration, meetings, events, Teams Phone, Teams Rooms, fundamentals, and security. All of these features are designed to highlight how Microsoft Teams is transforming the future of work. From seamless communication to advanced AI-driven features, these new capabilities can be instrumental in helping businesses thrive in a hybrid work environment. Let’s take a look at what we introduced. Chat and Collaboration Meetings, Webinars and Town halls Teams Phone Workplace: Places and Teams Rooms Teams Devices Fundamentals and Security Frontline workers Chat and Collaboration The new chat and channels experience: Generally available in early 2025 (Q1) The new chat and channels experience is designed to help you collaborate more efficiently and effectively. It’s simple by default, enabling everyone to stay on top of what matters, and it’s powerful on demand, allowing you to organize information and communicate your way. Catch up on chat, channels and teams in one place, use filters to triage messages, create custom sections to organize conversations by topics, and more. Learn more here. We’re committed to making Teams more streamlined with enhancements like threaded conversations, coming to broad availability in mid-2025. Chat @nearby: Available in public preview in April You can now connect with colleagues who are physically nearby via Teams chat using @nearby. By showing which colleagues are nearby, this feature can help to spur impromptu in-person connections, such as scheduling a spontaneous lunch or meeting up for a quick chat. Resize Teams windows and panes: Available now in public preview Teams now offers more options to arrange your Teams app window across your screen real estate, allowing you to keep your communication in context, tailoring it to your needs. Learn more here. Resize Teams app: snap and resize the Teams app with Windows 11 Snap layouts to efficiently multitask by viewing multiple applications side by side. Enabling access to chat, channel, and meetings functions at smaller window sizes ensures that you can work across all aspects of Teams, alongside other apps. Resize Teams panes: adjust the size of your Teams panes to prioritize what is currently most important to you, and Teams' fluid experience will instantly adapt to fit the new layout. For instance, you can expand the meeting chat pane during a meeting. Simply hover over the edge of the chat, channels, meetings or activity panes, and drag the arrows to resize the panes Zoom levels: Teams now offers additional zoom levels to help you find the size that works best for you. Whether you're using a 6k display or have low vision and need larger text, icons, and controls, you can zoom in without sacrificing functionality or needing to scroll in two directions to read the text. Shared collaborative space in channels: Available in public preview in April A new collaborative space is now available directly from channels, enabling real-time collaboration, organization of key information, and streamlined communications. You will be able to add a Loop workspace tab to standard channels, allowing your team to brainstorm, co-create, collect, and organize content together in real-time. Everyone in the Team gets access to the Loop workspace, even as Team membership changes, and the workspace adheres to the governance, lifecycle, and compliance standards set by the Microsoft 365 Group backing the team. To get started, click the plus sign (+) at the top of the channel and select Loop from the app list. This will be generally available in April. Live chat: Generally available now in the US, rest of world by end of March Live chat in Microsoft Teams enables small businesses to provide quick and helpful customer service by allowing website visitors to chat directly with their team in Teams. This feature includes notifications for incoming chat requests, a dashboard for managing conversations, and the ability to view previous customer interactions. To use Live chat, companies are limited to a maximum of 25 users. This is generally available in the US now and will be available worldwide in March. Learn more about how to set up live chat. Share file (forward): Available in Public preview in March You will be able to directly share a file from chat or channel conversation to other chat or channels, making sharing easier with fewer clicks. To share a file, select the file’s ellipsis menu and choose ‘share’. You can add additional content to the message to provide context and clarity for the recipient. You can share in 1:1 chats, group chats or channels. Improvements to “Shared” tab in chat: Generally available now Filter files by keywords: locate previously shared files or links by entering keywords to the Shared tab’s search bar. Type name, file title, the person who shared it, or even the time when it was shared, and find the file you need. Go-to-chat: Select the go-to-chat icon to quickly navigate to the specific message in which the file or link was shared. Storylines integrated into Teams: Generally available in early 2025 (Q1) Employee communications are often scattered across multiple locations, leading to frustration, delays, and overload. Storyline in Teams empowers leaders to share updates and vision with all of employees and simplifies the ways that people share and connect. The storyline integration brings the same communication benefits from Viva Engage right into Teams, providing a new way for employees to stay on top of company initiatives, discover what leaders are talking about, and contribute ideas and perspectives. Meetings, Webinars and Town halls Intelligent meeting recap for Events [Premium]: Generally available now Intelligent recap is now available for town hall and webinar event instances, just like the intelligent recap experience you are used to in meetings. Event organizers, co-organizers, and presenters can now easily explore the meeting recording by speakers and topics, and access AI-generated meeting notes, AI-generated tasks, and name mentions. In addition to availability with a Teams Premium license, intelligent event recap features are available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. End the Session for attendees and presenters return to green room: Generally available now Organizers and presenters can now end the session with this new "End Event" button for town halls, webinars, and structured meetings. After selecting this button, attendees will see a message on stage stating that the session has concluded, and presenters will return to the Green Room. Post and reply to questions as an organizer: Generally available in early 2025 (Q2) Town hall and webinar organizers now have the ability to post and reply to questions using the title “organizer” in the Q&A experience, instead of their individual names. This feature allows instance organizers to present a unified and official voice when responding to attendee questions. DVR Support for Town hall: Generally available in April Digital Video Recording (DVR) functionality in town halls now enables event attendees to interact with an instance of a live streaming town hall instance in the same way they would a recorded piece of content, when viewing via desktop or web. This makes it easier to digest the content being presented, giving viewers the ability to pause and move forward or back within a town hall, navigate to any previously-streamed timestamp, and interact in other ways that make viewing a town hall more convenient. This feature is available for all town halls regardless of license assigned to the organizers. Town hall concurrent attendee increase to 50K: Generally available in March Organizers of town hall instances can now reach wider audience in a single event with an expansion to a maximum of 50,000 simultaneous attendees. This increase serves as a significant jump from the previous attendee cap of 20,000 for organizers with a Teams Premium license. The quality and stability of town halls up to this new limit will remain constant, providing high-quality and reliable content to participants. For events with more than 20,000 concurrent attendees, some interactivity features are disabled for all attendees. Organizations can get support for audiences up to 50,000 concurrent attendees by reaching out to the Microsoft 365 Live Event Assistance Program (LEAP) for assistance (Microsoft 365 Live Event Assistance Program – Microsoft Adoption). ). Pop out meetings panels: Generally available in April When you are in meetings or calls, you can now pop out, drag, and resize your meeting panes from the meeting window. With this feature, you’ll be able to view multiple meeting features at the same time, so you don’t miss anything in the chat while monitoring meeting notes. The ability to pop out and move/resize is available for Chat, Copilot, and Notes side panes. Town hall Attendee/Presenter email dial in details: Generally available now With the release of this feature, the Townhall attendee and presenter invites will have dial in details available in the body of the email. This provides an additional level of convenience, giving attendees easy access to important event information. Separate policies to control transcription and recording for Town halls and Webinars: Generally available now Town halls and webinars now have separate policies from meetings to allow or disable transcription and recording in instances. Previously, the transcription and recording policies for town halls and webinars automatically inherited the transcription and recording policy set for meetings. Town hall and webinars can now also have distinct transcription and recording policies from each other. This option to implement different policies for town hall and webinars is available for users on all licenses. Ability to separate out the Townhall attendee invites: Generally available now Organizers can now maintain separate invites for Townhall attendees, distinct from the events crew. This feature helps manage large-scale events more efficiently by ensuring that only intended participants receive the necessary information Teams Phone Teams Phone extensibility for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center and certified ISVs solutions: Available in public preview in April We’re introducing Teams Phone extensibility for Dynamics 365 Contact Center and certified ISV solutions to help customers benefit from and extend their existing telephony investment with Teams Phone into the contact center. Beginning next month customers with Teams Phone and Dynamics 365 Contact Center will be able to leverage Teams Phone as a single, integrated solution to power calling across their unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS) solutions—streamlining the deployment, management, and billing of their telephony infrastructure. Teams Phone extensibility is also supported by ISV solutions that leverage Azure Communication Services (ACS) for this integration, offering customers a wide range of options to bring Teams Phone to their preferred contact center app of choice. Learn more. Copilot in Teams Phone: Use Copilot during Teams calls without turning on transcription or recording : Available now in public preview This new feature allows users to leverage Copilot's capabilities during live call sessions without retaining transcripts or an audio recording afterward. This ensures that users can benefit from Copilot during sensitive conversations where a persistent record is not desired. f Once the admin has enabled this option, users can initiate Copilot without transcription or recording simply through clicking the Copilot button in the header menu. Copilot in Teams Phone helps automate important administrative tasks of a call, such as capturing key points, task owners, and next steps, allowing users to stay focused on the content of the call. Copilot in Teams Phone: Copilot summary for transferred calls: Available in public preview in April Use AI to facilitate seamless call transfers. When a call is forwarded/transferred to another colleague, users can prompt Copilot to automatically create AI notes for the call as a briefing for the receiving colleague. This feature ensures that the recipient is well-informed about the previous conversations related to the transferred call, enhancing their understanding and preparedness. By providing this context, the Copilot summary helps streamline communication and reduce the need for repetitive explanations. Copilot summary for transferred calls will also be supported for certified Teams Phone certified devices. Queues app: barge/whisper/monitor/takeover: available in public preview in April The "Queues app: barge/whisper/monitor/takeover" feature in Teams Phone helps team leads and supervisors manage and train junior agents effectively. This feature allows supervisors to: Monitor: Listen to the conversations their agents are having with callers without being heard. Whisper: Provide assistance to agents during a call without the caller hearing. Barge: Join a call in progress to assist both the agent and the caller. Takeover: Remove an agent from a call and take over the conversation, if necessary. These capabilities are particularly useful for teams that have to manage a lot of inbound calls to serve internal or external customers - such as IT help desk center environments – and where supervisors need to provide oversight in helping agents follow the right procedures when handling customer calls. The feature is part of the Queues app, which is available with a Teams Premium license. SMS for Teams Calling Plans in US & CA: Generally available in US and Canada Teams Calling Plans customers in US & Canada can now send and receive SMS messages directly from the Teams app on desktop or mobile, making it easy to connect with individuals outside of their organizations who are not using Teams. Registration with The Campaign Registry (TCR), which Microsoft helps facilitate during the setup process, is required before Microsoft Teams Calling Plan numbers can be enabled for SMS in Teams Admin Center. Users can then simply open the Teams app, create a new chat, enter the phone number they want to send a message to, then type and send their message. The message will be sent from the user’s phone number, not a generic number. Learn more. Peripherals: Unified call control across multiple Bluetooth audio devices: Generally available now When multiple peripheral devices are connected to Teams, the device used to answer a call will temporarily become the primary device that synchronizes with Teams for button functions. Post-call, the original device selected in Teams Settings will resume its role. Initially, this feature was exclusive to USB devices; however, it now extends to native Bluetooth devices. Users can confidently operate multiple Bluetooth devices, ensuring correct call control functionality. This feature is currently available on Windows, with MacOS support anticipated in the future. Phone devices: Shared call history for call delegates: Generally available now Call delegates can now have access to the call history of the delegator's shared line. This feature allows delegates to view and manage calls made or received on behalf of the delegator, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration. Phone devices: Line keys on phone devices with touch screens: Generally available now Line keys allow you to set up custom contacts and speed dial on the line key buttons of your Teams-certified phone devices with touch screens. They enable one-touch dialing capabilities, making it easier to quickly access frequently dialed contacts and improve productivity. Phone devices: Line key support for shared line and call transfers: Available in public preview in April This feature will enable you to assign shared lines to a line key and view the boss and delegates of the line along with their presence on Teams Phone devices with touch screens. This feature allows delegates to pick up calls on behalf of the boss by pressing the line key and join active calls. Additionally, users will be able to assign the transfer action to the line key, enabling them to transfer active calls by simply pressing that line key. Teams Phone Mobile is now generally available with several new operators, including Bell Canada, Odido (Netherlands), Vodafone UK, and Vodafone Germany. Teams Phone Mobile enables end-users to make and receive calls using a single number across their mobile phone and all their Teams endpoints. This expanding set of mobile operators providing Teams Phone Mobile allows more and more customers, such as Maternal and Family Health Services, to enjoy seamless mobile and Teams integration with unified a calling experience for enhanced flexibility. This feature will be available with additional operators and markets in the future. PSTN call extensibility: Generally available now PSTN Call Extensibility in Microsoft Teams allows third-party application developers to extend the PSTN calling experience with contextual information. Third-party apps can open within the calling interface, allowing end-users to access customer contact information during calls, streamline workflows, and improve customer interaction. Workplace: Places and Teams Rooms Room recommender: Generally available in April 2025 Room recommender makes it easy to collaborate in-person by suggesting suitable meeting rooms. If no room is booked for a meeting, this feature recommends rooms in the meeting chat an hour before the start time when two or more attendees are in the same building. It considers participants’ locations, room availability, and capacity to find the best meeting space. Users can reserve the suggested room with one click and update the meeting invite for everyone. Room recommender will be available on Teams mobile (iOS) to Teams Premium license holders. Ad-hoc individual desk booking: Generally available in April Instantly reserve a desk by plugging into a peripheral on a shared desk, enabling a more streamlined workplace experience for employees. IT admins also benefit from a streamlined backend experience, with automatic peripheral association based on desk booking data and access to desk utilization data in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Auto-update workplace presence with Wi-Fi: Public preview in April A user's work location can automatically be updated to "office" when their device connects to the onsite corporate Wi-Fi. This feature helps colleagues easily see who is in the office, facilitating in-person connections and collaboration, and enables chat @nearby. Facilitator agent support in Teams Rooms: public preview available now The Facilitator agent support in Teams Rooms provides real-time AI-generated notes and action items during both scheduled hybrid and impromptu in-person meetings. The Facilitator agent appears in the notes panel for hybrid meetings and can be activated via a QR code for in-person meetings, enhancing collaboration and productivity for all. The feature is available to preview in Teams Rooms on Windows and coming to rooms with Android devices in April. Learn more. Occupancy status on Teams panels: Generally available early next quarter Teams panels can now smartly utilize signals from Teams Rooms devices (Windows or Android) or occupancy sensors paired with panels to indicate when a room is in use (e.g., LED glow), so you’re not surprised to find an available room is actually occupied. Learn more. Teams Rooms on Windows app release: Generally available early next quarter In addition to the presenter support in Teams Rooms on Windows for town halls and webinars recently rolled out (See the February WNIT blog), there are exciting features coming in the first 2025 app release for Teams Rooms on Windows. Updates include support for live transcription controls during a meeting from the console, additional language support, and real-time translation for captions, making meetings more inclusive and accessible for multilingual participants. And, with the updated gallery view which arranges participants in consistent tile sizes, prioritizes those with video, offers additional layout options, and optimizes for single and dual displays, users get a consistent meeting experience whether meeting from their desktop or in a room. Learn more. Teams Rooms on Android app release: Generally available early next quarter As in Teams Rooms on Windows, rooms with Android devices are able to identify speakers during live transcription, ensuring clear and precise voice capture for every participant. Cloud services bring intelligent speaker functionalities to existing speakers, offering intelligent meeting recaps and enhanced M365 Copilot value by attributing content and actions to individuals. Additionally, it provides AI-enhanced audio and video experiences in meetings. Additionally, users benefit from enhanced room availability information with real-time calendar updates. And with a first to Android feature, users can control the Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) of the active camera to keep the focus where they want it. Learn more. Teams Rooms Pro Management portal update: Generally available early next quarter Admins now have expanded device health signals with sign-on, Teams Rooms app heartbeat, and network status for Android devices, offering consistency across operating systems. You’ll also get poor call quality signals which help identity root causes and create tickets saving time and effort for IT. In April, GCC-H customers can take advantage of the Pro Management service with assurance that their high security and privacy needs are met. In response to customer demand for consolidation of admin portals, IT admins will have a unified device management experience, for all Teams Rooms on Windows, through the Pro Management portal. Access is being expanded to Basic and Standard licensed rooms, providing the same functionality found in Teams admin center for that license type. These devices will be in the Pro Management portal May 1st, and will no longer be available in Teams admin center (TAC) after June 1, 2025. First focusing on Windows, the unified experience will include Teams Rooms on Android in the future. And, lastly, IT admins can manage rooms more effectively with the AI assistant in the Pro Management portal. It’s designed to quickly provide product help and information specific to your device environment, it’s available for public preview in the coming weeks. You’ll want to be sure to explore this feature. Learn more. Teams Devices Logitech Zone Wireless 2 (Native Bluetooth certification ): Generally available now This dongle-free headset is the first headset to earn Microsoft Teams certification. It brings a host of benefits, including the convenience of one less thing to carry (or lose!) as people switch work environments from home, in the office, or on the go, while also freeing up a USB port. Logitech's dongle-free headset features AI noise suppression, noise-canceling mics, hybrid ANC, and premium stereo sound. Advanced Call Clarity (enabled with Logi Tune) suppresses far-end ambient noise so employees can hear colleagues better. Four noise-canceling mics elevate the user’s voice above background conversations. Hybrid ANC makes it easy to concentrate in noisy environments. Personal EQ (enabled with Logi Tune) automatically adjusts to the wearer’s hearing range and the headset features interchangeable earpads and a replaceable battery for longevity. Yealink SkySound CM50 Dante Audio Kit: Generally available now Certified for Teams, the Yealink SkySound CM50 Dante Audio Kit is perfect for large rooms. It includes a CM50 Ceiling Mic, CS10-D Ceiling Speaker, and AP08 DSP. With 127 wide-range mics, advanced beamforming, customizable pickup zones, and AI-based sound optimization, it ensures premium audio coverage and an immersive sound experience, making it a comprehensive solution for Teams Rooms. Learn more. Logitech Rally Bar No-Radio: Generally available now Certified for Teams, the Rally Bar No-Radio transforms any mid-sized room into a Microsoft Teams Room. It features a motorized PTZ camera, room-filling speakers, and a sensitive microphone array for a premium user experience. With premium materials, thoughtful cable management, and a range of mounts, it ensures a professional appearance and outstanding coverage for various room shapes and layouts. Learn more. AudioCodes RXVCam50M Camera: Generally available now Certified for Teams, the AudioCodes RXVCam50M camera is ideal for medium meeting rooms and conference rooms. It delivers vivid image quality with HD 4K resolution for exceptional video conferencing. Smart zoom and face detection enable auto framing, adjusting the camera’s ePTZ to ensure every participant is clearly seen without user intervention. Easily configure settings via the AudioCodes RX-PAD or Teams client Settings menu. Learn more. AudioCodes RXVCam70 Dual-Lens PTZ Camera: Generally available now Certified for Teams, the RXVCam70 delivers an optimal audio and video meeting experience for all participants. It features a 12x optical zoom close-up lens, a 119º DFOV panoramic lens, and a built-in mic array. Advanced AI features, including auto-framing, speaker tracking, and smart gallery, ensure every moment is captured automatically. Included in AudioCodes solution bundles for medium-large Android and Windows Microsoft Teams Rooms, it creates an optimized environment for hybrid Teams meetings. Learn more. Fundamentals and Security Auto-upgrade meeting protection based on shared file: sensitivity label inheritance [Premium]: Generally available in April Now Microsoft Teams can automatically upgrade the sensitivity level of a meeting based on the sensitivity of files shared during the meeting. When an attendee shares a file with a higher sensitivity label, the meeting's protection settings are enhanced to match the file's sensitivity. This feature helps ensure that sensitive information is adequately protected throughout the meeting. It requires an Microsoft 365 E5 and Teams Premium license with Purview enabled. Message safety – URL and file protection: Generally available next quarter (Q2) This feature will enhance security for Teams messaging by blocking weaponizable file types and warning users of harmful URLs sent in Teams messages. The File and URL detection components are embedded in the Teams messaging layers providing comprehensive and robust protection across internal and external one-on-one chats, group chats, meeting chats and channels, to all Teams users. These protections will integrate with Microsoft Defender for Office to enable end-to-end security operations for Teams messaging. Active meeting protection: detect sensitive content while screensharing and notify [Premium]: Generally available next quarter (Q2) This new feature enhances security during meetings by using AI to automatically detect potentially sensitive information, such as social security numbers and credit card numbers, during screen sharing. When such content is detected, the feature alerts both the presenter and the meeting organizer to prevent unintentional sharing. This helps mitigate the risk of exposing sensitive information and ensures a more secure and private meeting experience. This feature is available to meeting organizers who have Teams Premium. All other participants in a meeting can benefit from this feature while in a meeting, however this feature is enabled when the meeting is scheduled by the meeting organizer. iPad split window: Generally available in next quarter (Q2) The iPad Split Window feature in Microsoft Teams supports multiple windows on iPad, allowing users to effortlessly switch between meetings and chats without losing context. Customize your split view for the perfect setup, enhancing multitasking and productivity. Frontline workers QR Code Authentication: Generally available in June 2025 Multiple frontline workers often share the same device across shifts throughout the day. Manual sign-in processes are time consuming and decrease productivity, especially on shared devices. This new, highly requested feature enables sign-in with the scan of a unique QR code and entry of a personal PIN number, significantly decreasing time to log in without affecting security. Shared Device Mode – iOS support for Jamf: Generally available Shared Device Mode now enables more efficient and secure device sharing for Frontline workers. Microsoft's Shared Device Mode (SDM) allows frontline workers, whose device may be shared among multiple users, to login once to access the device and every app on the device and sign out across apps so the device is ready for the next user. In addition, SDM enables conditional access policies to enable customized security policies. Jamf support for Shared Device Mode is now generally available. Customers with iOS Jamf-managed devices can now enable Shared Device Mode at scale with zero-touch provisioning and leverage device compliance conditional access. Open shifts across locations: Generally available The Open shifts across locations feature in Microsoft Teams allows frontline managers to offer open shifts across multiple locations, making it easier to balance workforce needs and fill last-minute gaps. This feature provides flexibility for frontline workers, enabling them to pick up shifts at different locations that suit their schedules. By optimizing staffing and improving customer satisfaction, this feature ensures that businesses are always fully staffed and ready to serveWhat’s New in Microsoft Teams | January 2025
Happy new year, and welcome to 2025! I hope your year is off to an excellent start, and that you have lots of exciting things on the horizon. I know that this year will be a big one for Teams - it’s only January, and we’re already releasing a host of useful features that can save you time and help you communicate efficiently and effectively. For example, the ability to forward messages between channels helps you share important information with colleagues more easily (“Forward channel messages” in Chat and Collaboration), and giving meeting attendees the freedom to move between breakout rooms (“Meeting participants can move between breakout rooms” in Meetings, Webinars and Town Halls) can simplify event management and participation. Those are just two of the many features that we’re releasing to kick off 2025, so read on to see what else is new in these categories: Chat and Collaboration Meetings, Webinars, and Town Halls Workplace-Places and Rooms Teams Phone Teams Devices Teams Fundamentals Frontline Worker Solutions Chat and Collaboration Quick hyperlink insertion Seamlessly integrated hyperlinks enhance message readability and accessibility, ensuring that links are naturally woven into the text. This new feature streamlines the process of adding links, making it faster and more efficient. To use this capability, copy the link you want to insert, type your message in the compose box, highlight the text you want to hyperlink, and paste. Your hyperlink is now ready. Forwarding Loop components You can now forward chat messages containing Loop components, allowing for seamless sharing and real-time collaboration across different chats and channels. To forward a message with a Loop component, navigate to it, click on the ellipsis (three dots), and select ‘Forward’ from the menu. When the Loop components are shared, their permissions are maintained, ensuring that recipients have the appropriate access rights. This feature is available on desktop and mobile. Forward channel messages You can now forward messages between channels, allowing you to share important information with relevant team members with fewer clicks. To forward a channel message post, channel post reply, or chat message to another channel, 1:1 or group chat, select the message’s ellipsis menu and choose Forward. You can also add additional context to the message and @mention recipients for greater clarity and alignment. Meetings, Webinars, Town Halls, and Immersive Meeting participants can move between breakout rooms Now, meeting organizers can make the list of breakout rooms visible to all meeting participants and allow them to choose which room to join. Enabling this setting in breakout rooms allows participants to move freely from one room to another, simplifying breakout room coordination for meeting organizers and participants. New calendar experience in Microsoft Teams: Generally available now The calendar in Teams has been redesigned for reliability and familiarity—you can now enjoy the same calendar experience across Teams and Outlook, with integration of both Copilot and Places to help infuse intelligence into your time management. Copilot capabilities like draft an agenda and managed booking, and Places capabilities like recommended in-office days, Places finder, and Places card are all available in the new Teams calendar experience. In addition to Copilot and Places features, the new Teams calendar brings new capabilities to Teams like calendar sharing, month view, multi-day view, print support, filtering, support for multiple time zones, and more. You’ll find the ‘New calendar’ toggle at the top right of the calendar app in Teams. It only takes one click to upgrade to the new Teams calendar, and you can easily pick up and resume exactly where you left off in classic Teams calendar. For more details visit Microsoft Support page. Meeting organizers can turn off copying or forwarding of live captions, transcript, and recap for meetings We are expanding the existing ‘Turn off copying or forwarding of meeting chat’ control for meeting organizers to include live captions, transcription, and meeting recap. With this change, meeting organizers with Teams Premium licenses will see a control called ‘Turn off copying and forwarding of meeting chat, live captions, and transcript’ in the meeting options. When this control is enabled, meeting participants won’t be able to copy the meeting chat, live captions, live transcript, or any insights generated from intelligent meeting recap. Microsoft Purview support for town halls Microsoft Purview now supports eDiscovery for town halls in Teams, ensuring compliance by preserving and managing event data effectively. Effective data management helps in organizing and categorizing data, making it easier to search and retrieve specific information. This reduces the risk of data loss and ensures that sensitive information is protected and handled according to compliance standards. Audio support for screen sharing in Mesh events (Premium) Audio support for screen sharing has now been added in Microsoft Mesh. Presenters will now be able to choose whether they'd like to include system audio when starting a screen share in a Mesh event. This feature is available for presenters in Mesh with a Teams Premium license. Workplace: Places and Teams Rooms Workplace check-in with workplace presence Workplace presence facilitates in-person connections by allowing you to check in on the Places app and let colleagues know you’re in the office, confirm work plans, receive check-in reminders, and view which of your colleagues are nearby and who has planned to come in. Workplace presence at building level upon peripheral connection With work location in Teams now including buildings, make your presence known, coordinate with others, and take advantage of AI-assisted booking in the future. Once enabled and opted-in, your workplace presence can auto-update to a specific building when you connect to a peripheral at a bookable desk or BYOD room. Speaker recognition and attribution in BYOD rooms with Teams Premium or Copilot You can now take advantage of speaker recognition and transcript attribution, unleashing new AI capabilities in any meeting space, whether or not it has a Teams Rooms system deployed. This feature identifies and attributes people in live transcripts, utilizing a unique voice profile for each participant enabling intelligent recaps and maximum value from Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams meetings. Users can easily and securely enroll voices via Teams Settings. This feature requires a Teams Premium or Copilot license for the user hosting the meeting. Learn more. Auto-association of BYOD room devices in the Pro Management portal Manually associating peripherals to rooms may feel like an endless task if your organization has several bring your own device (BYOD) rooms. IT admins can streamline the process and get enhanced inventory visibility with this feature which utilizes meeting room invite data to intelligently associate peripherals to these spaces. Once associated, users can more easily connect and utilize shared peripherals in rooms. Learn more. Start or stop recording on Teams Rooms on Windows In Teams Rooms on Windows, you can now start or stop recording without needing to join on your companion device. The start/stop recording button is available on the console or touch boards through the More menu. This feature requires a Teams Rooms Pro license. Multiple camera view for Teams Rooms on Windows When attending remotely, you now have enhanced viewing options during meetings in a Teams Room on Windows which now supports displaying up to four single-stream cameras. With multiple camera views, you can follow all the action in the room and manually switch between different views as desired. This feature requires a Teams Rooms Pro license. Learn more. Custom name for Teams panels Admins can now use the Pro Management portal to assign custom names to licensed panels. This name will then display on the panel's home screen, replacing the global address book name shown in Outlook or Teams. This feature requires a Teams Rooms Pro or Teams Shared Devices license. Learn more. Usage reports for bookable desks in the Pro Management portal Where your people choose to work is crucial information for workspace planning and management. Get more insight into workspace usage when you can see which desk pools are used, and when. Usage, occupancy, and other key data points attributed to desk pools are visible in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Learn more. Teams Phone Queues app available on Teams phone devices The Queues app experience for agents is now available on Teams phone devices. This experience will help agents manage customer interactions directly from their phone device. Agents will be able to opt in or opt out of queues and access call history, which includes details like customer names, phone numbers, call times, and actions taken during the call. This ensures agents have all the information they need at their fingertips, making it easier to provide personalized and effective customer service. Teams Calling Plan enablement wizard in the Microsoft 365 admin center Unlock a faster way to manage Teams Calling Plans with the new Calling Plan enablement wizard in the Microsoft 365 admin center. This tool streamlines the process of enabling Teams Calling Plan seats with phone numbers, saving valuable setup time. Admins will automatically see this enhanced experience once Teams Calling Plan licenses are assigned to the tenant. The wizard provides an intuitive, step-by-step guide to set up emergency addresses, acquire phone numbers, and assign them to users—all in one smooth workflow. Ready to simplify your Teams Calling Plan setup? Collaborative call delegation on Teams phone devices Teams phone device users can now share access to their phone line with a specific group of users, without a structured delegation system. This enables group members to receive, and initiate calls on behalf of others, enabling a simple and collaborative communication experience. Teams Devices Find certified for Teams devices for all types of spaces and uses at aka.ms/teamsdevices. Owl Labs Owl Bar The newly certified for Teams Owl Bar is an intelligent 4K front-of-room camera, microphone, and speaker device. It features a 30MP camera lens, four omnidirectional microphones, and an integrated speaker. The Owl Bar can work alone or pair with the Meeting Owl to focus on the speaker and switch cameras, ensuring remote participants always have the best view. Owl Labs’ Owl Intelligence System™ captures the best view of in-room speakers, making hybrid discussions effective and productive. Ideal for huddle and small meeting rooms. Learn more AudioCodes C430HD Native Microsoft Teams Common Area IP Phone The AudioCodes Microsoft Teams-native C430HD IP phone is an entry level/common area phone specially designed to deliver low-cost yet feature-rich unified communications in any shared space or phone booth. Equipped with a 4.3” color LCD screen, the C430HD supports Microsoft Teams out-of-the-box for quick installation and streamlined provisioning. Learn more Fundamentals Block malicious users from your organization With this feature in Teams, you can prevent users in your organization from collaborating with specific people outside the organization. Admins can now set up a list of users that are blocked from collaborating with their organization. If a user is added to the block list, people in your organization will not be able to have 1:1 and group chats with these users. If chats already exist before a user is added to the block list, the blocked user will be removed from the chat. Brand impersonation phishing protection This feature helps IT admins identify if an external user is targeting their enterprise users by impersonating a brand commonly targeted by phishing attacks. It monitors initial contacts in chat with individual users, and notifies the user that the message may be spam or a phishing attempt. Frontline Worker Solutions App-Powered Tasks App-powered tasks, currently in public preview, offers your organization more control over what users see when they open their tasks within Teams. Instead of showing only the standard set of task fields, users now have an experience tailored to the task at hand. When the user selects an app-powered task, the destination app will open directly to that specific task information. This allows employees to view all tasks in one place, even when tasks are stored across multiple third-party systems, and offers task-specific guidance on completion from right within Teams. For more information, please read our public preview announcement or learn how to manage app-powered tasks.What’s New in Microsoft Teams | December 2024
The end of the calendar year is almost here, and Microsoft Ignite is now in the rear-view mirror. By the way, WOW, was it an exciting one! If you missed our last blog that listed everything for Teams that we announced at Ignite, here it is! There’s been a lot of buzz around features like the recently released “workplace presence”, that helps you connect with colleagues when you’re in the office. Although we announced so many powerful new features last month, there are still a few more coming! This will be a short blog, but we still have some updates that can make Teams an even more integral part of your workday. Read on for all the details, and I hope you have an excellent end to 2024! Meetings Take control during screensharing on web client This update enables meeting participants using the Teams web app to use the "take control" function to request control while another person is screen-sharing. Webinars and Town Halls Download Transcription and view RTMP-In 708 captions for Town hall and webinar Event organizers can now download transcripts for their town hall or webinar instances. This update also adds support for displaying RTMP-In 708 captions in transcription. RTMP-In 708 captions are a closed captioning standard that provides enhanced captioning capabilities, including improved compatibility with modern digital video formats Teams Rooms and Devices Whiteboard enhancements on Teams Rooms on Android You can use the whiteboard in a meeting, or when you’re collaborating offline with colleagues. When using the whiteboard outside of meetings, your content is retained even when a meeting begins. The whiteboard's contents are preserved and shared with remote participants instantly. You can also use the ‘Follow me’ function to guide participants as you navigate, and collaborative cursors let you see everyone working in real-time. Find certified for Teams devices for all types of spaces and uses at aka.ms/teamsdevices. Cisco Room Navigator The Cisco Room Navigator for panels is designed to be easy to deploy, scalable, and user-friendly in a modern workplace. It displays room availability, integrates with calendars, and allows for instant bookings. Featuring a 360° multicolor LED and a durable touch screen, it works seamlessly with the Microsoft Teams Panel app or other reservation systems. Learn more Yealink Room Panel E2 The Yealink Room Panel E2 is a compact touch screen designed for mounting outside meeting spaces. It displays meeting details and allows for on-the-spot reservations via Teams or Microsoft 365 calendar applications. With features like an RGB LED light bar, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ambient light and human presence sensors, as well as enhanced microphones and speakers, it meets the needs of modern workspaces. Learn more Maxhub XCore Kit Pro MAXHUB XCore Kit Pro is a Microsoft Teams Rooms conferencing solution intended for medium to large meeting rooms. It includes an 11.6-inch touch-screen control panel and a mini-PC with a 12th gen Intel Core i5 processor running Microsoft Teams Rooms. It supports 4K wired content sharing and dual-screen display capabilities, providing a comprehensive conferencing experience. Learn more Poly Studio X72 + TC10 The Poly Studio X72 all-in-one video bar is designed to optimize hybrid meetings, no matter the room size. With AI-enhanced video and audio technology, it offers the scalability and flexibility needed to join various cloud video calls effortlessly. The Poly TC10's 10-inch high-resolution touch display provides clear and accessible control options, making it easy to start and manage video calls. Learn more Poly Studio X72 Experience seamless hybrid meetings with the Poly Studio X72 video bar. Featuring advanced AI-enhanced video and audio technology, this versatile device ensures crystal-clear communication and effortless connectivity to virtually any cloud video call. Discover the scalability and flexibility that make the Poly Studio X72 the perfect addition to your meeting room setup. Learn more Poly Studio G62 The Poly Studio G62 conferencing system features easy setup, seamless integration, and customization options. It includes powerful collaboration tools, advanced audiovisual options, and a flexible setup. This system allows you to tailor large conference rooms to your specific needs. By connecting Poly peripherals and controllers, the Poly Studio G62 video conferencing system offers a modular solution designed for streamlined versatility. Learn more Poly Studio V72 The Poly Studio V72 Bar is designed to offer reliable, high-quality audiovisuals for your meeting room. Customize your PC-based or BYOD conference room setup effortlessly with this adaptable USB video bar. Integrate Poly peripherals with the Poly Studio V72 bar for consistent audiovisual performance that enhances your meetings. Learn moreWhat’s New in Microsoft Teams | October 2024
This month, we have even more updates to share that are bringing intelligence, convenience, and productivity together in Teams. A few that I’m most excited for you to try are: the highly anticipated ‘Queues App’ that makes handling and monitoring customer calls easier for call center agents and leads, ‘Voting, Filtering, Sorting and Archiving in Teams Q&A’ for Town Halls and Webinars, that allows attendees to upvote questions they find most compelling, and ‘Expanded cross-platform meetings via SIP join’ that give you the ability to use Microsoft Teams to join meetings from other services like Google Meet, Zoom, Cisco Webex, Amazon Chime, RingCentral, and others.What’s New in Microsoft Teams | September 2024
It’s September, and the seasons are starting to change. Here in the northern hemisphere the temperature is getting cooler, but new Teams features are still bringing the heat! This month, we’re sharing new features that are making Teams even smarter and easier to use. For example, have you ever missed an action item from a meeting because the ask was in the chat? You won’t anymore, because now when you ask Copilot to recap all the questions from a Teams meeting, it can source responses from both the meeting transcript and chat. And, with ‘Automatically set work location on bookable desks’ and ‘ultrasound proximity join’, it’s never been easier to let your colleagues know you’re in the office, then find and connect to the right physical meeting room.What’s New in Microsoft Teams | August 2024
August is here, and so are some new features and enhancements that make Microsoft Teams even more powerful and easier to use! In July, we shared ways you can customize how you express yourself in chat, new options for personalizing your gallery views, and more. There were some great new features to explore, and we have plenty more to share this month.What’s New in Microsoft Teams | July 2024
Welcome to July’s update on Microsoft Teams, where we share some of the new features and improvements that are making collaboration easier and more enjoyable. This month, we have exciting enhancements for your meetings, chats, and communications that will help you personalize your experience, stay organized, and express yourself better. For example, you can now use custom emojis and reactions to express yourself and reflect your team’s culture. You can also enjoy a more engaging and inclusive meeting experience with the new meeting gallery, which places all participants in equal-sized tiles and can automatically highlight certain participants to enhance the meeting experience. And for Teams Rooms on Windows, you can benefit from speaker attribution enhancements, enabling Copilot and meeting recaps to understand who said what in recaps and insights. These are just some of the highlights that I'm most excited about, but there's much more to explore in this update.
