New features in Teams (monthly updates)

Pronouns on your profile in Microsoft 365

What?

We’ve enabled a new feature in Teams that allows you to share your pronouns. This is completely optional and can help foster a more inclusive environment. To add your pronouns:

1. Click your profile picture in the upper right corner of Teams.
2. Click on your name.
3. In the new window, click “+ Pronouns”, enter your preferred pronouns and click save.

When?

Now available

Two new features for Q&A in Teams

What?

Q&A in Teams is a great way for participants to ask questions during your webinar or meeting. Microsoft has added two new features: voting and archiving questions. These features help you organize questions more easily.

Want to learn more? Check out Microsoft’s blog: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/boost-digital-event-engagement-with-voting-and-archiving-in/ba-p/4270167. 

When?

Now available

Enhanced sound notification controls

What?

Stay focused, prioritize quickly, and avoid distractions by customizing the sound of your notifications. Go to Settings-> Notifications and activity tab, and under Sound assign different sounds to different kinds of notifications, such as urgent messages and priority contacts. Or mute notification sounds when you are busy or in a meeting. Tailor your notification experience to help you stay on top of what matters most.

When?

Now available

Turn on/off notifications for a channel post

What?

Stay in control of your Teams notifications by turning on or off notifications for a specific channel post. Tailor your notification preferences, ensuring that you stay informed on topics important to you. To manage notifications, click on the ellipsis (three-dot menu) in the top right corner of a post. If you are following the post, you will see "Turn off notifications." If you are not following, you will see "Turn on notifications."

When?

Now available

Events: Presenter orderability on event page in webinars

What?

Event organizers can now customize the list of presenters in the webinar event page via drag and drop functionality to mirror the intended order of presenters within a given event. This option can be found under the "Presenter Bio" section of the webinar set-up dialog box and can be customized until the start of the event.

When?

Now available

New meeting gallery in Teams meetings

What?

The new meeting gallery provides you with a simpler, more predictable meeting presence, while enabling you to personalize the view to suit your needs. The new gallery places everyone in tiles of equal size whether their camera is turned on or off. While the default gallery size is 16 participants, you can customize the number of participants visible on your screen (up to 49) to best fit your preference. The new meeting gallery will automatically optimize the visibility of certain participants to improve meeting engagement, like those with a raised hand and active speakers. You can also choose to prioritize participants who are on camera to better connect with your teams. Additional customizable views available in the new meeting gallery include the ability to hide yourself from the main gallery or remove yourself from the main gallery (only visible to you).

When?

Now available

Slash commands

What?

Slash commands provide a quick, user-friendly, and consistent interface to take contextual actions, compose, navigate and complete frequent tasks. Instead of taking multiple actions to perform a task, such as open a chat in a new window, navigate to settings or changing your presence, you can simply type slash in the compose box, select a command, and complete your task quickly. Here are just a few examples of what you can do:

• /window: Open chat in new window
• /mute: Mute the chat you're in
• /loop: Incorporate a loop component into your message
• /settings: Navigate to settings
• /away: Set your presence to away

When?

Now available

Introducing the ability to duplicate an existing webinar

What?

Did you know that Teams has an option to create and host webinars? For frequent users of this, Microsoft has released a helpful feature. Previously with webinars, you were unable to duplicate a webinar and create a new webinar based off an existing one. This can be time consuming if you would like to schedule multiple events that are similar to one another. To simplify event creation Microsoft Teams is introducing the ability to create a new webinar by duplicating the information for an existing scheduled one. Information includes a webinar's details, presenters, theming, and more. The organizer can also choose to edit and update the information as needed for their new webinar.

When?

Now available

Real Time Calendar Notifications in Teams

What?

You can now get the Calendar Notifications in Teams from the Activity Feed.

• You will get calendar notifications in the Activity Feed for the below scenarios:
  • Meeting invite (including channel meetings you are explicitly invited to)
  • Meeting updates
  • Meeting cancellations
  • Meeting forwards (as an organizer)
• When you get a calendar notification, you will see an unread notification in the Activity Feed pane or at the bell icon.
• When you click on a notification, you will see the details of the meeting/event in the right pane.

Not exited about receiving even more notifications? Understandable! Just right-click on the notification in the activity feed in Teams and press Turn off Calendar.

When?

Now available

Personalize group chats with avatars

What?

Group chat members will be able to upload their own image or select a built-in image or emoji, to add a layer of inclusivity and expression to their chat as well as helping visually identity chats with similar titles or participants.

When?

Now available

Meeting recordings are now saved in organizer's Microsoft OneDrive

What?

Microsoft Teams meetings recordings will soon be saved by default to the meeting organizer's Microsoft OneDrive account. Now, meeting recordings are saved to the OneDrive account for the person who initiates the recording. This rollout will ensure recordings are governed by the organizer's meeting setup and policies, like other meeting artifacts (meeting invitation, transcript, and so on).

When?

Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-May 2024 and expects to complete this by late May 2024.

The new Microsoft Planner app in Microsoft Teams

What?

Microsoft Teams is updating the existing Tasks by Planner and To Do app to the new Microsoft Planner app, which will maintain all existing app functionality and add new options and features to help you be more productive. Curious about the changes? Check out the announcement post at https://aka.ms/thenewplanner.

When?

The new app will start rolling out in late March 2024 and expect to complete by early May 2024.

Improved layout for meeting options

What?

Meeting Options are a group of settings that organizers and co-organizers set on a per-meeting basis. Microsoft is introducing categories within Meeting Options to provide increased clarity within the information architecture of available options and help organizers and co-organizers configure their meetings according to their needs. The categories are available throughout the meeting lifecycle in Microsoft Teams.

When?

Expected rollout late April 2024.

Out of Office voicemail option retirement

What?

Today, end users have three options for voicemail OOF greetings activation: All the time, when I have an Outlook auto reply and When I have an Out of Office calendar event (to be retired). The voicemail feature that automatically activates an out-of-office greeting based on an out-of-office event in Outlook calendar will be retired.

This decision is driven by Microsoft commitment to strengthen customer data protection. In addition, retiring this feature will help reduce costs, as it has a significant environmental footprint and relatively low usage.

When?

Microsoft will be rolling out this change beginning in early June 2024 and expect to complete by early August 2024.

Reminder: Teams Classic client retirement

What?

Currently 84% of you are using the new Teams client at the UT. After March 31 2024, a new Teams client will be rolled out, in stages, for users who are still on classic Teams. The roll out means installing the new Teams client for users who still have the classic Teams client, and uninstalling the classic Teams client 14 days after the installation of new Teams.

When?

31 March 2024.

Use Apple AirPods to mute/unmute yourself on macOS

What?

You will soon be able to mute or unmute yourself with Apple AirPods in Microsoft Teams on Macs running macOS Sonoma. The same functionality is already available on iPhones running iOS17.

When?

Mid-April 2024.

New Teams client

What?

As you've probably already discovered, Microsoft switched all users to the new Teams client for Windows and MacOS in early January. The new Teams client installs and loads faster, letting you launch the app and join meetings more quickly. However, the client has some known issues that Microsoft is still working on. Experiencing an error and want to go back to the old client? You can still do so via the slider at the top right (see screenshot) until March 31 2024. After this date, this is no longer possible.

When?

Now available.

New meeting views

What?

Microsoft made some changes to the meeting layout. The new gallery will place everyone in tiles of equal size (16:9 ratio) whether their video is turned on or off. Additionally, the new default gallery layout will be more consistent and predictable for all meetings, regardless of size and content shared. And when a Teams Room joins the meeting, the video of the room automatically enlarges, bridging the gap between remote and in-room participants. Want to know more about the changes? Check Microsoft’s blog here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/new-year-new-meeting-enhancements-in-microsoft-teams/ba-p/4034799

When?

Now available.

Audio and video flyout and settings in Teams meetings

What?

Audio and Video flyouts in Teams enable users to efficiently manage their audio and video settings during meetings. These features are easily accessible, allowing you to control your devices and adjust key audio and video features quickly and effortlessly, without needing to navigate through multiple layers of settings.

When?

Rollout started – expected to complete by mid-February 2024.

A new, faster Teams Client

What?

A new and improved Teams Client for Mac and Windows is coming! With this rebuilt version, Teams has become faster at switching apps, responding to chat messages,  joining meetings and more. Most of the layout is the same, but there are some changes that Microsoft made. Look out for the Try the new Teams toggle at the top of Teams to switch from the classic client to the new one. You can still switch back to the classic client if you want to. Want to know more? Check the following Microsoft blog post: Introducing the new Microsoft Teams | Microsoft 365 Blog

When?

In early January 2024, Microsoft will update the classic Teams client to the new Teams client.

Teams phone: busy-on-busy settings

What?

What happens when you’re in a call and receive another one? Currently, you will receive a notification in which you can choose whether to decline the incoming call or accept it and put the current one on hold. If you prefer not to be disturbed when you’re in a call, you can now configure Teams to play a busy signal. Go to your Teams settings, select Calls and choose your preferred option.

When?

Now available

New features for Teams Rooms

What?

You might have come across one of the Teams Rooms here on campus. We would like to share two new features for these devices:

When you need to join an existing meeting and your room wasn’t invited, you can join by ID from the console. Simply press the new “Join with meeting ID” button and enter the ID.

Does your meeting take a little longer than planned? Press the 3 dot-icon on the console and select Extend Reservation to make sure no one books the space while you are still using it.

When?

Now available

Set your Work Hours and Location

What?

Some people already have this feature, but soon everyone will be able to share your working location through Teams or Outlook. This way, your colleagues can easily see if you’re on campus or working from home. Want to learn more about this feature? Check out the following blog post from Microsoft: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/coordination-is-the-key-to-spontaneity-with-these-features-in/ba-p/3814143

When?

Microsoft expects to complete the complete rollout by August.

Speaker view

What?

Microsoft Teams is introducing a new feature: Speaker View. This option can be selected from the view switcher within meetings, allowing you to effortlessly track the current active speaker. Speaker View is particularly effective in scenarios with a limited number of key speakers and a large audience.

When?

Now available

Zooming controls while viewing screenshare

What?

When someone shares their screen during a meeting, you will soon be to zoom in to get a better look at the presented content. Keep an eye on the bottom left corner of the screen where the zoom buttons will soon be added.

When?

Expected to rollout mid-July

Improved meeting recap

What?

The new and improved meeting recap experience is now available for all Teams users. Gone are the days of clicking on links to get to the meeting transcript, recording, and manual notes. Now, on the new ‘Recap’ tab, you can watch the meeting recording while reviewing the notes, transcript, and access shared content all directly within Teams without switching screens or apps.

When?

Now available

Mention Everyone in chat

What?

Similar to using @ mention individuals in chat, you now have a new option to notify everyone in a group chat with a single message. When you type @everyone, all participants in the chat will receive a notification at once, removing the hassle of @ mentioning each person’s name one at a time.

When?

Now available

Wiki Retirement - reminder

What?

As we mentioned in January, the app Wiki will retire. Should you have added a Wiki to your Team, be sure to read the timeline Microsoft has shared for the removal of this application.

When?

Stage 1 – (Timeline –March 2023) Users won't be able to create new wikis, but they can continue to access (read/write) their existing wiki. Users also have the option to export their content to OneNote. Once users export their content to OneNote, the Wiki is available as read only.

After exporting, each wiki in a channel appears as separate section in OneNote and each Wiki page will be a separate page in OneNote.

Stage 2 – (Timeline – Mid CY23) Wiki tab in channel will not be supported; users will be easily able access (read/write) content in Wiki app. Users can also export their content to OneNote.

Stage 3 – (Timeline – Jan 2024) Wikis tab and wiki App wouldn't be able to accessible in Teams and users wouldn't be able to export. Users can download their wiki files from SharePoint.

Missed call notification in activity feed

What?

You now have the option to call back on a missed call directly from the activity feed in Teams by simply clicking on the “call” button. With one click, you start your call quickly.

When?

Now available

Tips for using Teams chat

Microsoft published a helpful article on their Teams blog last week with tips on using the chat. Here, many features are described that can make chatting more fun and organised.

Read it here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/tips-for-using-teams-chat-to-stay-organized-engaged-and-have-fun/ba-p/3766735

Wiki retirement in Teams Channels

What?

Microsoft announced that Wiki's will be retired from Teams. If you use this in one of your Teams, you will get an option to export your wiki content to OneNote in the future. As soon as Microsoft provides more information on this, we will share it here.

When?

Expected to retire in April 2023

Games for Work

What?

Add a game in your next Microsoft Teams meeting! Choose from a collection of favourite games that everyone knows to spark connection, initiate teamwork, and inspire creativity before the real work begins. Enjoy a quick game of Microsoft Solitaire, Microsoft IceBreakers, Microsoft Minesweeper, Microsoft Wordament (From 2 to 250 players).

Click on the button + Apps in your Teams meeting and search Games for Work to add it to your meeting.

When?

Now available

Expanded reactions

What?

This update will allow you to apply any emoji as a reaction to chat or channels messages. Choose from over 800 existing Teams emojis to express yourself the way you want. Browse all the reaction options or use the search bar to the find the right emoji.

When?

Now available

Schedule chat messages

What?

Teams is introducing the schedule send feature that allows you to schedule chat messages to be delivered in the future. With this feature, we can help build better work-life balance and support flexible schedules by scheduling chat messages so that they only deliver during our peer’s work hours. Users can schedule messages to be delivered both on desktop and mobile. Additionally, all scheduled messages can be edit and delete before they are delivered.

Desktop: Right click on the send button to access the scheduling menu and select a date and time within 7 days from now. Select send and the message will be scheduled to deliver at the later date and time.

Mobile: Write a message and long press on the send button to schedule the message. Select a date and time to deliver within 7 days to deliver the message.

When?

• Desktop: Now available
• Mobile: Coming soon

Delete chats

What?

You will be able to delete 1:1 chat threads or chat groups from the Teams desktop or mobile application. By selecting the ellipsis, users can select the Delete option to clear their chat list. This permanently deletes the chat only for you, other people in the chat and conversation history are not impacted.

When?

Now available

Presenting and collaborating with Excel Live

What?

Use Excel Live to share workbooks with your Teams meeting. Edit and explore content with others within the meeting window. While you share, you set the pace. Participants can navigate through content on their own and sync with you later.

You can share Excel workbooks using Teams for desktop or web. Mobile presenting not available. You'll need to have full sharing permissions of a file to present it. For more information, please check https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/excel-live-in-teams-meetings-a5790e42-7f75-4859-8674-cc3d07c86ede.

When?

Now available

Show unread notifications only

What?

Looking for a quick way to check which notifications you have not yet read in Teams? Use the new toggle so only unread notifications are displayed.

When?

Now available.

Shared channels

What?

Do you have information in a specific Teams channel that you would like to share with a colleague, but don't need to give access to the entire Team? Now it is possible to create a Shared Channel!

When you now create a new channel, you will get the choice to make it a Shared Channel. You can share this channel with specific people, another team or with a team you own. Unfortunately, it is not possible to convert an existing channel or share it with guest users.

When?

Now available 

PowerPoint Cameo

What?

Cameo in PowerPoint enables you to seamlessly embed live camera feeds into your slides as part of your presentation. You can use this feature to create a more immersive experience for your audience. It can also help you be more prepared for your live presentation (such as presenting in Teams).

Cameo gives you full control of live camera feeds in PowerPoint. Just like any other image, you can move, resize, crop, and apply transitions or styles to the camera feed. You can also use Designer in PowerPoint to enhance the look of your slides that use cameo.

When presenting your presentation in Teams through PowerPoint Live, your live camera feed will be shown in within the slide.

Interested in testing this out? Please check the following link for more information: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/presenting-with-cameo-83abdb2e-948a-47d0-932d-86815ae1317a.

When?

Now available

Collaborative Annotations on a shared screen

What?

Sharing your screen in a Team call is a feature that is used a lot. Now it is possible to make annotations on this, even by other participants. For example, if you want to ask for feedback on a design or if you’re working with a group on a project, Collaborative Annotation helps you get work done faster and with more voices included.

For more information, please check https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-annotation-while-sharing-your-screen-in-teams-876ba527-7112-437e-b410-5aec7363c473

When?

Now available

Q&A in Teams Meetings

What?

Do you have a meeting planned with a lot of participants and are looking for a structured way to deal with questions? Now you can also add the Q&A app to a regular Teams meeting!

Meeting Organizers and Co-organizers can enable Q&A in their meetings through Meeting Options. They can toggle “Enable Q&A” to yes to enable structured conversations in their meeting. When Q&A is enabled, meeting attendees can join their Teams meeting, click the Q&A icon, and ask questions and engage in the discussion.

When?

Now available in the Teams desktop app. Availability for the web has been delayed and will be rolling out in November.

Pop Out Shared Content Into a Separate Window

What?

Microsoft Teams now supports the ability to pop out shared content (e.g., screen sharing, PowerPoint Live, Whiteboard) into a separate window while in meetings. This allows you to make full use of a second screen during a meeting. Just click the Pop out-button when someone is sharing content in a meeting.

When?

Now available

Security improvements for mail and calendar on mobile devices

What?

Due to a security improvement being implemented by Microsoft, email and calendar on some iPads and iPhones may not sync after 1 October. This can be solved by installing a recent update, so make sure you have the latest iOS / iPadOS installed! Should you still encounter problems, please contact the Service Desk ICT.

When?

Now available

Talk to yourself

What?

This new feature is perfect for quickly sharing photos via the Teams app on your phone or writing short notes. Open Chat in Teams, type your name in the To field when creating a new chat, and have a conversation with yourself. You can also access chatting with yourself from your people card.

When?

Now available

Adjust brightness in Teams video meetings

What?

Adjust brightness is a new video filter in Teams video meetings that will enhance the video quality when lighting is poor. You can find this setting in the "Device Settings" panel in-meeting and also under "Settings"->"Devices"->"Camera" panel.

When?

Now available

Join Meetings by a Meeting ID and Passcode

What?

You can now also allow people to join a Team Meeting using a Meeting ID and Passcode. The meeting ID and passcode can be found in the meeting details. To join a meeting by ID on Teams desktop, you can enter a Meeting ID and from the Calendar in the Teams app. You will see the option to join meeting by ID in the top right corner of the calendar.

When?

Now available

Presenter mode: Controls to move and resize presenter video

What?

There is a new enhancement to the Presenter mode feature that continues to enable engaging presentations. Now, a presenter can choose whether to show up on the left or right side of the content and resize their video feed while automatically adjusting content size accordingly. This can be applied to all modes on Desktop or Window sharing including standout, side-by-side, and reporter.

When?

Now available

New Fluent Emoji style coming to Teams emojis and reactions

What?

This update will have Teams joining Microsoft 365 and Windows in updating all emojis and reactions to the new Microsoft Fluent emoji style, bringing a more vibrant and expressive emoji experience.

When?

Expected release in June

Show As now available in Teams Meetings

What?

Organizers of a Teams meeting and participants will be able to choose a Calendar Show As status feature such as free, busy or OOF to reflect their status for the scheduled meeting. In addition, organizers will also be able to select private meeting functionality which will allow users to hide meeting details from other users when their calendar is shared.

When?

Now available

Chat density

What?

This feature introduces a new, optional setting for you to increase the density of viewable content on Teams Chat via "Compact" mode. Compact mode allows you to fit 50 percent more messages on your screen. Comfortable setting keeps the chat display as it is in Teams today.

You can change the chat density in the General Settings on Teams Desktop.

When?

Now available

Hide your own video

What?

The following feature is less interesting for narcissists, but can certainly help against meeting fatigue. Did you know that seeing yourself in a video meeting can bring stress for the brain having to process an extra load of information?

You can now avoid this by hiding your own video from your stage. Others will still be able to see it and thus not disrupt the video experience during the call. If you no longer wish to be hidden, select Unhide for me by clicking on the arrow available in the collapsed state.

When?

Now available

Pin a chat message

What?

This new feature will enable you to pin a specific message and provide chat members with quick access to critical content whenever it's needed. Any member of a chat will be able to pin/unpin any specific chat message to the top of the chat header, for all members to see. You can click on the pinned message to go to the original message in the chat thread. Currently, only a single message can be pinned at a time.

When?

Now available

Add a Form to your meeting

What?

This one has been available for a while now, but is definitely worth sharing. Are you familiar with Microsoft Forms? With this Teams app, you can create surveys, quizzes and polls to share in your online meeting. Please visit this UT Service Portal page (https://www.utwente.nl/en/service-portal/communication/websites-portals/website-forms#microsoft-forms) for more information.

When?              

Now available

Voicemail improvements

What?

You can now finally play back your incoming voicemail messages within Teams. To do so, go to the Calls tab, find the missed call with voicemail and press play. Pretty easy, right?

When?

Now available

Share to Teams

What?

Share to Teams from Outlook enables you to share emails, including attachments, from Outlook to any chat or channel in Teams. Select a message in Outlook, search for the Share to Teams button in the Outlook ribbon and type the name of a person, group or channel to share the mail in Teams.

When?

Now available

To Do app - integration Outlook / Teams

What?

Some people may have worked with the To Do app in the past. With this app, it was possible to easily keep track of your tasks. This worked well until Microsoft made it required to have a 365 mailbox since last year. Fortunately, the app is working again after your mailbox is moved!

Keep track of your tasks in the To Do app, which can be installed separately on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. All tasks from the To Do app can also be found in the Teams app called Tasks by Planner and To Do.

More info about To Do: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/todo

For more info about the Tasks app in Teams, please check: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-the-tasks-app-in-teams-e32639f3-2e07-4b62-9a8c-fd706c12c070

When?

Now available

Share whiteboards using your camera in Teams meetings

What?

Make whiteboards, printed documents, books, and other physical objects the focus of your Teams meeting. With minimal setup, you can help meeting attendees who aren’t in the room feel more included and engaged in your next class, demo, or brainstorming session.

For a more detailed explanation and step-by-step plan, see this website: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/share-whiteboards-and-documents-using-your-camera-in-teams-meetings-905b52e3-bcd7-45c5-84cc-03992d7fc84f.

When?

Now available

Live components

What?

Co-authoring content in Teams just got easier. Now you can send a chat message containing a live component that can be edited inline—in real time—by everyone in the chat. This way, you can quickly create an overview or share a to-do list with your colleagues or teammates.

Find out more at: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/send-a-live-component-in-teams-chat-ca5252e7-8201-4490-a6d9-59f20df864c6.

When?

Now available

High fidelity music mode

What?

Level up your music experience in Teams with the High fidelity music mode. This setting provides you with the capability to create a richer sound experience when you transmit music to listeners in a Teams meeting or call.

This setting is good for online music lessons, transmitting musical performances, and any other times where you want to transmit high quality music to an online audience.

Read more about this feature at: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/use-high-fidelity-music-mode-to-play-music-in-teams-c1550582-2f76-4b31-9f72-e98c7167a18e

When?

Now available

Press to unmute

What?

You can stay muted to avoid unwanted background noise during a meeting and rapidly respond when called upon. An update is coming soon that will allow you to use a shortcut to unmute while holding down the keys Ctrl+Space (Windows) and Option+Space (macOS), then release keys to go back to muted state again. The feature is supported only on Teams Desktop.

How to enable:

• Go to Settings > Privacy tab. Check if “Keyboard shortcut to unmute” is enabled.
• Join a call or a meeting. Mute yourself.
• On Windows press and hold Ctrl+Space and on macOS press and hold Option+Space. You will see an alert regarding temporary unmute.
• Release key combination. The microphone will be muted again.

When?

The rollout is expected to be completed by early January 2022.

Co-organizer Meeting Role

What?

You will soon be able to assign the co-organizer meeting role to up to 10 specific people they invite to their meeting. Co-organizers will be granted most of the capabilities of the organizer in the meeting, including being able to access & modify the meeting options for the meeting. Once this feature has been enabled, a “Choose co-organizers” meeting option will be available. The default value for this option is “None.” The option operates similarly to when “Specific people” are selected as presenters for the meeting. The meeting organizer can click on the selector box to open a dropdown menu where they can choose from the list of qualified people who have been invited to the meeting.

To qualify for the co-organizer role, an invitee must be using an account that is on the same tenant as the organizer’s account. Organizers will be able to assign the co-organizer role to up to 10 people.

When?

Expected to release in December 2021 / January 2022.

Add a presenter to manage Breakout Rooms

What?

Organizers who will configure and manage Breakout Rooms on a Teams desktop client will have access to appoint Presenters as Breakout Room managers. Currently, only users who are named presenters from the same tenant are supported to become Breakout rooms managers. Please check Microsoft Support for more information on setting up Breakout Rooms. 

When?

Now available

Reply to a message in chat

What?

You can now reply to a specific message in chat! Right-click the message you want to reply to and select Reply or hover over the message and select More options  ∙∙∙  > Reply. A preview of the message you’re replying to will show up in the box where you type your message, and you can add your response below it.

When?

Now available

Change permissions of files shared in chats

What?

When you add a file to a private chat or a Teams Meeting chat, the default permissions on the file are now displayed: People in this chat with the link can view. Click the drop-down arrow to view other options. For example you can select Review mode, which allows the recipient to only leave comments and suggest changes to the document.

When?

Now available

Default file open setting for office files 

What?

The Teams desktop and web apps for Windows and Mac now enables you to configure the default app used to open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files that have been shared in Microsoft Teams.

To change this, go to an Office file in Teams, select More options (…) > Open and click Change default.

When?

Now available

View Switcher- a new dedicated menu of view options in Teams Meetings

What?

This new feature will place all of the view related options that are found in Teams Meetings (Gallery, Large Gallery, Together Mode) into a separate, dedicated menu called View Switcher. This will show up on the top left of the meeting window.

When?

late October / mid-November

A new search results page is coming

What?

A new search results experience in Teams for Desktop clients will be launched to make finding messages, people, answers and files faster and more intuitive. This redesigned search results page features better context, faster results, improved filtering capabilities with AI-powered relevance based on the people and content you engage with most in Teams and other Microsoft 365 services.

When?

Expected release in November.

Changed meeting layout

What?

Several changes have taken place in the layout of Teams Meetings. A purple border now appears around the video feed of the person who is speaking, making it easier to follow the conversation. Dynamic view has also been enabled. This means that the video feed of the participants is better distributed on the screen when, for example, someone joins or a presentation is started.

When?

Now available

Presenter mode with desktop and windows sharing

What?

Presenter mode is now available in the Teams desktop app. You can choose to add yourself to a presentation in three new ways. Simply select the way you want to present the screen under the Share button in a meeting.

When?

Now available

Live Captions and Live Transcript in Additional Spoken Language in Microsoft Teams Meetings

What?

Microsoft Teams is expanding the language support for real-time captioning and real-time transcription. It is now possible to use this feature with more languages, including Dutch, French and German. If you would like to know more about the transcript feature, please check https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/welcome-to-the-new-whiteboard/ba-p/2779824

When?

Now available

Improved Whiteboard

What?

The Microsoft Whiteboard app that is integrated in Teams is getting an update. An improved toolbar, collaboration cursors and templates will make it easier to work together remotely in a whiteboard. Interested in all the new features? Find out more at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-new-in-microsoft-whiteboard-30d871eb-6983-4876-9624-51b36fcf0bd3 

When?

Coming soon

Chat bubbles in meetings

What?

Previously, if someone shared a chat message in a meeting, it had to be opened in another window first. Now thanks to this new feature, chats sent during a Teams meeting will surface on the screens of all meeting participants, making the chat more central to the conversation.

When?

Now available.

Lock your meeting

What?

Everyone present in the meeting? Then the door can be locked! Users attempting to join a locked meeting by any means (e.g. from web, desktop, mobile, PSTN, and devices) will not be able to do so. There will be a message to say that the meeting is locked.

When?

Now available.

Possible spam call detection

What?

The spam call notification feature automatically evaluates incoming calls and identifies probable spam calls as “spam likely” in the call toast. You still have the option to answer or reject the call, and all “spam likely” calls (regardless of whether they were answered or rejected) will also be reflected in the call history list.

When?

Expected to release in late August.

Together mode generally available

What?

With Together mode, you can unite everyone in the meeting in one virtual space. This was already available in Teams in preview mode, but is now generally available. Have you tried this feature yet? Learn more in this video:

When?

Now available

Relocated profile menu to a new menu in the title bar

What?

Settings, Zoom Controls, Keyboard Shortcuts, About, and Check for Updates is moving from the Me Menu to a new menu in the title bar. Some of you already noticed this change in the last month, but Microsoft has decided to reverse this change and will re-release it soon.

The Me Menu will be focused on account management, where you can switch to another account or tenant through the first level of the Me Menu.

When?

Expected to release in early June

Increasing interactive meeting participants

What?

Currently, Teams allows only 300 users to be added to a meeting. In the near future, the meeting participant and chat size will increase from 300 to 1000.

When?

Expected to be rolled out by the end of May

Multiple Spotlights coming to Teams meetings

What?

Multiple spotlights in Teams meetings will allow organizers and presenters to spotlight up to 7 participants simultaneously for everyone to see during meetings. This will roll out across Microsoft Teams Desktop, and on the Web.

When?

Expected at the end of April.

Add a Whiteboard to a channel

What?

Microsoft Whiteboard is now available as a tab app inside Teams, making it even easy to pin a whiteboard to a channel.

When?

Now available

New breakout room functionalities

What?

As a meeting organizer, you’ll soon be able to set a timer for all breakout rooms created in a meeting session via the Breakout rooms settings panel. The option of switching participants between active rooms will also be added soon.

When?

Expected late April

PowerPoint Live in Teams: Slide Translation

What?

This new slide translation feature in Microsoft Teams (desktop) will enable all meeting attendees to translate presentation content, presented via PowerPoint Live in a Teams meeting, into a language of their choice while in private view. PowerPoint slide translation available in nineteen languages, including English, Dutch, French, German and Chinese.

When?

Expected at the end of April

Presenter View

What?

Once you select a PowerPoint file from the Teams Share Tray, Presenter View is opened automatically. You can see the current slide, the slide notes, and a thumbnail strip of all the slides in the deck for easy ad-hoc slide navigation.

This view is private to the presenter in control. If another presenter clicks “Take Control”, presenter view will be opened for the second presenter, while the previous presenter will be switched to the audience view without any access to the slide notes and the thumbnail strip.

When?

Now available.

Updates to meeting chat membership

What?

People added to a meeting via a meeting link that were not added to the original meeting invite will no longer have access to chats, files, notes, and other meeting content after the meeting ends. They will continue to have access to meeting assets during the meeting but lose access once the meeting ends. 

Note: Once this has rolled out, the changes will apply to new meetings. These changes will not be applied to previously scheduled meetings. These changes do not impact channel meetings.

When?

Will be introduced begins mid-April and will complete by the end of April.

Transfer calls between devices

What?

After joining a Teams call on one device, you will be able to join the same call on a second device. For example; going from desktop to a mobile device or even to another desktop. Additionally, you will be able to transfer a call from one device to a second device, in the same call, if there is a need to share content from the second device.

When?

Will be introduced late March.

Approvals in Teams

What?

Approvals in Microsoft Teams enables you to easily create, manage and share approvals directly from your hub for teamwork. You can quickly start an approval flow from the same place you send a chat, in a channel conversation, or from the Approvals app itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9fdqSxKuJw

When?

Now Available.

Dynamic view

What?

This new view allows Teams users to share content side-by-side with participants. Dynamic view automatically optimizes shared content and video participants in Teams meetings. New controls let you personalize the view to suit your preferences and needs, such as the ability to show shared content and specific participants side-by-side.

When?

Expected to release in March.

Revised in-meeting Share experience

What?

You will see a new design when sharing your screen, window, Whiteboard, or PowerPoint during meetings, as shown below.

When?

Rolling out end of March trough the end of April.

Get a Meet now meeting link in Teams

What?

With this feature, it’s easier to create meetings and get a meeting link using the Meet now button in the Teams calendar. If you click the Meet now button in the Teams calendar tab, you will see a flyout panel with options to either start the meeting instantly or get a meeting link for future use. This gives you the option to copy and share the link in advance.

When?

Rollout is currently in progress.

New Calling Experiences

What?

The calling experience in the Teams desktop app will receive an update. It will feature a streamlined view that combines contacts, voicemail, and calling history. Other enhancements are CarPlay support, spam identification and transferring calls between mobile and desktop. For more information, check: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/12/01/restore-and-maintain-personal-connections-with-new-microsoft-teams-calling-features/

When?

January  

Meeting reactions

What?

The Meeting Reactions feature allows users to react to participants during a meeting. You can choose four different reactions: like, heart, applause and laugh. This is an easy way to show that you agree with something without disrupting the meeting. Reactions will be available on Teams Desktop and Teams Mobile apps.  

When?

February  

Add a calendar to your Team

What?  

With this feature, you can add the Channel calendar app to a Teams channel when using the Teams desktop app. This will make it easy for the members of your Team to see scheduled channel meetings.

When?

The end of January

New Lobby Setting: Only Invited Users join directly

What?

A new lobby setting is coming to Teams Meeting Options. The option "People I Invite" will be added to the "Who can bypass lobby?" setting. Once enabled, only the participants invited by the organizer in meeting invite will be able to join the meeting directly. Everyone else will be sent to the lobby.  

When?

February 2021  

Touch Bar Meetings Controls for Mac

What?

Teams Meeting controls are coming for MacBooks with Touch Bars. This will allow you to mute/unmute, turn camera on/off, open/close sharing tray, open/close participants panel, open/close chat panel and raise/retract hand.

When?

End of January/February  

Divide participants into Breakout Rooms (smaller groups) during the meeting

What?

Breakout Rooms allow meeting organisers to split the participants into smaller groups to facilitate brainstorming sessions or group discussions. Presenters can choose to jump between the rooms, make announcements to all the rooms, and/or close the rooms so that everyone returns to the main meeting.

Check the following video for a demo and more information: Master virtual breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings - YouTube

When?  

Now available.  

Send a poll in your meeting

What?  

Are you looking for a way to easily receive feedback from your participants? Make the meeting interactive by adding a poll. Prepare the question and launch it in the meeting by clicking the Forms button.

For more information, see Poll attendees during a Teams meeting - Office Support (microsoft.com)

When?  

Now available.  

Changed storage location of recordings

What?

The recordings of Teams meetings will soon no longer be stored in Stream but in SharePoint or OneDrive. This makes your recording available more quickly and it has become possible to share the recording with people outside the organization.  

When?  

January 2021   

New layout for presentations

What?  

Teams will have more options to present your PowerPoint in a better way. If you show a slide, you can choose to have it displayed behind you on a virtual wall. This way the presentation will become more dynamic and the focus isn’t on the full-screen PowerPoint the whole time.  

When?               

February 2021  

Meeting recap

What?  

Have you been too busy vacuuming when you actually had to participate in a Teams meeting? The recordings, chats, files and more will be bundled in a meeting recap and automatically shared in the chat of the meeting. This allows the present and non-present participants to easily find what has been discussed.  

When?  

Late 2020 / early 2021