Key Takeaways
- Discover Feed and Voice Isolation now available in Teams, Copilot and other AI features to come this spring.
- 99.999% uptime guarantee for Teams Phone, Autopilot for faster deployment, and QR code meeting joins planned.
- Collaborative notes, different notifications sounds, and more channel organization features now in Teams meetings and chats.
It’s no wonder that Microsoft regularly adds new features and enhancements to Teams, keeping in mind that it’s one of the most popular online communication and collaboration tools, especially in commercial environments. Recently, we learned that the personal Teams app on Windows 11 is getting a visual revamp, and now, Microsoft has unveiled all the new capabilities it introduced in Teams during the month of March 2024, along with what’s coming soon.
What are the highlights this month and beyond?
There are several key features in Teams that Microsoft covered this month; some are now available while others are coming soon. For starters, the Discover Feed is available now, and it surfaces content from Channels that you may have missed because it doesn’t directly involve you. Similarly, Voice Isolation is yet another capability that can now be used to suppress background noises through the power of AI.
Additionally, there are a ton of other features planned for release later too. Copilot will be able to write messages on your behalf from this spring, provided that you have a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license. In the same vein, the Calls app will leverage AI to generate call summaries for Teams Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers, as long as transcription services are enabled.
Notably, Microsoft will also begin offering a 99.999% uptime service level agreement (SLA) for Teams Phone from April 1, with payouts for impacted customers if it fails to meet this threshold during a month. Furthermore, IT teams will be able to use Autopilot for Teams Rooms on Windows for faster deployment from April as a public preview, and it will also be possible to join a meeting through a QR code on Teams Rooms on Windows and Android sometime later this year. In the same time frame, Teams users can also leverage a new Queues app for call management, as long as they have a Teams Premium license.
Lastly, those interested in the camera capabilities of Teams should look forward to automatic camera switching through IntelliFrame, being able to switch through multiple camera feeds, and ultrasound for proximity join in Teams Rooms on Windows. All of these features are slated for release later this year.
What’s new in meetings, chat, and collaboration?
When it comes to meetings, a nifty new feature is the ability to create collaborative notes before and after a meeting. In addition, users in a group chat will also be able to use a “Meet now” button to immediately jump on a call later this spring.
On the chat and collaboration front, Copilot will be able to access your meeting transcript and chat from spring, so it can answer your questions associated with a meeting. Other capabilities planned over the next few months include better organization of channels, easier creation of Teams, the ability to set different sounds for various notifications, and easier sharing of someone’s contact information in chat.
There are several other features that have been made available this month too, including:
- Preset organization backgrounds
- Branded meeting join launch page
- Frosted glass background effect
- Join Teams work meetings from Microsoft Teams (free) and vice versa
- Support for content camera in new Teams app
- Improved design of meeting invite
- Leave/join meeting attendance information is no longer displayed in the meeting transcript
- Support PowerPoint Live and Whiteboard for Watermark meeting
- The “Recording & Transcription” tab will be replaced by the “Recap” tab
- New Admin policy for enabling/disabling users to join externally hosted meetings
- Links to private and shared channels
- Archive channels
- Tags in private and shared channels
- Private team discovery
What about Teams Rooms and devices?
Coming over to the Teams Rooms side of the fence, a ton of capabilities are planned for April and beyond. These include integration of the new and faster Teams app, the ability to switch between up to three languages, the meeting chat being shown by default in the Gallery View, and UI enhancements for join by meeting ID. Meanwhile, Teams Rooms on Android will see the release of version 2.2, a home screen refresh, the ability to give feedback to Microsoft, and content sharing, along with other admin controls.
On the hardware side, the following devices are now Teams-certified as well:
- Microsoft Surface Hub 3
- Yealink Desk Vision peripheral mode
- Logitech MX Brio 705 for Business
What’s planned for webinars, town halls, and Teams Phone?
At its Enterprise Connect 2024 event, Microsoft announced several upcoming enhancements to these areas. These include improvements to the “manage what attendees see” experience, duplication of an existing event, multiple languages for live translation of captions, third-party eCDN support, and new activity notifications for Q&A sessions in webinars and town halls.
Meanwhile, Teams Phone customers can leverage shared call history for call delegation, click-to-call, and call routing configurations for external calls. All of these enhancements are now available, but in terms of what’s next, customers should look forward to UI enhancements, new device management and admin controls, and more operator partners.
But wait, there’s more!
It’s difficult to believe, but Microsoft had even more details to share regarding Teams updates this month and beyond. However, they deal with more niche segments like frontline worker solutions, new app releases, security and privacy features, and updates for Government SKUs. If any of these areas tickle your fancy, make sure to check out Microsoft’s massive blog post here.