With the end of the year just around the corner, Microsoft isn’t allowing the cold weather to slow down their progress on Microsoft Teams. Microsoft’s flagship app for collaboration continues to deliver a selection of fantastic new capabilities intended to empower and enhance your workplace teams.
For instance, to help companies access the best integrations for their Teams experience, Microsoft recently rolled out new apps like Confluence Cloud and Meekan. Confluence Cloud allows developer teams to get the information they need from Teams in their Confluence apps. Meekan, on the other hand, is a simple AI assistant that helps you to schedule meetings with your employees according to their schedule.
Here are some of the other most significant updates from Microsoft Teams this month.
New Communication and Admin Features for November
One of the most exciting developments for this month is the introduction of the “Coexistence mode” solution. For organisations in the process of migrating from Microsoft Skype for Business into Teams, the new presence experience allows you to determine which of your co-workers and contacts are available with Skype for Business, Skype for Business and Teams, and more.
Admins on Microsoft Teams are also gaining more control this month with new dynamic group membership options. Administrators can now create teams supported by Microsoft Office 365 groups with a dynamic membership rule managed in the Azure Active Directory. This means that if a user or device satisfied a specific standard, like being present in the office one day, they’ll be added to a group. When your user doesn’t meet the required standard, they’re automatically removed from the team.
“Org-wide” teams are also available today. Org-wide groups allow people in an organisation with up to 1,000 users to join a single, giant team for collaboration. This is a great way to create a public hub for a larger enterprise. As you update your business directory to include or remove new active users, your org-wide team membership will update too!
Exchange address book policies are also available for admins that want to create virtual boundaries for their team, dictating how users find and communicate with co-workers. This is a useful update for any company with multiple entities in a single tenant of Teams.
Updates to Microsoft Teams Android & iOS Apps
Today’s increasingly-mobile workforce needs collaboration and communication applications that work with them on-the-go. Fortunately, Microsoft Teams is dedicated to enhancing their Teams app on iOS & Android just as much as their desktop-based solution. The latest updates to the smartphone apps for Microsoft Teams include:
- See business information anywhere: Search for colleagues in your business charts or find them directly from their contact cards
- Add Quiet hours: For employees who want to maintain a good work-life balance, Quiet Hours mutes Teams notifications on mobile devices. It’s also possible to mute push notifications at certain times of the day throughout the week
- Schedule meetings on-the-go: Users can now schedule their Teams meetings from their mobile device, inviting people and guests via the Microsoft Teams app. The option to schedule channel meetings will be available soon
- Know who is calling you: If you have someone on Teams saved in your contacts on your smartphone, you’ll see their name appear whenever they call you on Teams. You’ll need a Phone System license to access this feature
- Drive Mode: Users accessing Microsoft Teams in their car will be able to access an optimised application mode with larger buttons and other features intended to improve safety on the road
