Microsoft wrapped up its second Ignite event of the year last week, with a host of news and product updates being announced for Microsoft Teams.
We’ve rounded up the best of the news here.
Dynamics Voice
Microsoft revealed that it would be adding a voice channel to Dynamics 365, creating what it referred to as an “all-in-one digital contact centre solution” powered by the underlying platform that drives Teams.
The vendor said that it will continue supporting integrations from established customer experience brants such as Five9 and Vonage.
Microsoft Mesh for Teams
Mixed reality meetings are on their way to Teams via the Microsoft Mesh platform.
The tie-up will initially see meeting participants appear as avatars either in virtual spaces or in standard Teams meetings. The ultimate aim is for these avatars to evolve into holograms of real people, as businesses procure the required hardware.
Mesh for Teams is set to debut in the first half of 2022.
Microsoft Loop
Microsoft revealed Loop, which encompasses a digital canvas and “components” that can be shared across its collaboration portfolio.
These components update automatically across the board and can be stored dedicated pages and work pages via Loop.
The components will launch later this year, with a dedicated Loop application set to follow.
Teams Connect
Microsoft gave updates on when Teams Connect will be available, revealing that shared cross-company shared channels will launch in the first half of 2022, while users will be able to chat with people outside of their organisation via a personal account by the end of the year. Business users can already speak across businesses.
Teams Connect was announced at the first Ignite of 2021 and was originally expected to launch soon after.
Users will be able to share channels with up to 50 teams across as many organisations as they like and will also have the ability to schedule meetings and collaborate in real-time apps.
Updates to Rooms and Devices
Microsoft announced that two meeting providers have been added to the Direct Guest Join programme – with BlueJeans and GoTo added to existing participants Cisco Webex and Zoom.
Direct Guest Join lets users join Teams Meetings from third-party meeting room kits and vice versa.
Microsoft also confirmed that its Surface Hub display will soon be compatible with the Teams Admin Center, having announced this previously. Customers will also be able to add to have the Surface Hub included in Microsoft’s Teams Rooms Managed Services package.
Teams Platform Updates
Microsoft said that developers can now embed Teams components into other applications, including those from third parties.
Interoperability between Azure Communication Services (ACS) and Microsoft Teams will hit general availability in December, meaning the combination means that users of an application built on the ACS platform can interact with users of Microsoft Teams.
A key use case for the interoperability will be delivering customer service, connecting customers using a custom-built app to the supplier’s agent using Teams.
Microsoft also revealed that app developers will soon be able to embed Teams chat experiences in their own apps, providing they are built with Power Apps.
“In the coming months, this connectivity with Power Apps will allow you to bring the collaboration experience your users use every day into your custom line of business applications,” it said.
Updates to Teams Webinars
Microsoft revealed a host of new features for its new webinar experience, which launched at the first Ignite of the year.
A virtual green room, coming in preview next year, will let hosts and guests socialise before an event starts. Hosts will also have improved control over what attendees can see. Organisers will soon be able to assign up to 10 co-organisers to events.
Microsoft also revealed that a new Q&A set-up will be available in preview this month, enabling what Microsoft said will be a more structured question and answer experience.
On the audio front, producers will soon have the ability to create an audio mix from each individual in a meeting.
New Chat Features
A host of useful features and upgrades were announced for Teams chat, all of which are pencilled in for rollout between the Ignite event and early 2022.
Users will soon be given a “chat with self” message thread, which will enable them to drop messages in a thread that is only seem by them. A new chat density feature will let user change the number of messages they see on the screen at any one time, minimising the need to scroll.
Microsoft will also be introducing a feature that lets users schedule messages to be sent, in much the same way that can already be done in Outlook.
