The year was rounded off with lots of product releases, improvements and newsworthy moments within the Microsoft Teams ecosystem.
Microsoft Teams announced updates relating to the new Teams app, chat and collaboration, webinars and town halls, Teams Phone, Teams Rooms and devices, platform, frontline workers, virtual appointments, and education.
December also saw the release of new Teams capabilities, including Microsoft Bookings and the Admin app, the general availability of Loop, and discounts for Microsoft 365 subscriptions and Teams Phone bundles. Teams retained its crown as the leader of the Gartner UCaaS Magic Quadrant for 2023.
The team collaboration hub also launched a OneDrive for Teams app, intelligent recap for copilot, and easy message forwarding in Teams, as well as certifying the Logitech Sight Camera.
Having been forced to unbundle Teams from Office 365 in Europe, EU antitrust regulators are still looming over Microsoft as they look into breaking up the current Microsoft Office offering further.
New Teams App
The new Teams app is now generally available for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) customers.
It has been shown to be faster, up to twice as fast in fact, in overall responsiveness when it comes to actions like launching the app and joining meetings.
Not only is it quicker, but it also uses 50 percent less memory and disc space than the classic version of Teams.
Chat and Collaboration
Within the chat and collaboration segment, Teams has introduced Loop components and the option of creating a personalised announcement background within channels using AI to generate images.
Chat and channels have also been enhanced with an updated search experience that includes a domain-specific search filters and a new “find in channel” search button. A chat button has also been added to make it easier to follow up on missed calls.
Teams has integrated the OneDrive app with its Files app to both classic and new Teams.
Past conversations with Copilot in chat and channels can are also now viewable for those using Copilot in Teams.
Webinars and Town Halls
New webinar and town hall templates have been added to the Teams meeting dropdown menu in the Outlook Calendar tab, enabling organisers to set up webinars and town halls directly from Outlook.
Teams Phone
Calling shortcuts have been added for Teams phone to initiate audio and video calls. For example, to start a video call on a Windows phone, you can press Alt + Shift + V or Option + Shift + V on a MacOS.
A new group chat call confirmation has been introduced to help reduce the chances of making an accidental call.
Team Phone Mobile is also now available in Norway via Telia, allowing users to integrate business mobile calling with Teams.
Teams Rooms and Devices
New Teams Rooms and devices include people recognition with an intelligent camera, automatic updates for the Teams app on Android devices, synced updates for Teams Rooms also on Android devices, and the ability for admins to manage Microsoft Surface Hub as a Teams Rooms on Windows devices.
A new enrolment process in the Teams desktop client enables face profiles to be created using facial recognition. This will mean in-room and remote meeting attendees to be identified and labelled.
IT admins can view and purchase Teams Phone and Teams Rooms licenses in the device store of the Teams Admin Center.
The latest devices added in December include the Logitech Sight, Logi Dock Flex, Neat Board 50, Nureva HDL410 system, Lenovo ThinkSmart View Plus Monitor, Poly CCX EM60 side car, HP 620 FHD Webcam, HP 960 4k Streaming Webcam, Anker PowerConf S3 Speakerphone, and the Dell Wired Headset – WH3024.
Platform
From a platform perspective, admins will now be able to pre-approve apps using resource-specific consent (RSC) permissions, a Teams AI library has been implemented to provide developers a suite of code functionalities to help integrate Large Langauge Models (LLMs), and private Teams chats can be initiated between Teams Admin Center users and third-party app publishers.
Frontline Workers
The latest frontline worker solutions include a filter to help users focus on tasks in their areas or departments, full name display and a Graph API for day notes in the Shifts app, as well as improved Shifts privacy settings.
Frontline managers are now able to import and export time off and open shifts via Excel on Shifts web or desktop applications, and shifts can be deployed at scale by admins from the Teams Admin Center.
Finally, admins can deploy teams at scale using dynamic teams in the Teams Admin Center, which will automate member management to keep teams up to date with the correct users.
Virtual Appointments
A new virtual appointment template has been added to the Outlook Teams add-in. This enables schedulers to create virtual appointments directly from Outlook, which will be shown in both the Outlook and Teams calendars.
Education
A School Connection app has been added to Microsoft Teams mobile to provide parents with the ability to support and monitor their child’s learning at school.
The new Teams App has also been made generally available for Microsoft’s Education customers for desktop on Windows, Mac, Edge and Chrome browsers, with additional functionality due to be announced soon.
UC Today also rounded up experts from across the industry to hear their predictions for Microsoft Teams in 2024, which included AI innovations, an expansion into contact centre, advancements in Copilot, an evolution in voice-assisted technology, the rise of Viva Engage, and more.
