Microsoft has announced a host of new features for its Teams platform during Ignite 2022.
The company has added new features for Teams meetings, Teams chat, improved the channel experience, and more.
Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President, Communications at Microsoft, said: "The past few years have been a period of dramatic change, with disruptions to our society, the global economy, political landscape, technology and the way we work.
"As organisations adapt to new challenges, they are turning to their technology providers to help them succeed.
"Against this backdrop, at this year’s Microsoft Ignite we are focused on how Microsoft Cloud is helping customers do more with less.
"In today’s uncertain economic environment, companies are looking to change the way they do work to get better results, with less friction and more choice."
You can click here to view all the Microsoft Teams news from Ignite 2022 including Operator Connect Mobile receiving a name change, Teams meetings to be available on Cisco devices, and a Teams Premium package.
New Meetings Features
Microsoft has confirmed that several new features to boost engagement and interactivity are coming to Teams.
Cameo: This PowerPoint experience seamlessly integrates the Teams camera feed into a PowerPoint Live presentation to allow users to customise how they want to appear on slides. The feature is now generally available to Teams users.
Together Mode: The feature is designed to make meeting participants feel more like they're together in the same room during a virtual meeting. In the latest update, meeting organisers and presenters can assign seats to participants in the Together Mode view.
Excel Live: Teams users can collaborate on Excel workbooks in real-team within the meeting window on any device. Sheet View allows everyone co-editing the workbook to sort or filter however they need without disrupting anyone else. The feature will begin rolling out this month and be generally available by the end of the year.
Collaborative annotations: Users can now draw, type, and react directly to content which is shared in a Teams meeting by using the toolset and canvas of Whiteboard.
Polls: With Polls for Teams meetings, users can make combined decisions quickly and encourage interactivity with all participants. The company states the feature can also be used as an "ice breaker" to get everyone warmed up for the meeting.
Teams Chat and Collaboration Features
Microsoft is bringing many new updates to its Teams chat and other collaboration features.
Video clips: Users can now send short, lightweight video clips that help deliver a more personal touch and strengthen connections. Clips can be recorded, sent, viewed and replied to from a desktop or mobile.
Expanded reactions: Microsoft is making it easier for users to express their feedback creatively with over 800 Teams emojis. Users can communicate their status with reactions like "reviewed" or "on hold". The company states that the feature will be generally available in November.
Suggested replies: Currently, suggested replies are only available for one-on-one chats; however, from October, they will also appear in group chats. Instead of typing out a routine response, users can click one of the three responses to allow them to stay productive in their workflow.
Schedule send: Teams users can now delay the delivery of messages by manually selecting a future date and time that they would like the message to be delivered.
Delete chat: Microsoft is making it possible for users to easily remove themselves from one-on-one or group chat conversations that they no longer wish to participate in without impacting other participants in the same conversation. This feature is set to be generally available in November.
Mention @everyone: When users use @everyone in group chats, a single notification will be sent to all users in a group. This ensures senders their message is sent to the entire audience and helps recipients prioritise messages. Microsoft states that @everyone is coming to Teams by the end of the year.
