Hi Everyone!


Thanks to everyone who attended Tech X last month – it was so great to meet some of you in person!
Seeing as we have just had Microsoft Ignite, for this month's blog I will be covering some of the exciting new updates Microsoft announcements for Teams and Modern Workplace.
 

The New Microsoft 365 App

First things first – the new Microsoft 365 app! Microsoft has announced the new Microsoft 365 app to replace the Office app, and over the next few months, Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office app for windows will all become the Microsoft 365 app. 


The Microsoft 365 app will still have all the productivity apps (Teams, Outlook, Excel, etc) from the Office app, along with the new apps and features like Loop, to reflect how the Office app has evolved and the value of Microsoft 365.  Some of these new features include:


My Content – the My Content section is a central location for you to find and access all your content and files (including third-party files), and you can browse files shared by specific people or files that were shared during Teams meetings. 


Create – you can quickly and easily create new documents, presentations, or worksheets from a blank template or by using one of the recommended templates. 


Feed – the Feed helps you prepare for your workday by showing upcoming meetings, updates from people you follow, and who is away. 


Tagging – you will be able to use custom tags to help group and organise your content. 


The change will start rolling out for Office.com first in November this year, and then in January 2023, Microsoft will start rolling it out for Office for Mobile and Windows. 


Check out this video to see the improved layout and experience of the Microsoft 365 app - Introducing the Microsoft 365 App - YouTube.

 

New Collab Features in MS Teams

Excel Live

Excel Live starts rolling out this month, which I am super excited about. We in the DD Microsoft Team are frequent users of PowerPoint live so it's great to see this capability extend to Excel. With Excel live, you can share an excel file in a Teams meeting and it will become an interactive canvas for all participants to with together on. They can interact with and edit the workbook without having to open Excel locally or leave the meeting screen.

 

Scheduled Send

Scheduled Send in Teams will allow you to schedule Teams chat messages to be delivered at future date and time – so basically the 'delay delivery' option you have in Outlook will be available in Teams as well. Viva Insights will also give you schedule send suggestions if you are messaging the recipient outside their work hours.

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Work hours and location

You will soon be able to set your work location in Teams, so your colleagues can know whether you will be available in the office or working remotely.

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Teams Channels are getting a makeover

Microsoft has announced a new experience for Channels to make them more engaging, familiar, and intuitive. For starters, the compose box and recent posts will be at the top of the page, instead of at the bottom where they are now. The most recent message will appear at the top and you will scroll down to view previous conversations. And - you will be able to able to pop out channel posts, so you can continue to work in other areas of teams, while still engaging in a channel conversation, without having to flick between the two. You can also pin posts in channels, so the channel members can easily find and refer to important information.

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Mention @everyone in group chats

You will be able to @ mention everyone in a group chat by using @everyone, instead of having to mention every person individually. This feature will be in private preview by the end of the year.

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Other collaboration features that have been announced:

  • You are now able to record short video clips in 1n1 and group chats
  • Cameo in PowerPoint live integrates your camera feed into your presentation so your video can appear on your slides
  • Collaborative annotations, which leverage Whiteboard, allow you to draw and type on content that is being shared in a Teams meeting

 

Microsoft Teams Premium

A new offering, the Microsoft Teams Premium add-on, has been announced and will make Teams meetings more personalised, intelligent, and secure. Microsoft Teams Premium will be available in preview this December and will bring the following capabilities:

  • Meeting guides will help you create the right meeting experience for your meeting. Admins can define and manage meeting types that are appropriate for the company, for example, Helpdesk call, client meeting, or team stand up, and set the options for the meeting. When booking a meeting, all the person needs to do is select the meeting guide that fits their meeting and the pre-set options will be automatically applied.
  • You can brand your meeting experience by adding your company logo and backgrounds to the Teams lobby, setting custom backgrounds at an org-wide level, and creating together modes so your branding is consistent across virtual interactions.
  • Teams Premium will bring more intelligence features such as Intelligent recap, which provides personalised highlights from the meeting to users so they can get a summary of the key information (even if they miss the meeting), and AI-generated tasks will be automatically assigned so that no action items get missed.
  • Live translation for captions will deliver real-time translation from 40 languages.
  • Meetings will be more secure with Advanced Meeting Protection, which will allow you to add watermarking and control in which users can record the meeting, to prevent leaks of confidential information.

Teams Premium will also enhance the B2C experience with Advanced webinars and Advanced virtual appointments. With Advanced webinars, you can have a registration waitlist, automated reminder emails, and a virtual green room so presenters can manage what the attendees see. Advanced virtual appointments allow you to manage the appointment experience with pre-appointment SMS reminders, a branded lobby, and post-appointment follow-ups.

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Teams Premium will roll out in preview in December this year and will be generally available in February 2023, except for the AI intelligence features, which will begin rolling out in the first half of 2023.

An official price for the Teams Premium add-on has not yet been released, but Microsoft has shared the indicative pricing which is 10 USD per user per month. The official pricing will be released when Teams Premium is GA.

You can learn more about Teams Premium here.

 

Microsoft Loop Updates

The following capabilities will be added to Microsoft Loop components:

  • Ability to insert a poll, checklist, or task list into Word for a Web
  • Copy and paste loop components into Microsoft whiteboard. Changes made to the loop component will sync to all the locations where the loop component lives.
  • Use Polls powered by Forms to create surveys and quizzes that sync across Outlook for Web and Word for Web
  • Q&A, which is a new loop component type that will allow you to collect answers to questions in real-time
  • Sensitivity labels and Data Loss Prevention is coming to Loop and will be GA in Teams by the end of the year.

Microsoft has also announced the new Loop app, which includes Loop workspaces, pages, and components.

There were so many more awesome announcements from Ignite and I am looking forward to blogging about more of them in the coming months. In the meantime, if you have any questions or need help with anything in the Modern Work space, you can send me an email or book a meeting with me here.