28 Apr Exploring the Latest Innovations in the New Microsoft Teams App

Exploring the Latest Innovations in the New Microsoft Teams App

In the rapidly evolving landscape of remote collaboration, Microsoft Teams continues to lead the way with its commitment to innovation and user-centric design. With a plethora of new features introduced between March 2023 and March 2024, the “New Teams” experience represents a significant jump forward in empowering individuals and organizations to achieve seamless communication, enhanced productivity, and unparalleled teamwork. Let’s delve into the wealth of innovations brought forth by the new Microsoft Teams:

Make your best plans yet with Microsoft Planner

Navigate the My Day, My Tasks, and My Plans sections to organize your daily to-do’s, find specific tasks, and view your plans and projects. You can also pin plans you want quick access to, explore enhanced planning features with Teams Premium and Copilot, and more.  To use Planner, go to View more apps   on the left side of Teams and select Planner.

Figure, 1 Planner.

Explore the latest in your Discover feed

Catch up on relevant topics, people you work with, and channels you’ve joined in the new Discover feed in Microsoft Teams. Get updated on your organization as a whole, or just what’s happening on your team. To check out the Discover feed, open Teams and select Teams   > Discover

Figure, 2 Discover.

Meet with a new and improved gallery view in Teams!

The new gallery view shows everyone in your meeting window equally, whether participants have their cameras on or off. You can change how many participants you see at a time and move or hide your video from your view. You can also prioritize videos to focus more on participants with their cameras on.

An easier way to make channels.

80% of teams have only one active channel, which can decrease engagement. To improve this, Microsoft simplifies channel creation within teams, making it quicker and easier to manage. In Teams, select Teams   > Join or create a team   > Create channel.

See more people at once with a large gallery view (9 Videos)

There is no need to toggle between different layouts. Now, you can see more people during meetings on Teams for Web, which can display up to nine videos at once in large gallery mode.

Express yourself in Teams chat

Easily find the perfect emoji, GIF, or sticker to send in a Teams message with the newly designed compose box. In the compose box, select Emoji, GIFs, and Stickers   to choose from your most recently used expressions, or search for something different in the search bar.

Figure 3, Improved Chat

Find your files in OneDrive for Teams.

In the new Teams, OneDrive is replacing Files, the app where all your Teams files are stored. View shared, personal, and channel files easily by selecting OneDrive on the left side of the new Teams.

Search directly in chats and channels.

Find what you’re looking for in a specific chat or channel with the new in-chat and in-channel search experience. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F (Windows) or Cmd + F (Mac) to open the dedicated search pane.

A whole new virtual world

Dive into Teams immersive spaces and explore new virtual environments where you can meet and connect like never before. Join immersive spaces as an avatar by joining a meeting in Teams and selecting View > Immersive space from the meeting menu. There, you’ll be able to customize your avatar, adjust your audio settings, and join.

Figure 4, Teams meeting Immersive Spaces.

Presenting Just Got Better: Improved Presentation Toolbar The new and improved toolbar for presenters enhances the presentation experience during meetings. With streamlined presentation controls, presenters can effectively manage their presentations, ensuring a seamless and engaging meeting experience for all participants.

Figure 5, Improved presentation options.

Better, Faster, and Easier on Your Computer: Performance Optimization The new Teams app is optimized for performance, utilizing fewer computer resources and offering faster performance. This ensures that users can work more efficiently and navigate the Teams app with ease, enhancing overall productivity and user experience.

Keep all Eyes on the Content: Content Camera In meetings, it’s essential to keep participants engaged and focused on the content being shared. With the Content Camera feature, users can seamlessly showcase whiteboards, printed documents, and physical objects during Teams meetings. This ensures that all eyes remain on the relevant content, fostering more interactive and engaging discussions among participants.

Figure 6, Content Camera

Archive Inactive Channels: Streamlined Channel Management Channel clutter can hinder productivity and collaboration within Teams. With the ability to archive inactive channels, channel owners and administrators can declutter their Teams environment without losing valuable messages, files, and tabs. This streamlined channel management process promotes organizational efficiency and ensures that users can easily locate relevant content within Teams.

Figure 7, Teams channel Hide/Archive

Never Miss a Notification: Taskbar Notifications Staying informed and responsive is crucial in a fast-paced work environment. With taskbar notifications, users can now receive notifications directly from the Teams icon on their taskbar. This ensures that important updates and messages are promptly brought to the attention of users, enabling them to stay connected and engaged with their Teams environment.

Forward Messages in Chat: Effortless Message Relay Message forwarding simplifies communication within Teams by allowing users to relay messages without the need for copying and pasting. By hovering over a message and selecting the “Forward” option, users can effortlessly share chat messages with other group or individual chats, facilitating smoother communication and collaboration.

Change Your Status Without Opening Teams: Taskbar Status Update Updating presence status is now more convenient than ever with the ability to change status directly from the Teams icon in the taskbar. This feature enables users to update their presence status without the need to open the Teams app, enhancing accessibility and streamlining status management within Teams.

All Your People, All Together: Contact Management In the new Teams app, managing contacts is made easier with the “People” feature. Users can now access and manage all their contacts in one centralized location within Teams, facilitating seamless communication and collaboration with colleagues and external contacts alike.

All Your Meetings, All in One Place: Meet in Teams The “Meet in Teams” feature provides users with a centralized hub to review, manage, and prepare for all their meetings. By adding Meet to the Teams app, users can streamline meeting management and ensure that they are well-prepared for all their scheduled meetings within Teams.

Figure 8, Meet App in Teams

Make Meeting Backgrounds Your Own: Custom Backgrounds Personalization is key to creating a comfortable and engaging meeting environment. With the ability to apply custom backgrounds, users can personalize their meeting experience by choosing their favorite backgrounds when joining a meeting in the new Teams app. This enhances user engagement and creates a more visually appealing meeting environment.

Set a Duration for Your Presence: Presence Duration Managing availability and presence status is made more flexible with the ability to set a duration for presence in Teams. Users can now specify their availability for a specific amount of time, ensuring that their presence status automatically resets according to their preferences.

Figure 9, Presence Duration

Your Meeting Avatar Has Arrived: Avatar Customization Personalize your virtual presence in meetings with the ability to create custom avatars. By customizing avatars, users can represent themselves authentically and engage with others in conversations, even with their video turned off. This feature enhances user identity and promotes a sense of connection within virtual meetings.

Figure 10, Avatar

Manage Your Notification Settings: Customized Notifications Tailoring notification settings to individual preferences is now simpler with the ability to manage notification settings directly within the Teams app. Users can choose what activity they want to be notified about, when they want to receive notifications, and where notifications should appear, ensuring a personalized and efficient notification experience.

More Reliable Presence Settings: Enhanced Presence Updates The new Teams app ensures more reliable presence updates, ensuring that users’ availability status is accurately reflected as it changes. This enhances communication and collaboration by providing real-time visibility into users’ availability within Teams.

Ring, Ring—Get Notified on Multiple Devices: Device Notifications Users can now choose to receive incoming Teams calls on secondary devices, expanding accessibility and ensuring that important calls are never missed. This feature enhances communication flexibility and ensures that users can stay connected regardless of their device.

Speed Dial is Here: Quick Contact Access The introduction of speed dial in the new Teams app allows users to quickly access their frequently contacted contacts. By choosing which contacts to add to speed dial, users can streamline communication and access important contacts with ease.

Figure 11, Speed Dial option.

Manage Private and Shared Channels: Enhanced Channel Management Team and channel owners now have greater control over shared and private channels, allowing them to manage membership and settings more effectively. This feature streamlines channel management and ensures that channels are organized and accessible to relevant team members.

Record Meetings with Dial-in Participants: Enhanced Meeting Recording Users can now record meetings and one-on-one calls with participants who join via phone, providing a comprehensive record of meeting discussions and ensuring that important information is captured for future reference.

Know When Someone’s Outside Your Org: External Contact Identification Identifying external contacts within Teams is now easier with the introduction of an “External” label next to their name. This feature enhances communication transparency and ensures that users are aware when communicating with individuals outside.

Figure 12, New Teams, shows the external label.

Decorate your background with AI

Turn your camera on in a Teams meeting and decorate your real-life background with AI elements in Teams Premium. Choose from several different themes, like Celebration or Clean up, to apply them to your background.

A known issue in New Teams: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/new-teams-known-issues.

Thank you.