What did Microsoft Teams get from Ignite 2019?

This year in ignite, Microsoft has announced many new features and enhancement in existing features for Teams. I would say it compared to ignite last, this year Microsoft Teams got a lot of new capacities that make Teams as a unified solution for Unified Communication and Collaboration needs.

Also, Microsoft has honored user voices and incorporated many new capabilities that were listed under the user voice page. I can firmly say that the Teams are the only unified solution that solves enterprise UC and Collaboration needs.  And the most important Teams are getting better and better day by day with more stability.

Here the recap of what of Microsoft Teams got from Ignite 2019. 

1. Long pending feature “Private Channel” finally there: This enables users to create channels within existing teams that they created, that channel can be viewed and accessed by only those who added as members of that team. 

You can quickly identify private channels by looking at lock sign, refer below figure. 

2. Another significant feature Microsoft announced at ignite was “Multi-Window,” this can be called a pop-up window. It allows users to pop out the specific window from Microsoft Teams main client app such as meeting join window, chat, and so on. Refer below the image as a pop-out chat window. 

Note: This feature is not available yet, Microsoft will be rolling out this feature early next year.

3. Teams client for Linux: This another top asked feature from the Linux community. The client will support capabilities such as chats, meetings, calling, and so on. Once this available client, users will be able to install native Linux packages in .deb and .rpm formats. Microsoft will start rolling out Teams client for Linux as a preview later this year.

4. Teams conversation covering Polls and Survey natively through, new messaging extensions including Polls and Surveys, Once this available user can easily add Polls or Survey to the chat or channel conversations.  To add polls and surveys, the user can click on more options “…” at the bottom of the message compose box in a chat or channel to access these extensions. Microsoft will start rolling out this capability later this year.

5. Pinned Channel in Teams: In Teams, you can pin channels that allow users to keep their essential channels at the top of their teams list for easy access. Microsoft will start rolling out this capability later this year.

6. Outlook and Teams integration improved: Microsoft announced at ignite 2019, that Outlook and Teams integration moved to next level and it will allow the user to move their email conversation from Outlook, including attachments, into a Teams chat or channel communication by clicking on the ”Share to Teams” in Outlook. They can also share a conversation from Teams to an Outlook email by clicking on the more options (”…’’) icon in a conversation. Microsoft will start rolling out this feature early next year.

7. Consolidated Tasks in Teams, Teams will have tasks added that will give a combined view for the assigned task to a user, Todo, planner, Outlook, etc. Microsoft will start rolling out this feature early next year.

8. Yammer app for Teams, User can do yammer conversation, communities, and live event within Teams client and admin will have custom control. Microsoft will start rolling out this feature early next year.

9. Microsoft Whiteboard was in preview earlier (Use whiteboard in Teams meeting), now whiteboard is available as GA, and the user can share whiteboard in Teams meeting. Refer below image to for the whiteboard option at the conference. 

 

1. 10. Live Captions in Teams Meetings makes meetings more inclusive, giving participants another way to follow along with the conversation, and addressing the needs of participants with different hearing abilities or language proficiency. Microsoft will start rolling out Live caption as Preview in US English later this year with plans to expand to other languages in the future.
2. 11. Meeting control (aka, meeting option in SfB): Presenter and attendee controls is one of the long-pending and most asked feature is going to be available in Teams later this year. This control allows meeting organizers to the predefined presenter and attendee roles for meeting participants.  Presenter: Designated presenters will have full control over the meeting. Participants: in the “attendee” role won’t have the ability to share content, take control, mute or remove other participants, admit people waiting in the lobby, or start/stop recordings.
3. 12. Teams for Citrix Virtual environment: Teams Calling and Meetings for Citrix virtual environments allowing organizations to deliver a high-fidelity Microsoft Teams experience for an on-premises or Azure-hosted virtual desktop or application. As per Microsoft, this solution will become generally available to customers soon.
4. 13. Microsoft Teams Room enhancement: Microsoft Teams Rooms devices to connect to meeting services from other vendors via browser-based technologies. Microsoft is working with Cisco and Zoom to enable a direct guest join capability from the respective video conferencing devices to the video meeting service using the web app. Microsoft plans to add support for other vendors over time. These solutions are expected to be generally available in early 2020.
5. 14. Collaboration bars for Microsoft Teams are a new category of devices from Microsoft partners to convert small spaces into an online meeting and collaboration spaces. These affordable, simple to install and easy to manage video conferencing solutions attach to your displays, TVs, or touchscreens in minutes for high-quality video meetings. It enables experiences like one-touch & proximity join, content sharing, and whiteboarding.
6. 15. Microsoft Teams speakerphones: First-ever speakerphone with dedicated Teams button, which gives users the ability to have a seamless interaction with Teams. The first speakerphone to be certified is available from Yealink CP900 (https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/across-devices/devices/product?deviceid=358) today, later other Microsoft partners will bring speakerphone into the market.
7. 16. Phone System (aka, PSTN calling / Enterprise Voice in SfB): Microsoft brought enterprise Phone System capabilities to Teams, including emergency calls, call queue functionality, administrative control, Phone System for Government customers like GCC High and DoD, as well as advanced functionalities like music on hold, call delegation, etc.

Note: Currently, Voicemail management is not available through the Admin portal; however, as per Microsoft, it will be available by the end of this year.

There are many new capabilities added for the first-line worker in Teams, to ease their access: 

1. SMS Sign-In gives Firstline Workers a low friction way to sign into Teams with their phone number and a one-time SMS passcode for authentication. This will be available as a preview next year.
2. Off shift access is a new setting that can be enabled by IT administrators to provide a notification to Firstline Workers when they access the Teams app on their device outside payable hours. Microsoft will start rolling out this early next year.
3. Global Sign-Out saves time and keeps Firstline Workers secure when they use shared devices at work by enabling them to sign-out at once from all the apps they use on their shift. This will make available as a preview for Android devices early next year and in the show for iOS devices thereafter.
4. Delegated User Management enables Firstline managers to manage user credentials and approve password reset requests via the My Staff portal. It will be available as a public preview early next year.
5. Graph API enhancements provide two-way communication between a workforce management system of your choosing and Shifts to enable enterprise-scale configuration. This is partially available today.

New capabilities added for Healthcare and other industries:

Virtual consultant – Virtual Consults offers a simple way to schedule and conduct B2C virtual consultations via Microsoft Teams, such as healthcare patient consults, client meetings, or job candidate interviews. Attendees can quickly join the virtual consultation via their web browser or Teams mobile app. Teams have enabled virtual consults through its new external appointments functionality and are now in private preview.

Patient Coordination – Patient Coordination in Teams enables healthcare professionals to streamline patient care. By entering patient information into Teams’ secure platform, physicians, nurses, and other care team members can centralize and digitize the information they need when communicating and collaborating around patients in various scenarios like patient rounding, multi-disciplinary team meetings, and discharge huddles. Patient Coordination in Teams supports enterprise-grade security and enables HIPAA compliance. It will be available in public preview soon. 

There are many new capacities added to Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business Admin Center: Some of the most useful capabilities are listed below: 

1. Teams Advisor and Network planner – Teams advisor build deployment teams to track tasks, and Network planner helps you to determine and organize network requirements for connecting people that use Teams across your organization in a few steps.
2. Policy package – Policy package is a collection of predefined policies and settings that can be customized and applied to a group of users that have similar roles within your organization. IT Admins can assign a policy package, a collection of predefined policies and policy settings, to users who have similar roles in the organization. Microsoft will release new more policy packages later. 

• 3. Policy assignment to security groups in PowerShell is also going to be available by the end of this year.
• 4. Microsoft Teams Rooms in the Teams Admin Portal will allow the IT admins to manage the device inventory for your organization and do tasks such as assign configurations, restart devices, monitor and diagnose. This will start rolling out later this year.
• 5. Safe Links in Microsoft Teams, powered by Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection, now safeguards Teams messages from malicious links in real-time. When a web address (URL) is shared in a private chat or channel conversation, Teams will perform a time-of-click verification of web addresses and alert users of any risk such as malware or viruses. 

Specific to app integration, Microsoft has announced many new capabilities: some of listed below: 

1. Power Apps creators can now publish their apps as Teams apps for easy use and access when working on Teams. Admins can also post these custom apps directly to their company’s app library in Teams, making them more discoverable to users. New updates also improve the experience of adding these apps to Teams. Microsoft will start rolling out later this year
2. Pinning an app created with Power Apps to Teams left rail will provide users easy access to frequently used apps in everyday use. Microsoft will be available to users later this year.
3. Teams-centric actions & triggers with Power Automate allows users to create new kinds of automated workflows within Teams. The user can create a trigger for specific actions when someone new joins their team, notifications within Teams when a particular keyword is mentioned, automatically set focused time, and to save notes to OneNote. These will be available to users later this year.
4. Power BI interactive cards in Teams chat experience will help users quickly find and take action on their data. Microsoft will start rolling out early next year.

Reference: 

• Microsoft documentation – https://docs.microsoft.com
• Tech Community – https://techcommunity.microsoft.com

Thank you.