With June 2022 in the rear-view mirror Microsoft is taking a retrospective on all of the features, fixes and updates its engineers poured into Microsoft Teams over the past 30 days.
For anyone interested in viewing some of the features they may have missed in June, here are some of the highlights that hit the service last month.
Teams added multi-language meeting invite controls that allow admins to show meeting invites in up to languages across all email platforms that include Gmail, Thunderbird and more. To begin using the feature, Admins need to visit their MeetingInviteLanguages parameter in the CsTeamsMeetingPolicy and enable the feature at the user or group level, or for the entire organization.
Next up is Teams on iPad getting some love in the multitasking department with a new collapsible multitasking panel that’ll remain present during meetings, presentations or conferences. In addition, iOS users can also make use of new Meeting Chat Bubbles that only appear on mobile views of Teams. Chat bubbles are available for use for iOS and Android versions of the app and allow users to view the two most recent messages from participants. Users can also quickly enable and disable the feature on the fly by hitting the snooze icon during meetings and the feature can be permanently disable by simply tapping the aptly titled Don’t Show Chat Bubbles in the More Actions menu.
For multi-lead presentations, Teams introduced Co-Organizer Meeting Role which will allow up to 10 attendees co-organizer access to help management meetings. Co-organizer will have roughly 90% of the access normal organizer do with a few exceptions such as the inability to “create and manage breakout rooms, manage meeting recordings, and view or download attendance reports.” The only other stipulation for being granted co-organizer status is that the intended recipient have the same tenant as the organizer beforehand.
Building in additional security measures, the Teams engineers also introduced a toggle for disabling chat write access for anonymous or unauthenticated users. IT admins can now revoke chat write access for people who come into a meeting unfederated by the company or unauthenticated by the admin previously. There are a couple of ways to inact the feature with the first going through the admin portal and engaging with the Chat in Meeting policy and the other through PowerShell using syntax [-MeetingChatEnabledType = Enabled, Disabled, or EnabledExceptAnonymous].
For guests or anyone using the web verion of Teams, captions are now being integrated into a single view mode through Integrate CART captioning. Gone are the days being forced to follow captions and presentations through secondary windows. Unfortunately, the feature has to be enabled by the meeting organizer prior to joining but can be done though the meeting options relatively easily.
On the topic of captions, Teams also got an update with support for Real-Time Captioning and Transcription for web browsers. With support for up to 27 spoken-languages, users should be able to follow along through most meetings via their preferred web browser as well as obtain a print of the meetings minutes if necessary. Once again, the feature can be enabled by the meeting organizer through the More Actions menu in Teams.
Of the 27 languages now available for live captioning and transcription for the web, Microsoft recently introduced Czech, Thai, Hebrew, Portuguese, Vietnamese and Turkish have been added to the platform.
Android users might appreciate the addition of a Notification Drawer that was added in June. Similar to the notification shade in Android, the Notification Drawer can be toggled to reveal additional collapsible info and comes with a clear all button to dismiss content.
Remote attendance users can now make use of transcriptions through Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) for Azure Virtual Desktop. Transcriptions are automatically saved, made available to attendees in the chat regardless of the time of the meeting as well as searchable by speaker.
Presenters and shared screen functionality also got a boost for VDI users with Give and Take Control for VDI VMware and Azure Window Desktop support. With Take Control enabled, meeting organizers can grant access to shared content during screensharing that allows modifying capabilities in-real time. Meeting organizers can also take back control when deemed necessary.
For any operations that make use of calling queues, Teams also got updated with support for Dynamic caller ID for call queue agents. With the new feature enabled, support staff can properly identify calls and call back numbers as the call queue number and not just the agent’s personal line.
In hardware news, Microsoft Teams enabled a long press function to signify Raise Hand action on certified peripherals. The feature is mapped to the Teams button located on all certified devices and can now double as a Raise Hand button if pressed long enough.
Microsoft mashed Teams and Microsoft Dynamics 365 closer together in June by supporting Teams chats within Dynamics 365. Teams users can now pull up Teams chats in other Dynamics 365 apps and windows for an integrated workflow experience. Once linked together, historical Teams chats will be accessible in the new integration with Dynamics 365.
The way Teams handles PDFs and signatures also got updated in June for both mobile and desktop with the following:
- E-signature approvals on mobile – view and take action
Users can now easily action e-signature approval requests from any mobile device. As a recipient users can view or review them, as a creator they can edit or cancel them. - E-sign approvals fully embedded within Team Approvals for a streamlined experience
Users can now seamlessly create, view, review and e-signature approval requests that require a signature right from Teams. This update removes the need for users to log into each e-sign provider website. The login process has also been improved with users not only needing to login every 30 days - DocuSign e-signature approvals in chats & channels
Users can now create DocuSign e-signature requests directly from the compose extension within a chat or a channel maintaining the context for the request. When users review the request, any updates will be shown in the adaptive card in the chat or channel meaning users respond faster as they understand the context of the request. - Open and edit PDF files in Teams
You can view and edit Adobe Acrobat PDF files right in Teams, removing the need to open another window which disrupts your workflow. This setting is in private preview and IT administrators can set Adobe as a default setting through the Teams admin center
There were about two dozen more updates that pertained to Power Platforms, Frontline workers, and government that included Approvals in integrated SharePoint Lists, Frictionless app re-install for users, Suggested Replies on mobile for Government Clouds, Sensitivity labels for Teams templates for GCC, Integrated Communication Access Realtime Translation CART captioning in meetings, Music Mode, and so much more.
To get all the details, visit the update blog here.
Microsoft and its partners also collaborated on about 12 new pieces of hardware that have received Microsoft Teams certification that include the Jabra Engag55, Yealink BH72, and EPOS C50 headsets, and more.