What’s New in Microsoft Teams | June 2024

Welcome to a special edition of “What’s New in Microsoft Teams,” where we bring you the most exciting updates straight from the Microsoft Build 2024 Event and from the general May/June Microsoft Teams update.

This June, Teams is rolling out a series of powerful new features designed to enhance productivity, streamline collaboration, and elevate your overall user experience. From innovations in Azure Communication Services to advanced meeting recaps, these updates are set to transform how you work.

Discover how these cutting-edge enhancements can help you and your teamwork smarter and more efficiently than ever before…

 

Chat and Collaboration

Slash Commands

Microsoft Teams is introducing “slash commands”, which streamline your workflow by allowing you to take quick actions like opening a chat window or changing your presence status. This feature, rolling out in June, eliminates the need for multiple steps to perform common tasks.

Co-edit Code Blocks

Similarly, co-editing code blocks are made easier with Loop components, enabling real-time collaboration on code without the back-and-forth of numerous code blocks. This will also be available from June.

Custom emojis and reactions

Custom emojis and reactions are another exciting addition.

Users can upload and use their emojis to personalise conversations, reflecting their team’s unique culture.

This feature will enter the public preview stage in June.

Meet Now in group chat

For those spontaneous brainstorming sessions, Teams will soon offer “Meet Now” in group chats, allowing you to start an informal, instant call without the need for scheduling.

This feature will be generally available in June. Another innovative integration is Microsoft Designer, which will let you generate and refine images within Teams chat by simply describing what you envision. Available later this summer, this feature makes visual content creation more collaborative.

 

Meetings

Intelligent recap for transcription-only meetings

Several new features are set to improve meeting efficiency significantly. Intelligent Recap will support meetings with transcription-only enabled, allowing users to access AI-generated summaries even when a meeting isn’t recorded.

This will be available to Teams Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365 licensed users starting in June.

Scheduled channel meetings will also benefit from Intelligent Recap, which provides AI-generated notes, tasks, and mentions, helping users catch up quickly. This feature is now available.

Security and privacy get a boost with expanded controls for managing who can record and transcribe meetings.

Meeting organisers can decide which roles can initiate recording and transcription, offering enhanced protection for confidential meetings.

This will roll out in June to Teams Premium and Copilot for M365 licensed users. Additionally, IT administrators can now disable screen sharing in external meetings to prevent accidental leaks of sensitive data, available with a Teams Premium license.

 

 

Places

This one we really are excited for, Microsoft Places, the app designed to reimagine flexible work, is now in public preview.

This app integrates with Outlook and Teams, making coordinating in-office time and connecting with coworkers easier.

The location plan feature lets you share your work location schedule with colleagues, and peek cards provide quick reference guides about your coworkers and workspaces, facilitating in-person meetings.

Expanded presence features heighten awareness of who is nearby across Microsoft 365 apps, enhancing spontaneous in-person interactions.

 

Even more updates…

Microsoft overwhelmed us with all the new features to come out during the Microsoft Build 2024 event but there’s even more…

They continue to enhance the capabilities of Teams, making it an indispensable tool for modern workplaces. Here’s a roundup of the latest features designed to improve your Teams experience:

 

Catch Up on Meetings from Chat

Now, you can review everything that happened in a meeting directly from the chat, including shared files, notes, and more. The intelligent meeting recap feature highlights meeting speakers, mentions, and AI-generated tasks, available with a Teams Premium or Copilot for Microsoft 365 license. Learn more about this feature here.

Get Connected Through Teams Chat

Sharing contact information in a chat is now easier than ever. Simply type @ in the compose box, select “Share someone’s contact info,” and choose the contact you wish to share. This feature streamlines connectivity and collaboration. For more details, check out how to share a contact in a chat.

 

Refresh Your Avatar’s Wardrobe

You can now personalise your avatar with a fresh wardrobe featuring more professional looks and improved textures, fits, and colour options. Our meetings are all about getting way more fun with these different personalities.

Explore the customisation options in Teams here.

Easily Copy File Links

Copying file links is now more straightforward. Go to the Files tab in a chat or team, select a file, and choose “Copy link.”

Adjust sharing settings by selecting the settings icon.

Making it easier to find and share documents with a few clicks.

 

More Languages in Intelligent Meeting Recap

The intelligent meeting recap feature now supports 15 additional languages, including Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish. This enhancement makes Teams more accessible to global users.

 

Save Collaborative Annotations with Whiteboard

With the collaborative annotations feature, users sharing their screen can add drawings, text, and more.

You can now save these annotations for later access. During a meeting, select “Annotate” in the presenter toolbar, then choose “Capture a snapshot” to save it to a Whiteboard file.

Interact with Shared Content During a Meeting

Participants can now interact with shared content while annotating.

They can advance slides, scroll through documents, and resume where they left off without restarting the annotation session.

Enable this by selecting “Start interacting with background” in the annotations toolbar.

Trim Meeting Recordings in Stream

Users with edit permissions can now trim meeting recording videos directly in Microsoft Stream.

This feature allows for more precise and useful meeting recordings.

These updates demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to improving user experience and fostering effective collaboration.

Stay tuned for more enhancements that continue to make Microsoft Teams an essential tool for modern work environments.

 

Our thoughts on the updates to Microsoft Teams…

The updates introduced at the Microsoft Build Event 2024 mark a significant leap forward in enhancing productivity, collaboration, and user experience within Microsoft Teams.

From innovative features like slash commands and co-editing code blocks to introducing custom emojis and spontaneous “Meet Now” options, these updates are designed to streamline workflows and foster a more dynamic working environment.

The new intelligent recap functionalities ensure users can easily catch up on meetings.

Microsoft Places reimagines flexible work, simplifying the coordination of in-office time and connecting with colleagues, further enhancing the hybrid work experience.

With improved platform capabilities, such as PowerPoint Live and picture-in-picture for mobile devices, Teams continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in virtual collaboration.

These updates underscore Microsoft’s commitment to making Teams an indispensable tool for modern workplaces, enabling more efficient and effective global communication.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments that will continue transforming our work and collaboration.

 

If you want to know about the use of Teams or the transition and adoption of Teams, please do not hesitate to book a call with our experts. Press the green ‘CONTACT’ to the right of the screen.