Yet again, it’s that time of the month when we go back and take a look at all the changes and updates that have taken place in Microsoft Teams this past month. We’ve seen a lot of updates and changes being made in Teams in the month of July, so let’s dive in and review the most notable highlights.
Enhanced meeting experience
First up, in July, we saw the integration between Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Forms that led to the introduction of new features as well as enhancements to the existing features within Teams meeting polls. Among them was The replacement of the Forms app in Teams to Polls. This was in place to help users locate and add polls in their chats and meetings.
You will also notice UI improvements to the poll suggestions pane, that now allow users to change the position of suggested polls from the bottom to the side pane and the ability to show or hide the side pane among other enhancements.
Aside from that, users will have access to a list that highlights their recent polls, this way they will be able to re-use these polls in new meetings which in turn helps them save time. Users will also get “dynamic confirmation” once they have participated in a poll as well as a rating capability that allows them to give out feedback by rating on the scaled symbols.
Key Changes on Phone and Calling
Another notable feature that made it to Teams this July is the ability to hide your call history on Teams for desktop and mobile. And not only that, users will now be able to hear call recording announcements using the set default language for Teams calls to or from a phone number.
The Common Area Phone has also been enhanced so that it can reach a wider audience without increasing the cost. You can get to access Security, endpoint management, and cloud-based voicemail features through the following service plans that have been incorporated to the Common Area Phone license:
- Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 1
- Microsoft Intune
- Exchange Online Plan 2 (cloud-based voicemail only)
According to the blog post. “DECT devices from Spectralink have been integrated with SIP Gateway”. This is in place to enhance both efficiency and effectiveness as frontline workers can make use of Teams calling feature to enhance communication with their colleagues.
That aside, users can now easily check out of reserved Teams Room using the newly incorporated “Manage” button located on the panel.
Also, through the same button, users can get to extend a Teams Rooms reservation directly from the panel. However, this is only possible if the room is available at that particular point.
Users running teams on certified peripheral devices that support the camera on/off feature can now get to execute it more efficiently with a simple click of a button rather than the previous approach that required the user to fumble the mouse or keypad to alter it.
Chat and Collaboration
LinkedIn has been integrated with Teams, this way users can get to view their colleagues’ profiles which in turn help them form a bond over similar interests andthe same time enhance their skills.
Also, if you want to create a message post in a team channel, you will no longer be required to mention team owners individually. Instead, you can get to notify them all at once by mentioning “@Team Owners”.
Management
Users will now get to inherit the correct policy either via a group policy assignment or global organization-wide default because admins now have the ability to clean up individual policy assignments from users in bulk.
Teams for Education
We recently reported on Microsoft Teams integration with Canvas. They also happened to team up with Moodle with the aim of enhancing the learning experience. Both Microsoft Teams Meetings LTI and Classes LTI apps can be accessed directly from Moodle.
Government
Government officials will now be able to change their user experience accordingly or even customize their safety and security settings using the new Meetings options feature, they will also be able to view as many as 49 videos all at once during meetings on virtual desktop infrastructure and finally, using the Together Mode feature officials will be able to see all their colleagues against a shared background.
More Changes
We only gave you a rundown of some of the key changes that made it to Microsoft Teams in July through this post, however, there are plenty of other updates and features that made it to the platform such as security, complicance, and privacy that we did not touch on. You can however get the full scoop on Microsoft’s Techcommunity post. Be sure to also check out June’s recap post in case you missed it.
