Like any 1-year-old, Microsoft Teams is growing at a cracking pace. New features are popping up by the day—so many that most can only be discussed in amalgam. Accordingly, here are our top twelve recent and any-day-now updates for Microsoft Teams. Why twelve? Depending on your setup, any one of these updates could completely change user and admin relationships to Teams.
1 –In-line message translation
Users receiving messages not in their client’s language will be able to translate them instantly with a click. While machine translation still isn’t perfect by any means, for short, direct communication like that of Teams messages it’ll be both functional and invaluable for multilingual collaboration.
Status: Gradual rollout scheduled – starting mid-July and complete by end of July.
2 – Available for U.S. Government Cloud
Teams is finally here for U.S. Government Cloud customers (at least Office 365 for Government G1, G3, G5, F1 and Microsoft 365 for Government G3, G5, and F1). Note that some features will be turned off by default or will be unavailable, temporarily or otherwise.
Status: Gradual rollout scheduled – starting mid-July and complete by end of July.
3 – Team archival and restoration
Inactive teams can now be archived (by owners), freezing their conversations and files around for record-keeping needs or for eventual reactivation. Meanwhile, the inactive teams don’t clutter up the dashboards of admins or team members.
Status: Generally Available
4 – Phone System Direct Routing
Direct routing lets organizations connect their voice trunks to Teams, broadening the calling options available. Since direct routing is managed on-premises, it will also be possible to hook up analog services like elevator phones and pagers to Teams.
Status: Generally Available
5 – Cloud meeting recording
This popular Skype for Business (SfB) feature now comes to Teams. It’s now possible to capture audio/video/screen activity from calls and meetings. Automatic transcription and the ability to skip to when specific faces appear makes searching for particular meeting moments simple. Recordings are automatically uploaded to Microsoft Stream.
Status: Generally Available
6 – Calls between Teams and Skype Consumer
Just because most enterprises have moved to Teams doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of Skype Consumer collaborators, clients, and customers to talk to. Calls between the two products will soon be supported.
Status: Office 365 Roadmap estimates a June release, so as far as we know, anytime!
7 – Call queues
It’s an unfortunate necessity for voice communication, the bane of muzak-haters everywhere. That’s right, call queues are coming to Teams. Customizable organizational greetings, hold music, call redirects, queue sizes, time outs, and more will all be included.
Status: Office 365 Roadmap estimates a June release, so as far as we know, anytime!
8 – Hybrid connection to Teams
Another SfB feature being reproduced in Teams. For some organizations, switching phones directly to internet-only calls is infeasible. For those cases, organizations will soon be able to use on-premises phone trunks with Office 365 and Teams.
Status: Office 365 Roadmap estimates a June release, so as far as we know, anytime!
9 – eDiscovery for calls and meetings
A security- and compliance-critical feature, it’s now possible to search through summary records for every Teams meeting or call. This is in addition to the searchable files and messages Teams already supported. Relevant admins access the data through eDiscovery in the Security and Compliance center.
Status: Generally Available
10 – App launcher for Teams for the web
The mysterious blue waffle can now be found in Teams for the web, found in the upper left corner for easy switching between apps. (Or better yet, why not just add the browser extension?)
Status: Generally Available
11 – Updated keyboard shortcuts
Essential for mouse-eschewers everywhere. To see the changes, hit Ctrl+ in Windows or Command+ on Mac.
Status: Generally Available
12 – Visio support
Previously, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files could be edited directly within Teams via Office Online. Now Visio’s diagrams can do the same. This way, diagrams and any associated feedback can be seen in one place.
Status: Generally Available
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