On this page, we list key new features that have been added to Teams recently, and some which are coming soon to Teams. New Features Rolling Out All new features rolling out to Microsoft Teams are in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. Things to consider when looking at new features: We're an education tenant with A1 and A5 licenses We're on a general release timeline not an early release programme. However, users can opt-in to early preview of new features within their Teams app. We have a standard Teams license for Education, not Teams Premium. Documented features should state if they're only available with Teams Premium. Microsoft 365 Roadmap Some Useful Features Already in Teams Pronouns on Profile Cards We are glad to announce that users are now able to add, change, or delete pronouns on their profile in Outlook on the web and Teams. Users can choose whether or not to use the pronouns feature. How to add pronouns to profile – Microsoft Support Hybrid meetings audio enhancement With the following update, if multiple users are participating with laptops from the same location, Teams will notify user that another Teams device has been detected nearby and is already included with audio in the current meeting. Teams will automatically mute other microphones that joined when a user's audio is already on and in use. The roadmap entry for this feature is 92391. Add co-organisers to your meetings You can add up to 10 co-organisers to help manage your meeting. They're displayed as additional organisers in the meeting participant list and have most of the capabilities of the meeting organiser. Microsoft offers information about the capabilities, limitations, and guidance on how to add co-organisers to a meeting in Team Co-organisers will be granted many of the capabilities of the organiser in the meeting, including being able to: Access and modify the meeting options for the meeting Admit users from the lobby Lock the meeting Co-organisers will not be able to do the following: Create and manage breakout rooms (if you want another user to be able to do this, you need to set them as a breakout room manager following the steps given on our Breakout Rooms webpage) View and download attendance reports Manage the meeting recording Edit the meeting invitation Handle your incoming calls We are glad to announce that users are now able to handle how incoming calls are routed when in a call. The function is managed in your Calls settings in Teams app or on the web. Call answering rules include: Let new calls ring me - allowing calls to come through; users can choose whether to answer Play a busy signal – the caller receives a notification; voicemail is disabled Redirect the call – the call is directed to voicemail How to switch on busy-on-busy end user setting – Microsoft Support The roadmap entry for this feature is 86991. Add CART captions Users can now view real-time captions coming from a CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) provider within the Microsoft Teams meeting window. Meeting organisers and participants will be able to ask their CART captioning providers to stream captions to Microsoft Teams. Mute notifications during Teams meetings Notifications can be distracting while in a Teams meeting. You can now easily mute notifications while in a meetings by clicking "More actions" then "Mute notifications". Chat density Microsoft are adding a feature which will allow you to customise the number of chat messages you see on the screen. Use the compact setting to fit 50 percent more messages on the screen. Comfortable setting keeps the chat display as it is in Teams today. Quick Access tab in Files app A new tab, Quick Access, is now inserted in the menu bar. Users can pin document libraries and access content from all the chats, channels, and meetings, OneDrive and SharePoint. This update is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 97677. Add apps to Teams channel meeting Meeting organizers and participants will soon be able to add apps in channel meetings when scheduling a meeting or in an ongoing meeting. Add apps in Microsoft Teams channel meetings – Microsoft Support The roadmap entry for this feature is 81122. Video Closed Caption in PowerPoint Live Prior to this update, when PowerPoint users insert captions to videos in the slides, the captions would not appear in Teams meetings. With this update, meeting attendees will be able to turn on closed captions for any video that includes embedded captions. How to add closed captions in PowerPoint Live – Microsoft Support The roadmap entry for this feature is 114494. Mark All As Read for Activity Feed We are glad to announce that Microsoft will be releasing a handy feature! We will soon be able to mark everything in the activity feed as ‘read’. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 102238 Collaborative Stageview: separate window side-by-side with Chats in Teams Desktop We are glad to announce that users will soon be able to open app content on a separate window while continuing conversation in Chats. The new feature is only available for apps built to support the Collaborative Stageview experience in Teams desktop app. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 93769. New layout in Teams Channels We are glad to announce that Microsoft is bringing in a new and improved experience within Teams channels to enhance work experience. The feature has been rolled out and expected to be completed by mid-June, 2023. Features of the new channels experience in Teams – Microsoft Support This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 91683. Change font and language of Live Captions in Teams Meeting This update is to improve user experience in Live Captions. With this update, the following options will be supported: Change spoken language Change caption language Adjust colors, height, position, and font size This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 107782 Shuffle feature in Breakout Rooms Meeting organizers, co-organizers or Breakout Room managers will soon be able to use the new Shuffle capabilities to: Randomly assign participants to breakout rooms—before or during the meeting Shuffle > Everyone or Shuffle > Only unassigned participants to evenly re-distribute participants to existing rooms. How to use breakout rooms in Teams meeting – Microsoft This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 116532 This article was published on 2024-10-08