Summer is just around the corner and that’s not the only thing to be excited about! Microsoft Teams has a bunch of new features on its road map that are worth noting! In this article we’ll go over some of the exciting new features that are currently in development!
Currently In Development
As of today (6/2/19) the following features are in development for Microsoft Teams:
- Manage discovery of private teams
- Microsoft is making it easier to discover and join private teams. Admins can now control which teams they want to allow to be discovered by Teams users. If the private team is made discoverable, it will show up in the search results and is included in suggestions in the team gallery alongside public teams. In addition, people can request to join a private team which the team owner can approve or deny.
- Expected release: June CY2019
- Microsoft is making it easier to discover and join private teams. Admins can now control which teams they want to allow to be discovered by Teams users. If the private team is made discoverable, it will show up in the search results and is included in suggestions in the team gallery alongside public teams. In addition, people can request to join a private team which the team owner can approve or deny.
- Music on hold
- This one is pretty self explanatory, users in a Teams call will hear music while on hold.
- Expected release: June CY2019
- This one is pretty self explanatory, users in a Teams call will hear music while on hold.
- Secondary ringer
- Allows users to configure a second ringer for calling. This will allow your headset to be plugged in while still being able to hear an incoming call ring on your device
- Expected release: June CY2019
- Allows users to configure a second ringer for calling. This will allow your headset to be plugged in while still being able to hear an incoming call ring on your device
- Single toolbar for controls in meetings and calling
- Do you fear like the Teams client is all cluttered and find yourself constantly having a hard time finding where things are? Fear not, Microsoft is making some changes to the discoverability for your users when they are in meetings and calls. This update will consolidate all session controls into one unified toolbar at the bottom of your screen. They plan on making this change for PC, Mac, and web clients, however this won’t impact mobile or MTR (Microsoft Teams Rooms) devices.
- Expect release: June CY2019
- Do you fear like the Teams client is all cluttered and find yourself constantly having a hard time finding where things are? Fear not, Microsoft is making some changes to the discoverability for your users when they are in meetings and calls. This update will consolidate all session controls into one unified toolbar at the bottom of your screen. They plan on making this change for PC, Mac, and web clients, however this won’t impact mobile or MTR (Microsoft Teams Rooms) devices.
- Improved channel file tab experience
- SharePoint integration with Microsoft Teams has become even more powerful! Now in the “File” tab of a channel you have the ability to sync files to your computer, more view options, and lifecycle signals. In addition, you can pin and check out files.
- Expected release: June CY2019
- SharePoint integration with Microsoft Teams has become even more powerful! Now in the “File” tab of a channel you have the ability to sync files to your computer, more view options, and lifecycle signals. In addition, you can pin and check out files.
- Add up to 100 people in a group chat
- One of the long awaited features was an increase to group chat participants. Now you can have an ad-hoc conversation with up to 100 users!
- Expected release: June CY2019
- One of the long awaited features was an increase to group chat participants. Now you can have an ad-hoc conversation with up to 100 users!
- Announcement posts
- Want your post to be the center of attention in the channel? Well now with the new “Announcement” post in Microsoft Teams you can add a headline with a background to your message. This can include one of the available background or you can upload your own custom image!
- Expected release: June CY2019
- Want your post to be the center of attention in the channel? Well now with the new “Announcement” post in Microsoft Teams you can add a headline with a background to your message. This can include one of the available background or you can upload your own custom image!
- Per-team and cross-team analytics
- How do you use Teams? How do your colleagues use Teams? Now you can view activity data for any team that you are part of in an easy to read single viewing pane. Within the “Manage team” (found by clicking on the ellipsis next to a specific team name) you will be able to view per-team analytics which provides temporal-based charts for message and active user counts. In addition, you will get a deeper look into the user types and activity trends.
- Expected release: June CY2019
- How do you use Teams? How do your colleagues use Teams? Now you can view activity data for any team that you are part of in an easy to read single viewing pane. Within the “Manage team” (found by clicking on the ellipsis next to a specific team name) you will be able to view per-team analytics which provides temporal-based charts for message and active user counts. In addition, you will get a deeper look into the user types and activity trends.
- Read receipts in private chats
- Ever wonder if a teammate saw your message? Well, now with read receipts your senders will know once a message was read by the recipients.
- Expected release: June CY2019
- Ever wonder if a teammate saw your message? Well, now with read receipts your senders will know once a message was read by the recipients.
- Shared links
- You can now easily create a sharable link for any file stored in Teams and set permissions accordingly. These permissions can also be set for files in SharePoint or OneDrive by starting a private chat or channel conversation.
- Expected release: May CY2019
- You can now easily create a sharable link for any file stored in Teams and set permissions accordingly. These permissions can also be set for files in SharePoint or OneDrive by starting a private chat or channel conversation.
- Share system audio in a Teams meeting
- Have a video or audio clip you want to use for a presentation? Now by sharing your audio in a Teams meeting you can stream your audio to all participants on the meeting!
- Expected release: May CY2019
- Have a video or audio clip you want to use for a presentation? Now by sharing your audio in a Teams meeting you can stream your audio to all participants on the meeting!
- Microsoft Teams Broadcast
- If you are familiar with Skype Meeting Broadcast in Skype for Business, then it will be easy to familiarize yourself with Live Events in Microsoft Teams. Live Events expands on the capabilities already provided in Skype for Business Meeting broadcast by adding in captions and transcription, eCDN partner support, live voting and polling, all to an audience of up to 10,000 participants!
- Expected release: Q2 CY2019
- If you are familiar with Skype Meeting Broadcast in Skype for Business, then it will be easy to familiarize yourself with Live Events in Microsoft Teams. Live Events expands on the capabilities already provided in Skype for Business Meeting broadcast by adding in captions and transcription, eCDN partner support, live voting and polling, all to an audience of up to 10,000 participants!
- Commercial Cloud Trials
- Microsoft is releasing a Teams Commercial Cloud Trial which gives you the ability to easily manage any and all end-user-initiated Teams trials. Similar to other Office 365 offers, the billing administrator in the tenant will own and control this commercial cloud trial. If there are any existing Teams Trial licenses they will be migrated to this new license type when the user logs into Teams.
- Expected release: Q2 2019
- Microsoft is releasing a Teams Commercial Cloud Trial which gives you the ability to easily manage any and all end-user-initiated Teams trials. Similar to other Office 365 offers, the billing administrator in the tenant will own and control this commercial cloud trial. If there are any existing Teams Trial licenses they will be migrated to this new license type when the user logs into Teams.
- New scheduling app in Teams
- Say hello to the new and improved Calendar app. That “Meetings” app is so 2018…, With this new app comes some exciting new updates!
- Expected release: Q2 2019
- Say hello to the new and improved Calendar app. That “Meetings” app is so 2018…, With this new app comes some exciting new updates!
- New focus teams
- There is a new way to stay up to date on the teams you’re most active in! With this latest update Microsoft does all the work for you by automatically moving teams you haven’t visited in several weeks into a “More” section at the bottom of your teams list. This will allow you to focus on the teams that matter most.
- Expected release: Q2 2019
- There is a new way to stay up to date on the teams you’re most active in! With this latest update Microsoft does all the work for you by automatically moving teams you haven’t visited in several weeks into a “More” section at the bottom of your teams list. This will allow you to focus on the teams that matter most.
- Location Based Routing (LBR) in Microsoft Teams!
- If you come from the Skype for Business on-prem world you’re probably very familiar with LBR. Basically, LBR is a call management feature that allows you to control how calls are routed in your Teams environment. LBR allows you to restrict calls between VoIP endpoints and PSTN endpoints based on the location that they reside. In addition, you can enforce call authorization rules which allow you to control whether calls can be routed to PBX or PSTN endpoints depending on where the caller is geographically located.
- Expected release: Q3 2019
- If you come from the Skype for Business on-prem world you’re probably very familiar with LBR. Basically, LBR is a call management feature that allows you to control how calls are routed in your Teams environment. LBR allows you to restrict calls between VoIP endpoints and PSTN endpoints based on the location that they reside. In addition, you can enforce call authorization rules which allow you to control whether calls can be routed to PBX or PSTN endpoints depending on where the caller is geographically located.
