Microsoft Teams Gets New Meetings Features and Advanced IT Controls

Microsoft published its monthly roundup of all the new capabilities added to its Teams collaboration platform in January. The latest update brings a new message forwarding experience, stronger security controls, advanced admin tools, and upgrades for Teams Phones.

New chat features

Microsoft has added a new feature that allows users to seamlessly insert hyperlink into Teams chat messages. Users can simply copy the URL, highlight the text where they want to hyperlink, and then paste the URL.

Microsoft has released a new update to improve the message forwarding experience for both Teams desktop and mobile apps. Users can now forward messages containing Loop components while maintaining proper permissions. Furthermore, Microsoft Teams lets users forward messages between channels. They can also add additional context and @mention recipients while sharing the message.

Updates to meetings

In January, Microsoft made it easier for meeting participants to move between breakout rooms. Moreover, the new calendar experience is now generally available in Microsoft Teams. It brings a couple of new Copilot and Places features to align the calendar experience across Microsoft Teams and Outlook. Users can switch to the new Teams calendar by clicking the “New Calendar” toggle, which is available at the top-right of the calendar app.

Microsoft Teams now lets organizers disable copying and forwarding of live captions, transcripts, and recap for meetings. Moreover, Microsoft Purview has added eDiscovery support for town halls in Teams. Microsoft has also added audio support for screen sharing in Mesh events for customers with a Premium license.

New workplace capabilities

Microsoft has rolled out a couple of new workplace features in Places and Teams Rooms. Specifically, the latest update introduces support for workplace check-in through the Places app and workplace presence at the building level. Customers can now take advantage of speaker recognition and transcript attribution capabilities in BYOD rooms. This feature is available even if a Teams Rooms system has not been deployed, and it requires a Microsoft Teams Premium or Copilot license.

Additionally, IT admins can auto-assign BYOD room devices in the Pro Management Portal. They can also use this portal to assign custom names to licensed panels that will appear on the home screen. Moreover, administrators can generate usage reports for bookable desks in the Pro Management portal.

In Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows, users can now start or stop recording without joining a companion device. There is also the ability to view up to four single-stream cameras for customers with a Teams Rooms Pro license.

Microsoft Teams-certified devices and more

Microsoft has announced that the Owl Labs Owl Bar and the AudioCodes C430HD Native Microsoft Teams Common Area IP Phone are now certified for Microsoft Teams. The company has also released several enhancements for Teams Phone devices, including support for the Queues app and collaborative call delegation. Microsoft has added a new Teams Calling Plan enablement wizard in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Last but not least, Microsoft says that IT admins can now prevent employees from having 1:1 and group chats with specific people outside the organization. There are also brand impersonation phishing protection capabilities for enterprise customers. Microsoft has added support for AI-powered tasks in public preview for frontline workers, and you can find more details in Microsoft’s official blog post.