Microsoft Teams Introduces New Admin Controls, Copilot Enhancements

Microsoft has published a comprehensive roundup of new features and capabilities that were added to Teams in September. The company highlighted improvements for Copilot in Teams, a new Shared tab in Teams chat, and updates for Teams Rooms and Phones. Here’s a look at everything you need to know.

Updates for meetings and webinars

First off, Copilot in Teams can now review the transcription and the associated chat to provide detailed information about what was discussed during the meeting. This feature is generally available for both Teams desktop and mobile devices. Microsoft Teams users can now access meeting recap and artifacts directly within Outlook after a Teams meeting. However, this feature requires a Teams Premium or Copilot for Microsoft 365 license.

Microsoft has introduced new expanded controls that enable administrators and organizers to disable Copilot in Teams for specific users within their organization. This new setting is available in the Teams Admin Center. Microsoft Mesh in Teams has also added a new work environment that provides a presentation area and breakout rooms to facilitate group discussions.

Moreover, organizers can enable presenters to moderate Q&A sessions and publish questions that appear during a meeting. Organizers can also choose to sort questions by audience votes and filter them based on keywords. The latest update also allows government community clouds (GCC) customers to create webinars with up to 1,000 internal and external participants.

Chat & collaboration features

Microsoft has released a new feature that allows users to rename the General channel in Teams. Moreover, there is an updated teams and channels onboarding flow that lets team owners recommend specific channels to new members. The latest update replaces the Files tab with a new Shared tab that consolidates files and links that were sent in 1:1 and group chat conversations.

Furthermore, Microsoft Teams users can now attach images in chat horizontally to consume less space in the compose box. Users can navigate between attached images, copy them, as well as add alternate text.

Updates for Microsoft Teams Rooms

Microsoft has released version 5.2 of its new Teams Rooms on Windows app. Administrators can now manage custom background images on Teams panels through the Teams admin center (TAC). Microsoft Teams will automatically set the work location to “In the office” for customers who plug into peripherals at a bookable desk.

This release also brings support for ultrasound proximity join, roster grouping for proximity join, dynamic video tile resizing, native controls on console for OEM camera features, Breakout room support, and Cloud IntelliFrame preview indicator.

Lastly, Microsoft has rolled out a couple of updates coming to Teams Phones. The “Do not disturb” setting will be automatically applied to incoming mobile calls. There are also some new Teams-certified devices, including ViewSonic TeamJoin TRS10, Meeting Owl 3, Yealink MeetingBar A40, VC520 Pro3, Poly Studio E60, and Lenovo Wireless VoIP headset.