#MicrosoftTeams - UI Updates and Improvements coming... and sooner than you think

Microsoft Teams is changing.....well its a Cloud Service powered by Office 365 so we expect constant updates and enhancements as the product develops, users feedback on issues, enhancements and features requests and......Microsoft listen.

Well this month, there are a couple of small, but significant user interface updates/enhancements rolling out across Microsoft Teams.

1. Changes in Terminology

Today within Teams, users can "favourite" a Team or Channel in order to receive notifications and alerts on Team / Channel updates. Rolling out now, users will notice this is being renamed to "Hide / Show" instead of favouriting a Team or Channel. Moving forward, when a user joins a Team it is automatically added to the list of Teams and if you select Hide it will be moved to the More section in the bottom if the Teams list. The same for Channels, a Channel that is marked as Hide will be in the bottom in the Channel list and Shown channels in the top together with General.

Read more on how to Show or hide teams and channels

2. Calling "app" available for all VoIP users not just those with PSTN

The Calls app or Calls button in Teams is going to be visible to all VoIP users and not just those with PSTN integration. Microsoft had actually started to roll out this feature out in October 2018 but after some problems where non-PSTN users where able to start a PSTN call (even if was not being externally routed) the change were un-done. They have "fixed" this now and by the end of March 2019, users enabled for Voice over IP will be able to see the Calls app in the left App bar menu again.

Calendar App will replace the Meetings App in Teams

The Meeting app in Teams (Meetings in left App bar menu) will be replaced by a new Calendar app. There is not much information out about this and it was only announced last week, but the improvements should be a good welcomed over the current limited Meetings App.

Key Improvement include:

• Three new types of calendar views: Day, Work week and Week view (the default).Users will now have the ability to go back or forward in time to see any past or future meeting respectively (instead of just 3 days as is currently available)
• Users will be able to perform key actions on meetings such as Join, RSVP, Edit, and Cancel from the right click menu on meetings displayed. Meetings on the calendar will also "light up" to indicate when someone join the Teams Meeting online.
• The user’s current Outlook/Exchange setting for working hours and working days of the week will be respected and reflected in this new calendar.
• Users will be able to schedule events on their calendar without adding any attendees in the Teams scheduling form. Non-Teams meetings can also be edited and updated from Teams meaning less dipping out to outlook to book meetings!

Read more about Scheduling a meeting in Microsoft Teams

That's it - we also expect to see Schedule Teams Meeting fucntionality in Outlook Mobile apps this month too where the tenant (or user) is set to Teams Only mode. I personally look forward to this one..

That's it... for more information or for demos, trials and user adoption assistance, speak to your Microsoft Team at Cisilion.