What’s New In Microsoft Teams – July 2024

Our regular monthly?Microsoft Teams update for July. This release includes new updates to Microsoft Teams Meetings, Teams Phone, Teams Rooms & Newly-Certified Teams Devices.

Microsoft Teams Meetings

Copilot for Sales plugin

You can now enhance the capabilities and expertise of Copilot in Microsoft Teams meetings for your sales department by enabling the Copilot for Sales plugin. With this plugin, Copilot can process conversations in real time and provide insights to your sales team, such as an overview of an account opportunity, based on your organisation’s Copilot for Sales data. Copilot is also able to suggest dynamic prompts for querying account information when sales members mention keywords and names during a discussion.

You can enable the plugin with just a few clicks,? it can be turned on from the Copilot plugin menu. Copilot’s ability to intelligently surface data and insights from your organisation’s Copilot for Sales knowledge base during client meetings can transform your sales team’s efficiency and drive better meeting outcomes.

Managing Access to Meeting Recording, Transcript, and AI-Generated Insights

Meeting organisers now have the option to manage which attendees have access to the meeting recording, transcript, and AI-generated insights based on the transcript, such as Copilot queries and intelligent meeting recaps.

They can choose from three options: (1) Everyone, (2) Organisers and Co-organisers, or (3) Specific People.

By default, access is set to ‘Everyone,’ but organisers can change this before the meeting starts. This new option is currently being rolled out to Copilot for Microsoft 365 licensed users and will be available to Teams Premium licensed users between July and September 2024.

Presentation Toolbar

Now, when you share your screen in a Microsoft Teams meeting, you can easily move the Presenter toolbar to any place you want on your screen so that you can still see the important areas of the screen when you’re presenting. The Presenter toolbar in Teams now lets you manually optimise video playback when screensharing. Use the ‘Optimise’ button on the Presenter toolbar to make sure your content runs seamlessly.

Meeting Transcript Policies

The current admin policy that blocks the download of meeting recordings is being extended to include blocking the download of meeting transcript files (stored in OneDrive for Business) for all users within the tenant. This policy will apply to new meeting transcripts across the entire organisation. Administrators can exempt individuals who are members of specified security groups from this policy, allowing governance or compliance specialists to have download access to meeting transcripts. This control will be available through the SharePoint Advanced Management add-on licence.

Mute/Unmute from the Windows Taskbar

There are moments during a Teams meeting when multitasking is necessary –? returning to the Teams meeting to mute or unmute yourself can be challenging. With the new Microsoft Teams experience on Windows, you can now see your microphone status directly from the Windows taskbar. From there, you can easily mute and unmute yourself by clicking the microphone icon. This enhancement makes it much simpler to manage your microphone during a Teams meeting while multitasking.

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Microsoft Teams Phone

Intelligent Call Recap

Intelligent call recap introduces one of the finest AI features from Microsoft Teams meetings to calls. This feature offers AI-powered insights and recaps of your VoIP and PSTN calls in Teams, allowing you to stay focused during crucial conversations and save time on organising next steps. It is available for Teams Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365 users.

Callers On-Hold Music

Admins can now configure streaming music on hold through the integration available with “Easy On Hold”. Easy On Hold offers various subscriptions, allowing admins to choose from a curated list of licensed music or create personalised voice recordings to provide callers with helpful information while they wait. Once the streaming content is set up using Easy On Hold’s administration tool, a URL for the streaming source is provided, which can then be used to configure your Microsoft Teams call hold policy with PowerShell. An Easy On Hold subscription is required to enable this feature. Learn more here.

Do Not Disturb

A new setting has been introduced that lets you opt out of your presence automatically switching to Do Not Disturb when presenting or screen sharing. With this setting enabled, you will continue to receive call notifications while presenting, without needing to manually adjust your presence status.

Non-Touch Phone Devices

The capabilities of non-touch phone devices are being enhanced by adding support for calling features such as call park/unpark, busy-on-busy settings, auto restart, and the ability to manage contacts and contact groups. This ensures you’re able to enjoy the same functionality and convenience as with touch phone devices.

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Microsoft Teams Rooms & Devices

Teams Panels

In a conference room with multiple panels, check-in and room release are now synchronised across all panels to accurately reflect the room’s status and availability.

Desk Booking

Microsoft Teams allows users to automatically reserve desks when they connect to a monitor or other equipment and share their location, facilitating better collaboration with colleagues in the office. This feature enhances hot desking and hoteling experiences.

For IT teams, it also enables tracking of desk peripherals through the Inventory feature in the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. IT administrators can utilise automatic device discovery in the Teams desktop app or use the free PowerShell script to gather and import device data during desk setup. Learn how to get started here.

Poly Studio Base Kit G9 Plus

Newly certified for Microsoft Teams, the Poly Studio Base Kit G9 Plus for Microsoft Teams Rooms is a reliable, high-performance video conferencing solution for your meeting spaces. Purpose-built for collaboration, the HP Mini IP Conferencing PC with 13th Gen Intel? Core? i7 processor (with an extra layer of security by HP SureStart) pairs with Poly TC10 IP touch controllers over Ethernet, up to 4 controllers, and enables flexible room deployment from small to large spaces, ready to be paired with certified USB audio and video devices. The included Poly Lens Room lets you easily add rooms for management and monitoring. Learn more here.

AVer CAM520 Pro3

Newly certified for Microsoft Teams, the AVer CAM520 Pro3 is a versatile Full HD PTZ video conference camera with a 36X total zoom, upgraded AVer SmartFrame, Preset Framing, Smart Composition, and a Sony WDR Sensor. It also provides three output options, including HDMI, for versatile streaming. What sets the CAM520 Pro3 apart is Smart Composition, an embedded AI feature that instantly captures meeting participants’ images to enhance video conferencing for meeting equity in medium to large meeting rooms. Learn more here.

Sennheiser TeamConnect Bars

Newly certified for Microsoft Teams, Sennheiser TeamConnect Bars (TC Bars) enable Teams users to experience hybrid meetings that combine high-quality Sennheiser audio with 4K Ultra HD video. Teams Connect Bars are plug-and-play devices for quick start via USB. Beamforming technology, like in TeamConnect Ceiling solutions, allows movement and seamless presenter transitions. The AI camera features auto-framing and person tiling, and full-range stereo speakers ensure natural speech and intelligibility. Learn more here.

Q-SYS VisionSuite

Newly certified for Microsoft Teams, the Q-SYS VisionSuite enhances the visibility of participants in the room, providing a more natural viewing experience for remote attendees and enabling teams to feel connected and engaged, regardless of their location. Designed for high-impact spaces, it features best-in-class presenter tracking (driven by this newly certified AI-based accelerator appliance), intelligent audio-based automatic camera switching, flexible camera options, and vision-driven room automation. Learn more here.

Lenovo Wireless VoIP Headset

Newly certified for Teams, the Lenovo Wireless VoIP Headset is designed for modern, open hybrid workspaces. Its ergonomic design makes it easy to wear for extended periods, and you can enjoy 31 hours of talk time between charges. Learn more here.

Logi Zone 305 Headset

Newly certified for Teams, the Logitech Zone 305 headset is a lightweight headset ideal for mass deployment to everyone who needs great audio and a reliable connection for call or video meetings. With 20 hours of battery life, its lightweight design provides long-lasting comfort. Learn more here.

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Stay Up To Date With Microsoft Teams – Free Download

Microsoft is constantly adding new and updating existing features to Microsoft Teams .

If you’d like your business to benefit from Microsoft Teams and the added system integrations that can save time and money, download our short ‘SuperCharge Microsoft Teams‘ guide here or contact us for a free 15-minute consultation and learn how we can support your business with Microsoft Teams. Call us on 0800 032 8274 or book a discovery call here.

Find out more from the Microsoft Teams official blog post here.