WHAT'S NEW IN MICROSOFT TEAMS (MAY UPDATE)

Here comes the new updates for Microsoft Teams. Some announcements from Microsoft on Teams as we landed in May and all being rolled out from 1st of MAY.

Communicate more effectively with new chat functionality

SEND A MESSAGE FROM COMMAND BOX

Now you can send a chat message directly from Command Box without leaving the page you're on. Just need to put the @ symbol and someone's name into the command box at the top of the screen and type your message to start the conversation.

"In the given snap here 'Karim Benzema' is the person with whom I started chatting through command box"

SEND A CHAT FROM A CONTACT CARD

Another easy way to send a message by going through someone's profile picture and to send a quick chat right from their contact card. This makes it simple to switch from a open channel conversation to a private chat with someone.

"Someone's contact card 'Ronaldinho' to send a chat message"

DIAL out of (or into) a group call

Add someone from outside of your organisation into a group call in Teams by dialing their number. You've also got the option of distributing a dial-in phone number so anyone outside of your organisation can join. (Remember, this feature is only available in group calls right now)

Distribute a dial-in phone number or dial in someone's number to add them in a group (still in rolling stage)

Collaborate More Effectively

Get a reminder that your Team is expiring

Now it's a great option to renew your Team (O365 group) directly from Microsoft Teams. Before doing this you need to set-up this option from your Active Directory. If your team is set to expire within the next 30 days, you will see a notification. You can then extend the life of your team by visiting ‘Settings’

(For Example) Suppose you are planning for a long vacation, hence you can proactively renew the Teams before 30-Day notice period.

A notification appears if your Team is set to expire within 30 days or less

NOTE: This feature is only available in AAD Premium members and this notification will only appear if your IT Admin has set the expiration date from the Active Directory

Active Directory admin center to set-up the expiration for groups

Screen Share Window

Now you can share your screen of whatever Tabs you have opened on to your screen to the members of a group in a Joint Call or in a meeting.

Share multiple screens from Microsoft Teams in a meeting

Auto-Favourite Important Channels

Whenever a team owner creates a new team or channel, they can now auto-favourite important channels for the rest of the team. By doing so, the channel will automatically show up in every team member's favourites making it easy for them to discover and access the new channel. (Team members can of course unfavourite the channel if they want to).

Auto-favourite channels upon the creation of Team or channel

New views in Planner Tab

Planner has made some updates to integrate more seamlessly into Teams. With Schedule view, you can get an overview of upcoming tasks and drag and drop them to set dates.

Schedule view to see the upcoming tasks

In the Charts view you can stay up to date on the status of your plans.

Organise with Charts view

Lastly, with the Filter and Group by options, you can now group tasks by buckets such as “Assigned To”, “Progress”, “Due Date” and “Labels”.

Organise tasks using the Filter and Group By options

NOTE: Effective May 20, 2018, the Windows Phone apps for Microsoft Teams will be retired and will no longer be available for download from the Windows Phone Store. While Microsoft continues to support Windows 10 Mobile, we aren't focused on building new features for it. We continue to invest in the Microsoft Teams mobile for iOS and Android, as well as desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Moving forward, the recommended alternative for Windows Phone users for Microsoft Teams is access via a browser.

"Let's get started with Microsoft Teams and move from Skype for Business to make yourself more flexible with Teams"