Welcome to our fifteenth roundup of Microsoft 365 and Teams updates for 2022; hand-picked highlights from the admin centre and Microsoft 365 Roadmap.
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Here’s what we have in this roundup:
- OneDrive
- Outlook
- SharePoint (and Stream)
- Teams
- Viva
- Around Microsoft 365
Scroll to the bottom for the video and podcast versions. Hope you find this helpful!
OneDrive
Delayed: New ‘Activity’ Column in OneDrive ‘My Files’ list view
Microsoft are introducing a new Activity column in the OneDrive My Files list view. This help you stay up-to-date on the files that you are working on with others by surfacing activity information. It will show file activity such as user comments, edits, share, and @mentions. Now due mid to late September 2022. Read more.
Delayed: New sharing menu dropdown
Microsoft are updating the Share button in Microsoft OneDrive to provide easy access to additional sharing options. When you select Share in OneDrive for Business on Web, you’ll see a contextual menu with all choices available to you for sharing files or folders with your teammates. Now due mid to late September for most of us. Read more.
Outlook
Folders and Rules Support for Microsoft 365 Groups in Outlook
You will have the ability to create folders and create rules inside a Microsoft 365 Groups mailbox using Outlook on the web. Due early September to mid-October 2022, but not enabled by default. Read more.
One to watch: Outlook on the web: Update to the location of message compose options
Outlook on the web will update the location of some of the compose options for a message , including the “Send”, “Discard”, and formatting options. This brings the experience in web closer to the classic and new Outlook for Windows. Due September?
SharePoint
One to watch: SharePoint people web part medium card
MS: “New medium card allows authors to input a short description accompanying a person’s photo”. Due September?
One to watch: Stream and SharePoint: Inline playback of videos in SharePoint Highlighted content web parts for Grid, list and Compact layouts
MS: “When users click to play a video in a Highlighted content web part (grid, list or compact layouts) section of a SharePoint site, the video will play inline. This feature allows users to watch a video without being taken off the SharePoint page and keeps the video playing while users to browse/scroll through the other contents of the page”. Due September?
One to watch: Stream and SharePoint: Inline playback of videos in SharePoint Highlighted content web parts for carousel and filmstrip layouts
MS: “When users click to play a video in a Highlighted content web part (Carousel or filmstrip layouts) section of a SharePoint site, the video will play inline. This feature allows users to watch a video without being taken off the SharePoint page and keeps the video playing while users to browse/scroll through the other contents of the page”. Due September?
Delayed: Stream on SharePoint: Inline playback of videos in Hero web part
When users click to play a video in the Hero web part section of a SharePoint site, the video will play inline. This feature allows users to watch a video without being taken off the SharePoint page and allows users to browse or scroll through the other contents of the page while the video plays. Now due by early September 2022.
Teams
Automatically view up to 49 videos (7×7) in Teams meetings
Microsoft Teams meetings currently support a maximum of 9 videos (3×3) on the screen by default (Gallery view). For seeing more than 9 videos, you need to manually select the ‘Large Gallery’ view. With this update, you will automatically see up to 49 videos (7×7) on your screen by default, without user intervention. Large Gallery and Gallery view will still exist as options. Due late September to early October 2022. Read more.
Custom Download Location for Files in Teams
You will soon be able to choose your preferred Microsoft Teams file download location and even specify a download location on a per-download basis. Due early September to late October 2022. Read more.
Leave a Meeting From All of Your Devices
When a Teams user attempts to leave a meeting or call from multiple personal devices, there have been challenges to fully disconnect from the meeting or call on all devices. With this new feature, there will now be an option displayed to multi-device users in a call that will prompt the user to leave the meeting or call from all devices when selected. This feature will be enabled for desktop, iOS, and Android clients. Due early August to early September 2022.
Live Translated Captions in Meetings and Calls
Microsoft Teams can provide Live Captions so you can read what is being said in real time. Live translation is being added to the capability so you can read along in your preferred language. Due mid-September to early-October 2022. Read more.
Delayed: Start a Teams Chat with Distribution Groups, Mail-Enabled Security Groups, and O365 Groups
You will soon be able to start a Teams Chat with Distribution Groups, Mail-enabled Security Groups, and O365 Groups. This feature will respect the limits on members in a group chat, currently set to 250 members. Now due late September to late October 2022. Read more.
Delayed: Automatically end stale Teams meetings
Meetings will automatically end if they’re identified as stale. If a user is the sole participant in a meeting 10 minutes after the scheduled meeting end time has passed, then a dialogue will appear in the call prompting them to end the call or dismiss the notification. If no action is taken on the dialog within 3 minutes, the meeting will automatically end. If the user dismisses the notification, they will not see it again for the same meeting, and it will not be at risk to automatically end anymore. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 96710 and message centre number MC399073. Now due early to mid-December 2022.
One to watch: Viewing the Full Chat conversation thread after clicking on search message results
MS: “When users search for a chat message in Teams and click on a message result, they are taken to a view that contains only the selected message, rather than the entire chat thread. This fix will now land the users on the full chat thread once the message search result is clicked, thereby providing full context of the conversation around the message result”. Due September?
ON HOLD: Adding a restore option to the Manage Tags Tab (Restore option for deleted Tags)
Microsoft will be adding a restore option on the Manage Tags tab (Manage Team > Manage Tags). This update means when tags are deleted, they will be kept in a deleted section in the Tags tab and can be restored for up to 30 days from the date of deletion. ON HOLD BY MICROSOFT. Read more.
Partially delayed: Enable Q&A in Teams Meetings via Meeting Options
Teams meetings organisers can soon set up Q&A in their meetings via Meeting Options in advance of the meeting. Great for large or structured meetings and training. Available now on desktop, due November 2022 in the browser.
New blog post: Use public preview to get early access to new Microsoft Teams features
Are you a trainer, super user or Microsoft Teams enthusiast and love getting your hands on new features as early as possible? Of course you are! Teams public preview is for you, it provides early access to unreleased features. Read more.
Viva
Recurring Time Booking for Breaks, Learning, and Message Catch Up in Viva Insights
Users with a Microsoft Viva Insights subscription will see options to book recurring time for catching up on messages, taking breaks, and learning through the Briefing email as well as Viva Insights app in Teams. Due late August to mid-September 2022. Read more.
Delayed: Recommendations to Send Praise in Viva Insights
Praise Recommendations is an enhancement coming to the Praise page in the Viva Insights app in Teams for all users with Exchange online mailboxes. Recommendations provide pre-populated suggestions to send praise based on signals such as collaboration activity. Now due late August to mid-September 2022. Read more.
Around Microsoft 365
One to watch: Microsoft Project: Sprints and backlogs in Project for the Web
MS: “Agile support will be rolling out for Project for the web soon! You can create and prioritise tasks in their backlogs, define sprints and their date boundaries, moves tasks between sprints and their respective backlogs, and then build reports that include backlogs and sprint data”. Due September?
One to watch: Grid view for “Assigned to me” and Plan views in Planner Web
MS: “Grid (table format) will be the newest view you can use to make it easier to see more tasks and compare columns for better tracking and visibility”. Due September?
One to watch: Icons stencils in Visio for the web
MS: “Create engaging visuals with 30 new Icons stencils and more than 1,000 new icons for various categories like Accessibility, Analytics, Commerce, Education, Interface, Medical, and more in Visio for the web”. Due September?
One to watch: Save and share user Whiteboard templates
MS: “Users will have the ability to save whiteboards as a template, and will be able to share that template with other individual users”. Due December 2022?
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