We are now one month into 2021! With theNew Year has come some new features to Microsoft Teams and we are here to tell you what you may have missed. So, let’s jump in!

Chat and Collaboration

There are now approvals in Microsoft Teams for everyone. This means that you can manage, create, and share your approvals from right where you are sitting. In addition to this there is offline autosend. This means that Teams now identifies when messages are sent or edited while the user is not online. Then, once you are back online your message will be automatically sent. Finally, in chat you can include up to 10,000 users in an org-wide team.

New Meetings Features

There are now meeting chat moderation settings. This means that meeting organizers can choose from three different chat settings to create a safe and welcoming meeting environment. You can also add a shared calendar to a Teams channel. By being able to share your calendar you can create a more organized and efficient employee environment. Microsoft Teams is offering audio conferencing for free. This offer is extended through Jun 30^th, 2021 so take advantage of it while you can.

Calling & Device Support

Microsoft Teams has some new features in calling and some new devices as well. Cataleya, ULTATEL, Atos, and Patton have successfully finished their Session Border Controller certifications. Moving onto the new devices that are compatible with Microsoft Teams. These devices include :

• Logitech Rally Bar
• Creston Flex Mercury Mini
• Yealink A30
• AudioCodes RXV80
• EPOS Expand 80T
• Nureva HDL300
• Poly Sync 40,
• Three Monitors by Dell
• Phones from Yeahlink MP 54 and Audiocodes C470HD
• Sidecars from AudioCodes and Yealink EXP50

A good number of devices have been added to the Microsoft Teams compatibility list. This is good news not only for Teams, but for you and your company as well.

Power Platform, Custom Development, Security, Compliance and Privacy

There are new Teams UI design kit and UI library. This new feature will help you as a designer, product manager, or a developer. As far as new features for security, compliance, and privacy there are now Microsoft 365 compliance capabilities for card content that is created through teams’ messages. Along with this Microsoft Teams has their first security recommendation on Secure Score.

As always there new features not just for Microsoft Teams business and personal use, but there are new features in education, frontline workers, and government use. In the education realm of Teams there is now an Education Policy Wizard. This will keep that safe learning environment inside the classroom and on the virtual platform. For frontline workers there is now a task publishing feature in Tasks in Teams. This allows companies to create tasks at a corporate level but then distribute those tasks to different locations. How cool is that?! Along with this there is @mention by shift group. You can now tag by shift which employees are on-shift and what their schedule is. This addition has been super beneficial in the management and scheduling of shifts for your employees.  In the government side of teams there is now:

• Together mode
•  Multi-window chat
• Multi-window for meetings and calling
•  Meeting recordings saved to OneDrive and SharePoint
• Simplified management to your channel notification settings
• Targeted communications in GCC

These features are currently available to Microsoft Teams’ commercial customers, but they are just now making their debut in US Government Community Cloud (GCC), US Government Community Cloud High (GCC-High), and the United States Department of Defense (DoD).

In conclusion, a lot happened in the first month of the new year. If this is what the first month holds, we cannot wait to see what is in store for the rest of 2021 for Microsoft Teams. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled ofr our upcoming blog post on what new features appear in February 2021.

If you’re looking to bring these features to your organization, contact us below.