The start of the year is always one of the most exciting times for the tech world. As we enter 2021, everyone from Cyber Trucks to Microsoft Teams presents their update schedule for the year with Microsoft Consulting firm. With Microsoft Teams adoption exploding around the world in 2020, Microsoft is going to have to keep working faster than ever to bring incredible new features to its platform. Here’s a selection of my favorite features coming soon to Teams and why I love them!
The queue for messages to send when you are offline
You want to send an important message to a colleague, but you are temporarily offline. You tell yourself there’s no point sending it knowing you’ll have to send it back later (and even worse, when you’re back online, you might have forgotten what you meant to say). Has this ever happened to you? Well, this Microsoft Teams update should fix that problem. Teams will queue messages and send them automatically as soon as the network connection is restored.
Be aware, however, that if the message is not sent within 24 hours, the message will fail and the user will be prompted to resend or delete it.
Updated functionality for attendee reports
This novelty will change the lives of meeting organizers, panel members and distance teachers. With some improvements, Microsoft Teams will allow you to download the report after meetings in the meeting chat with new data that will allow you to better manage and analyze attendance.
Not only will you get these reports in the same window you just gave your presentation for instant reading, but you’ll also have more context. The additional background information and analysis will allow you to continue perfecting your presentations and events to improve and increase attendee engagement.
SharePoint home site app
Do you think SharePoint is being neglected in favor of Teams? Think again ! With the home site app, you can integrate your SharePoint intranet directly with Microsoft Teams. The app icon and name will match your company’s brand and allow employees to discover, navigate, and use your company’s main sites directly in Teams.
Additionally, the home site app gives employees a window to the rest of the company intranet using the same global navigation as the SharePoint app bar. With the integration of the visual capabilities of SharePoint into Teams, this will increase the extensibility and use of both platforms within your environment.
Meeting chat bubbles
You might think this already exists in Microsoft Teams meetings, but, in this context, chat bubbles refer to “chats sent during a Teams meeting that appear on everyone’s screen, giving discussion a more central position in the conversation. »
This feature is great for communication, as comments and questions sent in the chat window can escape the speaker(s). This will also allow for better engagement during meetings. With this, the emojis of social media live streams enter a new dimension (think LinkedIn Live streams)!
Meeting chat bubbles
You might think this already exists in Microsoft Teams meetings, but, in this context, chat bubbles refer to “chats sent during a Teams meeting that appear on everyone’s screen, giving discussion a more central position in the conversation. »
This feature is great for communication, as comments and questions sent in the chat window can escape the speaker(s). This will also allow for better engagement during meetings. With this, the emojis of social media live streams enter a new dimension (think LinkedIn Live streams)!
Access files offline from mobile devices Like Apple Music’s library download feature, the Microsoft Teams mobile app will allow users to access files even when they’re offline or have a poor network connection. All you need to do is select the files you need to access and Teams will maintain a downloaded version to use in your mobile app. Personally, I love this feature because it allows tablet users like me to work on the go (when that will be possible again) and solidifies the ability to work from anywhere.
