At its developer-focused Ignite 2022 conference, Microsoft announced a set of new features that will not only interest developers, but also consumers and enterprise customers.
For starters, Mesh avatars are now available in private preview for Teams. This is something Microsoft announced about a year ago. Basically, Mesh allows users to use personalized 3D avatars that can join Teams meetings and interact with each other in an immersive space. It won’t require users to turn on their cameras but interactive methods like eye contact and live reactions will be offered for those who prefer a non-robotic interaction. Avatars can be created through the Avatars app in the Teams App Store.
A Teams Premium SKU will also preview in December 2022. New capabilities include meeting guides, branding for meeting experiences, intelligent search, recap, and playback, AI-generated tasks , personalized insights, live translation for captions, advanced meeting protection, advanced webinars, and advanced virtual appointments. It will be available as an add-on preview in December. Pricing details are currently unavailable but general availability is scheduled for February 2023. However, AI features have a wider “first half of 2023” release window.
Microsoft has also outlined improvements to existing Teams features. Cameo for Teams is said to be generally available, the Excel Live in a Teams meeting window is coming later this month, and organizers will have more control over the Together mode view for all participants including the ability to assign of seats.
Teams Phone Mobile is now generally available thanks to Microsoft’s partnership with several global telecom operators. It’s currently available in a few countries and select telcos but Microsoft is working to expand the capability. You can find out more details here.
Some other new and upcoming Teams features also include the following:
- Video clips – Generally available now
- Extended reactions – General availability in November
- Suggested responses in group chats – Usually available in October
- Shipping schedule – Generally available now
- Delete chat – Usually available in November
- Mention @all for group chats – Coming at the end of this year
- Zero-state people recommendations to suggest people to start chat conversations based on past collaborations – Coming at the end of this year
Furthermore, Microsoft is improving the channel experience in Teams by moving the compose box to the top of the page, popping out conversations, pinning posts, and enjoying a more streamlined information pane. Channels will also be customizable with branded headers, and multiple post types for different occasions and milestones.
On the partners’ side, Microsoft Teams meetings will be natively available on all certified Cisco meeting devices continuously. Microsoft also continues to work with independent software vendors (ISVs) such as 3M, SAP, iHeartRadio, Workplace by Meta, ServiceNow, Zoho, and more for Teams collaborative apps.
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But speaking of first-party commitment to Teams apps, Microsoft announced the Places app for Teams. The hybrid workforce management and collaboration app is coming to preview with the following functionalities:
- A dashboard view of which days people in the team or collaboration network are in the office.
- A presence that will indicate the physical location of people (in the office, remote or mobile).
- The ability to see workspaces booked by other users, so someone can book nearby.
- Commute and time travel insights and guidance, including the ability to automatically schedule travel times.
- Help with wayfinding and navigation within the office location.
- A modernized conference room booking and technology to allow everyone to be a first-class participant.
- Insights and guidance on sentiment related to hybrid policies, so managers can implement best practices.
- Space utilization insights and guidance, so leaders can future-proof spaces and add flexibility to their real estate portfolio.
Finally, for developers, the Teams Live Share SDK to build custom collaborative experiences is now in preview and the Teams Toolkit is now officially part of Visual Studio, which should streamline the process of integration for developers in this domain.