Microsoft Teams Release Notes

• Manage what attendees see in meetings, webinars, and town halls (Premium): Teams Premium customers will soon have the option to select preconfigured layouts and customize attendees using colors or branding when using the "Manage what attendees see" option in Microsoft Teams. These enhancements offer a more polished and professional look to your structured meetings and events to better engage with your attendees. This feature is available in Teams Desktop.

• Deploy Teams frontline worker pilot in Teams Admin Center: Deploy a frontline worker (FLW) pilot in Teams Admin Center

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• Raise hands in town halls (Premium):
  Currently in a Teams town hall, attendees can't raise their hands and share their microphone and camera as they can in a meeting. With this new update, town halls organized by users with Teams Premium can allow attendees to raise their hand. Organizers and presenters can then bring attendees on screen to allow them to share their camera and microphone.

• Microsoft Teams: Executable file type protection for Teams chat and channels:
  Microsoft Teams now blocks messages that contain executable file types in chats and channels, increasing protection against malware and other file-based attacks.

• Polls support in a Teams town hall (Premium):
  This feature allows organizers to create and share polls directly within Teams town halls, gathering real-time feedback from participants through multiple-choice questions, and other types of polls.

• Teams admin center: Control external access by domain for specific users and groups:
  This feature allows you to gain granular control over external communication. By setting custom external access policies, you can define domain allow/deny lists and assign them to specific users or groups, the capabilities that were previously only tenant-wide (Teams and Skype for Business users in external organizations). Use this to pilot with a department, restrict high risk roles to approved partners, or open federation broadly where appropriate. For example, you can allow group A to communicate only with a specific domain, while group B can communicate with all external domains.

• Microsoft Teams: Front-of-room view control for town hall and webinar in Teams Rooms on Windows:
  When a Teams Rooms on Windows is invited as a meeting presenter, the front-of-room display defaults to the attendee view. Presenters always have full control from the console, including green room and off-stage management, and can switch the front-of-room display to presenter view without impacting attendees. Available in Teams Rooms Pro.

• Microsoft Teams: Private channels increased limits and transition to group compliance:
  We're updating private channels to use a shared mailbox for each private channel, instead of messages being stored in each user's mailbox. With this change, compliance policies set for the team's Microsoft 365 group will apply to private channels messages going forward. In addition, Teams will support more than 30 private channels, up to the 1000 total channel limit for a team. Private channel member limits will increase from 250 to 5000. You'll also be able to schedule meetings on private channels.

• Microsoft Teams: Recommended actions page in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal:
  The new page in the Pro Management portal provides proactive recommendations based on your organization’s environment and upcoming events that can impact devices, such as support or certification expirations. Admins are prompted to update device and account data enabling rich insights from the portal, guidance based on space and device usage data (coming soon). This feature helps admins maintain smooth operations, and plan and budget efficiently. At least one Teams Rooms Pro or Teams Shared Devices license is required for access.

• Microsoft Teams: People count from Cloud IntelliFrame in the Pro Management portal reports:
  Admins get enhanced visibility into room usage from Pro Management portal reports with detailed occupancy data captured by Cloud IntelliFrame during meetings. This insight helps IT more effectively plan and optimize meeting spaces, and is available for rooms licensed with Teams Rooms Pro.

• Immersive events in Microsoft Teams:
  This feature lets you host interactive virtual events with avatars in customizable 3D spaces. You can also schedule immersive events from your Teams calendar and join events directly in Microsoft Teams on PC or Mac without any extra app downloads. Organizers can customize an immersive event's 3D space with images, videos, and 3D models and no coding skills are required. Attendees can mingle in the 3D space and engage in multiple group conversations with spatial audio, express themselves with fun avatar reactions, capture selfie photos of the event, and send them to the event's Teams chat. A Teams Premium license is required for the organizer who schedules the event. Each event supports up to 300 attendees and attendees don't require a Teams license.

• Collaborative notes for chats:
  A new collaborative space is now available directly from your Teams chat, enabling real-time collaboration, organization of key information, and streamlined communications. Chat notes is available in 1:1 and group chat and is accessible only to the chat members. Add images, format text, share Loop components, and mention chat members when you require their attention.

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More Microsoft 365 Copilot functionality in Teams

Use Copilot in Teams to generate messages, and insights from chat and channel history and calendar content. Available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. To learn more, see Get started with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat in Teams.

Forwarded message links

When someone forwards a message, it will now include a link that takes the recipient straight to the original chat or channel it came from. To learn more, see Forward a message in Microsoft Teams.

Skip the navigation with settings search

Need to change a specific setting? Search for it in the settings search bar—no navigation necessary. Just type in a keyword, like "notifications" or "dark mode," to go straight to that option.

Organize and collaborate in chat and channels

• Add existing Loop components and pages to channels for more organized, contextual places to work.
• Take notes in 1:1 and group chats that only chat members can see to centralize information. Add images, @mention members to get their attention, and more.
• Give your chat and channel sections more personality and visibility by adding emoji to their names. Just select the section icon and choose Change icon.
  To learn more, see Change settings in Microsoft Teams.

Facilitator Agent enhancements

• Facilitator can recognize agendas shared in chat and create live progress trackers in meetings to keep everything on track.
• If someone invited to a meeting hasn't joined and their name comes up twice in conversation, Facilitator politely nudges them to join in chat.
  To learn more, see Facilitator in Microsoft Teams meetings.

Share your screen on Mac devices

Joining from a Mac? Share your screen and present content using the standard native picker experience when you opt in through settings. To learn more, see Present content in Microsoft Teams meetings.

Gain insight with presenter analytics for town halls

View data about a town hall's video quality, audio clarity, and connection stability to ensure smooth content delivery during events. Available with a Teams Premium license.

Meta Quest VR headset support for immersive events

Our most immersive virtual event experience yet is here—join immersive events from a Meta Quest VR headset to feel like you're standing right there in the room. To learn more, see Attend an immersive event in Microsoft Teams.

Make Teams mobile your default calling app

No need to switch apps to make Teams calls—set Teams as your default calling app to automatically route all your calls through Teams mobile. To learn more, see Getting started with Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile.

Stay protected with malicious file and URL detection

Now, Teams actively protects against potentially harmful links by automatically detecting and warning against malicious files and URLS shared in Teams chats and channels.
When a link is incorrectly identified as a potential threat, flag it to help improve Teams' detection accuracy.

Quickly access key actions from the jump list

Open the Teams jump list in your Windows taskbar or Mac menu bar to start a chat or view, join, and schedule meetings.

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Microsoft Teams: Speed up app reviews with trust-based filters:

This feature enables IT administrators in Teams admin center to view and easily filter apps and agents by specific industry standards, certifications and compliance attributes such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and more. This will help with more streamlined app evaluation workflows, enabling faster decisions and broader access to trusted apps across the organization.

Microsoft Teams: Security and compliance information for more apps and agents:

Currently, IT admins in the Teams admin center can view security and compliance data for apps and agents that are Microsoft 365 certified or publisher attested. This enhancement expands that visibility to include apps and agents that are not certified or attested. This data is sourced from Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps (MDA) and helps admins evaluate more easily and quickly on whether an app or agent meets their organization’s trust requirements.

Microsoft Teams: Permission and privilege level of apps and agents:

Currently, IT admins in the Teams admin center can view the permissions requested by an app or agent and these permissions define which organizational data the app can access. This feature enhances that experience by showing the risk rating of each permission and the overall privilege level of the app or agent, helping admins secure better organizational data and make faster, more informed approval decisions.

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Introducing a low-latency attendee experience for premium Teams town hall

Previously in a town hall, attendees were typically 20-30 seconds behind the content being presented. With this new update for premium town halls, attendees can watch the town hall at a much lower latency than before.

Silent Test call

Silent Test provides an ability for IT admins to proactively run a synthetic simulation of a Teams call to the subnet to examine network readiness before any issues occur.

New VDI solution for Teams optimization in Amazon WorkSpaces

New VDI solution for Teams introduces a multimedia offloading and optimization solution for Microsoft Teams when running in Amazon WorkSpaces (Personal and Pools). Users of the WorkSpaces Client for Windows can enjoy a high-definition experience in virtual desktops, where audio or video or screensharing are offloaded to the user's device and processed by the SlimCore media engine. This entry applies to WorkSpaces only (AppStream is not supported).

Enhanced meeting protection: Prevent screen capture

To address the issue of unauthorized screen captures during meetings, this feature ensures that if a user attempts to take a screen capture, the meeting window will turn black, thereby protecting sensitive information. This feature will be available on Teams desktop applications (both Windows and Mac) and Teams mobile applications (both iOS and Android). Users joining from unsupported platforms will be placed in audio-only mode to maintain the integrity of the meeting's content.

Limit live captions scrollback (Compliance-safe mode)

Live Captions in Microsoft Teams allow you to follow conversations in real time, making meetings more accessible and inclusive. To improve privacy, captions will now only show recent dialogue (about 5 minutes) when transcription is off, instead of the full meeting history. This means captions are used just for real-time communication, not as a permanent record. If transcription is enabled, captions will display the entire meeting conversation, consistent with Live Transcript. We've also fixed an issue where caption data could be lost when changing the caption position or popping captions in and out. Now, these adjustments won't affect caption data, giving you a more reliable experience. These changes also apply to Real-time Text (RTT), ensuring a consistent and accessible captioning experience across formats.

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Get quick context with Copilot file summaries

Now available with a Copilot license, you can view concise summaries of shared files in chat to get context without opening them. To view a file's Copilot summary, select Summarize for me on the file thumbnail. To learn more, see Use Copilot in Microsoft Teams chat and channels.

:insert your emoji here:
Quickly insert an emoji into your posts and messages using the updated emoji keyboard shortcut. Just type “:”, followed by the name of the emoji, then type “:” again.

Listen to meeting recaps on-the-go

Take a break from your screen and catch up on meetings with podcast-style audio recaps. This feature utilizes AI to transform meeting transcripts into engaging audio summaries. Available with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. To learn more, see Listen to audio recaps of your meetings.

Pop-out Intelligent recap for calls

Access Intelligent recap for recorded or transcribed calls in Teams. Select Calls in Teams and find the call in your call history. Then, select View recap to open the call’s Intelligent recap and see AI summaries, notes, and more. To learn more, see Recap in Microsoft Teams.

Teams Phone Mobile now available with AT&T

AT&T customers can now make and receive calls across their mobile phone and Teams endpoints using a single phone number.

Give feedback faster on certified Teams Phone devices

When you enter a feedback rating from your certified Teams Phone device, Teams will suggest tailored text prompts to help you quickly share what’s working well or needs improvement.

Improved call transfer experience

Ensure smooth call transfers with your certified Teams Phone devices with our improved interface, including the option to Consult first (speak with the recipient before transferring the call to them) and live updates that indicate when a transfer is in-progress and when it’s complete. To learn more, see Transfer a call in Microsoft Teams.

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View channel conversations as threads to easily reply to specific messages and keep related conversations grouped in one place. Follow threads to stay informed and view relevant updates in the Followed Threads view. To learn more, see Follow threads in Microsoft Teams.

Quickly catch up on posts and threaded channels with thread summaries by Copilot. Thread summaries include key takeaways and a list organized by topic for easy scanning. Available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

Add Facilitator, a meeting AI agent, to your Teams meetings to keep them running smoothly and efficiently. Facilitator reminds participants about agenda items and time remaining, captures real-time notes, and much more. Available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. To learn more, see Facilitator in Microsoft Teams meetings.

Keep information confidential in Teams meetings with Prevent Screen Capture. When Prevent Screen Capture is turned on, the meeting window will turn black if someone attempts to capture the screen. Available in meetings organized with a Teams Premium license.

Keep meetings on track with countdown timers. When someone starts a countdown timer, everyone will see in their meeting window and be able to start, stop, pause, or add more time.

Know your mic's audio levels with the real-time feedback indicator in Teams meetings. In your meeting controls, you’ll see the Mic icon fluctuate with your volume levels. You can also select Mic to see the feedback in more detail.

Stay in sync when you attend town halls with ultra-low latency, available in events organized with a Teams Premium license. With ultra-low latency, you’ll see organizers, presenters, and shared content in near real-time.

Select Controls in your meeting controls for quicker access to key organizer meeting options, like lobby settings, attendee mic and camera access, and more. Select View more options for a complete list of customizations.

When meeting transcription is turned off, live captions and RTT will now only show the past five minutes of dialogue instead of the full meeting to protect information. Also, a previous issue that caused data loss when changing caption position has been resolved.

Private chat between organizers, co-organizers, and presenters is now available before, during, and after webinars, giving time and privacy for coordinating and preparing for the event.

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Slide control for presenters

There's no longer a need to say 'next slide'. Users can now share control of their presentation slides with their fellow presenters during meetings and events.

Threaded channels

Threading in channels provides an avenue for deeper and more collaborative conversations. It also allows you to start a side conversation within a channel and focus on specific topics while keeping the main conversation clutter-free. You can reply to specific messages and create a separate thread, helping to minimize distractions and foster better collaboration.

Express search intent better with rich query language

Users can now leverage query language when formulating search terms, to easily express their intent and scope search. Users can now use:

• "from:" to find content from a person,
• "with:" to find content around a person,
• "in:" to narrow down search results to a specific chat or channel, or
• "is:" to recall specific content type (message, file, groupchat, channel).

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• Microsoft Teams: Apply partial settings for Android devices using configuration profiles in the Teams admin center: In the Teams admin center, admins can now modify, review, and apply configuration settings to Android devices without overriding other settings, ensuring only the desired changes are made.

• Preview changes before sending live in “Manage what attendees see”: An enhancement to the “Manage what attendees see” feature now allows organizers and presenters to preview changes on the screen before sending them live to attendees. This capability is only available for town hall.

• Copilot support for 1:1 and group calls on Teams Phone devices: Enhance your calling experience with Copilot on Teams Phones devices by accessing intelligent insights during calls using suggested prompts.

• Line key configuration on Teams Phone devices from TAC: This feature allows admins to configure line keys for various scenarios on Teams Phone devices, including personal and common area phones (CAP). Scenarios supported include speed dial, shared line, collaborative call delegation, and call transfers.

• Saved messages view: Users will be able to save messages (posts, replies to posts, or chat message/bubbles) and find them later from the Chat app, as well as on separate Teams and Chat apps.

• Custom ringtone behavior and ringtones for assigned line keys: Personalize your Teams Phone experience by setting unique ringtones and choosing how each line key alerts you, such as ring only, ring with flash, or flash only. This feature is supported across touch, non-touch, and sidecar devices, giving you full control over how you stay notified.

• Support audit logs for Give and Take Control and Screenshare: IT administrators will now have the ability to access detailed logs for both the “Give and Take Control” and “Screenshare” features. These logs will provide comprehensive information, including the names and timestamps of the individuals involved in each action. Specifically, the logs will indicate who initiated or received control, as well as who started the screenshare session, along with the corresponding timestamps and names. This enhancement ensures greater transparency and accountability for all control and screenshare activities.

• Remote log collection in Teams admin center​: Teams administrators will now have the capability to remotely collect client diagnostics logs from users’ devices, thereby eliminating the need for any user action or workflow disruption. This advanced tool is designed to greatly assist IT administrators by automating the previously lengthy and manual process of diagnostic log collection for troubleshooting purposes.

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