Microsoft 365 feature roundup – September 22

New Teams channel type: Shared channels

Shared channels is a new channel type, in addition to the existing standard and private channel types. Shared channels enable users to collaborate seamlessly with internal and external partners beyond the boundaries of a team.

Invite individuals or entire teams to a shared channel. These can either be from your org or from an external Azure AD org.

Once added to a shared channel external users can access the channel right from their Teams account without having to switch organizations. Note: External collaboration is off by default.

To learn more, see Shared channels in Microsoft Teams

Polls app for Microsoft Teams

The Polls app, powered by Microsoft Forms, is a more discoverable way for you to add polls to your Teams meetings.  

Since November 2020, you had to add a tab—the Forms app—to your meeting to use polls in Teams meetings. Now you’ll add a new app called Polls as an option for your meeting tab.

The experience of preparing, launching, and evaluating polls via the Polls app will be the same as the previous experience via the Forms app.

To learn more, see Get help with the Polls app for Microsoft Teams

Pre-assign channel members to Breakout Rooms

This Breakout Rooms for Channel Meetings feature enables meeting organisers to efficiently pre-assign channel members to Breakout Rooms (both auto and manual) ahead of a channel meeting start.

Please note, that Meetings with Breakout Rooms are limited to 300 participants. If the channel contains more than 300 members, pre-assignment will not be available.

To learn more, see Now in public preview: Pre-assign channel members to Breakout Rooms

View live transcription in a Teams meeting

Live transcription can make your meetings (and calls) more productive and inclusive for participants who are deaf or hard-of-hearing or have different levels of language proficiency. When the meeting organiser sets the Record automatically meeting option to On for a meeting, Transcription will now also be turned on with Recording when the meeting begins.

To learn more, see View live transcription in a Teams meeting

Assign Seats in Together Mode

Meeting organisers can assign seats to meeting invitees and all the participants currently in the meeting by dragging the user to the preferred seat.

Once assigned, organiser can apply the newly created layout and everyone in the meeting will see the participants organized by the seating assignment.

To learn more, see Now in public preview: Assign Seats in Together Mode

Cameo in PowerPoint Live

With Cameo in PowerPoint Live, users will be able to integrate Teams camera feed into PowerPoint presentations and customise how and where they want to appear on slides.⁠

Cameo supports all personalization properties like any other Office graphical object such as those offered by Pictures, Gifs and Shapes. This includes layering Cameo between content, adding motion effects such as morph, changing styles, shapes etc. Limitation: – Cameo in PowerPoint Live will not be shown in the recording, web or mobile clients.

To learn more, see Integrate a live camera feed into your presentation with cameo in PowerPoint

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.

To learn more, see Join a Teams meeting on a second device

Recurring Time Booking for Breaks, Learning, and Message Catch Up in Viva Insights

Microsoft Viva Insights is introducing new recurring time booking options to make it easier to take regular breaks during the workday, protect time to meet weekly learning objectives, and have daily time to catch up on emails and chats.

These booking options will be accessible to the user through the Briefing email sent at the end of the week as well as through the Viva Insights app in Teams.

To learn more, see the links below:

• Introduction to Viva Insights
• Protect time with Viva Insights
• Use Viva Insights in Outlook

What’s new in Microsoft Whiteboard

Whiteboard makes it easy to collaborate in the hybrid workplace or classroom. Brainstorm, plan, and share with others on a digital canvas, all in real time! Microsoft Whiteboard is constantly changing and evolving with new features and updates.

Several new features have recently been made available:

• Open existing whiteboards in Teams meetings
• Annotations in Teams meetings
• Collaborate with users outside your organization in Teams meetings
• Insert text in shapes
• Drop sticky notes into grids, and drag them out
• Export your whiteboard as a PDF (currently only available in the Windows desktop client)
• Templates available in all supported languages

To learn more, see What’s new in Microsoft Whiteboard

Tell us what you think

Completing this feedback survey will only take a few minutes and you will help to shape future Microsoft 365 roundups. 

Please access the Form using the link below:

Microsoft 365 roundup feedback survey