What do you want to know
- Microsoft Teams gained several new features in September 2022, including collaborative annotations in meetings and Parent Connection for educators.
- Several Teams-certified devices were also deployed in the past month.
- Microsoft has optimized Teams for Mac devices with Apple silicon, which has dramatically improved the app’s performance.
Microsoft Teams is one of the most updated apps in Microsoft’s library. With so many features rolling out each month and multiple versions of Teams to track, it’s easy to miss a few features. Fortunately, Microsoft rounds up each new feature at the end of each month. Here’s what shipped to Teams in September 2022, as reported by Microsoft (opens in a new tab).
Performance
Microsoft has optimized Teams for Mac computers using Apple silicon. The change brings a “significant improvement” in performance, according to the tech giant. Teams was available on Mac before last month, but had to go through emulation, which isn’t as efficient as running native.
Meetings
With meetings being one of Teams’ core experiences, it’s no surprise that it received several new features in the past month. Launched Cameo in PowerPoint Live, as did collaborative annotations in Teams meetings. Microsoft also added language interpretation support.
Here are all the new meetings features for Teams:
- Cameo in PowerPoint Live
- Collaborative annotations in Teams meetings
- Linguistic interpretation
- Select Together mode for all meeting participants
- Pre-assign channel members to breakout rooms
- Transcription created automatically during recordings
- Use a ranking survey to prioritize or reorder items for effective decision making
- Usability improvements to in-meeting notifications
- Improvements to information messages in meetings for iOS and Android
- Leave a meeting on all my devices
- Meeting transcripts in Microsoft Teams for Android and iOS
- Background blur and effects for Citrix and VMWare
- HID support for VMware
- Convert Word/PDF Form or Quiz to Microsoft Forms in One Click
Call
Only a few calling features rolled out to Teams in September, including the ability to play music on hold for people waiting to transfer.
- Music on hold for call forwarding
- Early media support for compliance recording
- Block incoming federated VoIP calls
Devices
Teams devices are designed to facilitate communication in specific areas. There are several types of devices, including those with screens, Wi-Fi powered phones, and Teams Rooms devices. Here’s everything Microsoft added for Teams devices in September:
- Front Row Experience Update
- Single view mode
- Dual display mode
- Join a Teams meeting using a meeting ID
- 18 Videos for Dual View Teams Rooms
- Enable/disable your room’s video status
- In-room noise cancellation control
- Share board update
- Pin and hide room video for Teams Rooms on Windows
- Disable split gallery with XML setting
Certified devices
The PolyCCX 505 business media phone and Logitech Brio 500 and 505 cameras were released in September. The former is a touchscreen phone with built-in Wi-Fi, while the latter two are business webcams.
Chat & Collaborate
It is now possible to select the download location to save files through the desktop client of Teams.
On the mobile side, Teams on iOS and Android will now ask if a message needs to be translated if it’s not in your preferred language.
- Choose preferred download location for files
- Smart translation of chat messages in Teams for iOS and Android
Power Platform and custom development
Teams users can now use apps in VoIP Teams Phone calls and instant meetings. The addition helps put those experiences on par with other meetings and calls.
Management
Admins can now customize the Teams admin center dashboard. To personalize the experience, administrators can drag and drop maps and widgets. Here are all the changes:
- Customizing the dashboard in the Teams admin center
- Configuring user request to external systems (redirect URLs)
- Policy propagation in the activity log
education teams
Parent Connection has been added to Teams for Education. The tool allows educators to communicate with parents or guardians of students using information provided by School Data Sync. A small handful of other education-related features also shipped last month:
- Parental Login
- Integration of LTI applications with Schoology LMS
- Brightspace LMS (D2L) integration with Microsoft 365
- Teams for Education Class Teams Home Page
- Activate a class from the Teams Classes LTI app in your learning management system (LMS)
- View video recordings and attendance reports in the LMS
- Timed quiz
Front line workers
Microsoft added a pair of features for frontline workers last month. Admins can now use a Teams PowerShell command and two CSV files to deploy up to 500 teams and add 25 users per team.
Additional filters have also been added to the list of approvals, making it easier to find content.
Government
Government customers using Teams received a relatively short list of new features in September.
- Isolated audio power supply for GCC-High and DoD
- Attendance Dashboard for GCC-High and DOD
