Microsoft Teams is one of the most important Microsoft 365 apps for Microsoft, as it's always getting new features. It's also quite popular, in use by more than 270 million monthly active users. So, it's no wonder that Teams was a big focus during the annual Microsoft Ignite conference.

As announced there, coming soon to Teams is an improved channel experience, as well as a new Microsoft Places app. These all build on several other features like Video Clips, which were previously announced but will now hit general availability. We have all the details for what's new and coming to Teams for you right here.

New channel experience

The biggest news related to Teams at Ignite is the updated channel experience for the service. This new experience is designed to feel a bit more modern, and also encourage engagement while helping you keep the focus on work or school, similar to Slack. Along with the option to add several new post types to channels (such as announcements or video clips), there are four other incoming changes that Microsoft mentioned.

The first two elements here are the compose box and pinned posts. Microsoft is making tweaks so the compose box in Teams will be easier for you to use to catch up and engage in the conversations that matter most to you. That's also why you'll also find the added pinned posts ability, too, which will make it easy to find what's important in the channel.

Other than that, with the second and third elements, Microsoft will be rolling out a new ability to pop out the conversation in a channel and will be adding an information pane. This new pop-out conversation ability is like what's already in 1:1 chats. It will help you engage in a conversation more directly, while you still keep looking at other parts of the channel. As for the info pane, it's more streamlined now. Microsoft says that the pane will make it easier for newcomers to a channel to be updated on the action.

The last thing is the ability to customize the channel header. It can now match an organization's brand. This adds a touch of extra personalization to Teams, which was always behind Slack in this area.

New chat and collaboration features

Other than the updated channel experience, Microsoft also detailed some new and existing chat and collaboration features coming to Teams. The previously announced video clips feature (where you can record video clips in 1:1 chats) is now rolling out. The suggested replies feature that was once present in 1:1 chats will now be coming to group chats later in October. Additionally, the scheduled send feature is also now available so you can manually select times when you want to send a message in a 1:1 chat.

For what's coming ahead, there are a few features. Microsoft is planning to add 800 expanded emoji reactions like "reviewed" or "on hold" later in November. The ability to delete a 1:1 chat permanently from your list (and not just mute it) is also coming in November, and the ability to mention @everyone for group chats will come by the end of this year.

Microsoft is also planning what they are calling "zero-state people recommendations" by the end of next year. This sounds confusing, but it basically is a way for Teams to suggest for you to chat with people you've previously chatted with based on your previous interactions.

Microsoft also mentioned the Camero feature in PowerPoint also hit general availability today, Excel Live will be coming by the end of this year. As for Together Mode, presenters now have the ability to assign seats to meeting participants in preview, and select the together mode view for everyone.

New Microsoft Places app

 

Teams is already home to many apps, and Microsoft will be adding one more this year. There's a new Microsoft Places app for Teams. Microsoft hopes this new app can help organizations manage hybrid work better. It uses intelligence to pull information from across Microsoft 365 to optimize productivity, similar to Microsoft Viva. Here's how it'll work.

First of all, the Places app will have a dashboard view that can show a manager when employees will be in the office, and a presence mode to show if someone is in the office or at home. The app also offers insights on commuting time and the option to schedule travel time. There's even the option to see workspaces that other employees have booked to make booking a nearby workspace easier. Other features of Places include wayfinding options for the office, a new conference room booking experience, insights on policies, and space usage. All of these features aim to help organizations understand and shift to hybrid work with ease. This will be coming soon in a preview.

Microsoft Teams Premium

 

Other than updates and new features for current versions of Microsoft Teams, Microsoft also announced that Teams Premium will be available in preview as an add-on in December. This is a version of Teams with additional features designed to make meeting experiences more personal, intelligent, and secure. Here are some of the new features.

On making Teams meetings more personal, Teams Premium has a new Meeting guide ability that helps users choose the right type of meeting (client call, brainstorm, or help desk for example) with pre-set options. IT admins will also be able to brand a meeting experience with custom logos and backgrounds in the Teams lobby, or even with custom scenes for together mode.

On the intelligence aspect, there are six things that Teams Premium will offer. A lot of these things are powered by artificial intelligence. First, users will get an intelligent recap of meetings, so they can quickly get up to speed on what was missed. Second, Teams Premium can generate AI-generated tasks from a meeting, that can be assigned based on what was set in the meeting itself. Third, intelligent playback in meetings will make it easy to navigate a meeting by creating chapters. Capping the list of features out is personalized insights that can let the user know when their name was mentioned in a meeting, intelligent search to make searching meeting transcripts easier, and live translations for captions.

Finally, regarding security, Teams Premium has several security features for meetings. There's the ability to watermark a meeting recording and use Microsoft Purview Information Protection sensitivity labels to apply relevant meeting protection options.

Microsoft also mentioned that Teams Premium features advanced webinars with a waitlist and manual approvals, a virtual green room. Teams Premium will even help users manage advanced virtual appointments with SMS reminders, and branded lobbies.

Other Teams features announced at Ignite

 

There were several other Microsoft Teams features detailed at Ignite. The company's Mesh Avatars are now in private preview, which is a way to represent yourself in meetings. Additionally, Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile is now generally available. It's an enterprise-grade calling experience.