Microsoft Build 2024: What's new in Microsoft Teams

At the Build 2024 conference, Microsoft announced a lot of new innovative features and enhancements for Microsoft Teams, including chat and collaboration, meetings, places, platform and more.

What were the announcements made regarding Microsoft Teams at Build 2024?

Chat and Collaboration

Feature name	Description	Rolling out
Slash commands	Provides a quick and streamlined way to execute tasks, like contextual actions, compose, navigate, and complete frequent tasks. Simply type slash in the compose box, choose a command & complete your task quickly	June 2024
Co-edit code blocks	You can upload your custom emojis or reactions to personalize the conversation. Use them to share status or share a lighthearted emoji efficiently. Once you upload custom emojis, they are restricted to usage within the user’s tenant, but once sent, these emojis are visible to all chat members. Admins are still in control, they can permit an individual to create, disable or delete the feature.	June 2024
Custom emojis and reactions	To share a code with your team a chat, you can paste a permalink that displays a rich preview from  Azure DevOps All receivers can view the code in Azure DevOps	Coming to public preview in June
Code previews	Allows you to initiate an ad-hoc call in real-time for quick discussions and brainstorming sessions with your team, eliminating the need to schedule a meeting. It is seamlessly integrated into existing group chat threads.	Available now
Meet now in group chat	Allows you to initiate an ad-hoc call in real-time for quick discussions and brainstorming sessions with your team, eliminating the need to schedule a meeting. It is seamlessly integrated into existing group chat threads.	June 2024
Generate images with Microsoft Designer within chat	Microsoft Designer integration in Teams chat will allow you to create images directly from conversations. All you need to do is type @Designer in the chat box and describe the image you want to start the process. Each group member can view the suggestions and help refine the final results with additional prompts.	This summer

Apart from these, here is what else will be added to Teams in May 2024 in terms of chat and collaboration:

• Share contact information – Allows you to share the contact details of an individual not part of an existing chat conversation, helping you collaborate with new people.
• Choose domains for Teams email service – Admins can designate a distinct domain for sending Teams notification emails and configure the no-reply prefix to monitor user responses.
• Default file service for uploading – IT admins can specify which file service will be used when users upload files from their devices by dragging and dropping the file in a chat or channel.
• Improved copy link experience – You now have a streamlined experience when copying file links within Teams, similar to the one-click copy link feature in OneDrive and SharePoint.

Meetings

Feature	Description	Rolling out
Intelligent recap	Support extended to meetings with only transcription enabled. Teams Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365 licensed users can use AI-generated notes, tasks, and name mentions even for meetings without recordings. You also get timeline markers for join/leave, screen sharing, speaker timeline markers, topics, and chapters, but only for recorded videos	June 2024
Record and transcribe permissions	Meeting organizers with valid licenses can control the Who can record and transcribe in the meeting options. The options are: (1) organizers and co-organizers, or (2) organizers, co-organizers, and presenters, or (3) No one This will help organizers manage which roles can initiate recording and transcription for a meeting	June 2024 for Teams Premium and Copilot for M365 licensed users
Restrict content sharing in external meetings	IT admins can control content sharing in externally hosted meetings. Can use No other orgs to prevent content sharing to meetings hosted by users within the same organization. They can set Trusted orgs and guests policy to to allow content sharing in meetings hosted by trusted organizations or guests.	Available now to Teams Premium users

Apart from these, here is what else will be added to Teams in May 2024 in terms of Meetings:

• Access Copilot within Teams—You can use Copilot for post-meeting queries and insights. All you need to do is tap a Teams calendar item to access Copilot in the meeting, Details, or Recap view. This feature is available for meetings with transcription turned on for organizations with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license.
• Extended language support for Intelligent Meeting Recap – Supports 15 more languages, including Arabic, Czech, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Hebrew, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmal), Portuguese (Portugal), Polish, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, and Thai, making it easier for people to take meetings in their preferred language.
• Automatic sharing of meeting recap – Get meeting summaries, including recordings, transcripts, notes, shared files, and other details after a meeting ends.
• Disable screen share – It admins can set content sharing permissions for external meetings, eliminating the risk of data leaks.

You will also see New avatar wardrobe, ability to save meeting content with collaborative annotations as a Whiteboard, trim meeting video using Microsoft Stream, and ability to interact with background content when collaborative annotation enabled features.

Places

Microsoft Places is now in public preview and can be used to facilitate coordination of in-office time and connection with coworkers. You can sign up for the Microsoft Places public preview by clicking Get Started.

Features	Description
Location plan	Enables you to coordinate with coworkers regarding their in-person work locations and schedules You can set and share your location schedules with peers. You can update the location plans anytime, directly in Outlook for Microsoft Places platform
Peek cards	Can act as quick reference guides facilitating in-person meetings with coworkers. Shows your closest work collaborators who plan to be in the same office. Allows you to reserve spaces suitable for both you and the colleagues you are meeting with.
Expanded presence	Enhances the ability to know which coworkers are nearby. You can check participant locations in the Teams group chats, or type @nearby to notify people around them about a meeting room change or activity

Platform integration

To foster a more seamless and integrated communication experience, Microsoft announced enhancements to custom calling experiences connected to Teams with features like PowerPoint Live, live reactions, real-time transcription vis Azure AI Speech, file sharing during meetings, closed captions, Noise suppression during a video call, and stream live audio using the Audio Streaming API.

Apart from these, here are the things that were made available in terms of platform this month:

• Programmatic desktop sharing – Developers can now create Teams apps for meetings and share specific app content on screen, providing collaborative experiences.
• Live Share support – Teams apps using Live Share for real-time collaboration can now operate across various types of tabs, promoting teamwork and productivity.
• Multi-window stageview– Developers can build Teams apps with multi-window experiences, allowing users to interact with content and conversations simultaneously.

Furthermore, as part of Frontline worker solutions, Microsoft has added enhanced Shifts app features, including Excel schedules with import history tracking and usage tracking in Teams Admin Center. These features provide insights into productivity, and task publishing now supports mandatory approval for completed tasks.

These new features show Microsoft’s commitment to innovation and sternness to meet the changing needs of modern workplaces.

What do you think about the new features coming to Microsoft Teams? Share your views with our readers in the comments section below.