Today, Lenovo announced its rollout of Alexa Show Mode support for its Windows 10 PCs. Back in January of this year during CES, Lenovo debuted its Alexa Show mode on its flagship Yoga Slim 9i laptop and set a roadmap for release in Q2 2021. Well, here we are in the first week of May and for many companies their Q2 fiscal year.

As a refresher, Alexa Show Mode will begin rolling out on Lenovo’s Yoga IdeaPad and ThinkPad lines and effectively turn those Windows 10-powered devices into Amazon Echo Show-like displays.

For anyone with an Amazon Echo Show, today’s rollout of supported features should seem familiar as it includes support for:

Microsoft is planning to expand the AI-powered Live Transcription feature to unscheduled and channel meetings in Teams. Indeed, the company recently added new entries to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, indicating that these updates are coming to Teams meetings in July (via Neowin).

Microsoft Teams launched the new Live Transcription with speaker attribution feature for meetings in March this year. Currently, the transcription capability is only supported on the Teams desktop app, and it is available for scheduled meetings. It identities each speaker, captures audio in near real-time and then generates a transcript of everything that’s said by the participants. The transcription can be accessed both during and after the meeting.

Next up, Microsoft Teams is adding Together Mode for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) this month. This means that users using the Teams desktop client in virtualized environments will be able to enable Together Mode during meetings. The feature uses AI to segment the face and shoulders of the participants and place them together with other people in a virtual space.

Finally, the desktop version of the app is set to receive new Power Automate templates. It will enable managers to create teams quickly with predefined channels and preinstalled apps for effective collaboration. This update will begin rolling out to all users at some point later this month.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is now live and ready to download and play on Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox Series X console families and Windows 10 PCs via the Microsoft Store online store. The game can also be played for free on console or PC for those that have an active Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a roleplaying game spin-off from the main Dragon Quest video game series that incorporates block-building mechanics, an open-world to explore and build in, and support for online multiplayer with up to four players.

Here’s the official game description and trailer:

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is the critically acclaimed block-building RPG from Dragon Quest series creators Yuji Horii, character designer Akira Toriyama and composer Koichi Sugiyama.

Embark on an epic journey and become the master Builder! Customize your character and set off to revive a forsaken world alongside a mysterious companion named Malroth. Then, take your builder online and join your friends to collaborate and create something truly magnificent.

Don’t let the name fool you, despite the 2, this is a completely standalone experience featuring new characters, an expansive world, unlimited building combinations, and a storyline that’s sure to satisfy long-time fans and newcomers alike!

This version includes: Hotto Stuff Pack, Modernist Pack, Aquarium Pack, Designer’s Sunglasses, Historic Headwear, Dragonlord’s Throne, and more!

Dragon Quest Builders 2 originally launched on the Nintendo Switch and Sony’s PS4 back in 2018 before coming to Windows via the Steam storefront in late-2019.

Let us know which platform you’re planning on playing Dragon Quest Builders 2 on in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter and Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

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DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2

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The latest release notes have been published for the web version of Twitter which powers both the official Windows 10 Twitter app and the web experienced accessed via web browsers.

The notes confirm that the new threaded conversations style that recently rolled out on the iOS and Android apps has now come to this version of the Twitter social network and that a new search and promoted tweets experience has begun rolling out to users.

Other updates made to Twitter over the past month or so include a variety of accessibility improvements, a stronger focus on Topics, and improved video playback.

Here’s the full release notes:

New

• Promoting Tweets: An improved and simplified flow for promoting your Tweets is rolling out on Twitter.com. Keep an eye out for it through the Tweet activity screen!
• Search: We’re experimenting with different ways of rendering typeahead search results to make it easier for you to quickly find and select what you’re looking for when searching.
• Threaded Conversation Units: We’ve enabled threaded conversation units on the home timeline! This will help provide additional context and insight into conversations.

Updated

• Accessibility: Improved screen reader detection of related elements within groups like drawers, modals, and popovers.
• Accessibility: Screen readers will now be able to provide more context around checkbox controls.
• Checkbox Controls: Improved responsiveness when clicking on checkbox control elements.
• Interstitials: Reduced padding and improved visibility for interstitials on smaller screens.
• Search: Attempting to add a new saved search when you’ve reached the maximum of 25 will now inform you of the limit via error message.
• Topics: On Topics related pages, you’ll now see suggested Topics in the sidebar.
• Video: Promoted video overlays have been updated to better address right-to-left languages.

Fixed

• Accessibility: Fixed certain elements that were focusable even when disabled.
• Composer: Corrected issues with line height and text visibility in the composer on certain browsers.
• DMs: Fixed an issue where reporting a DM from the inline dropdown would show an error screen.
• DMs: Resolved an issue where the DM composer was not clearing immediately after sending a message.
• DMs: The “x” button on DM message requests will no longer open the conversation.
• DMs: When scrolling back through a DM conversation, you should no longer fall into a state where the loading indicator displays, and the conversation is not loaded.
• DMs: Resolved issues where the image preview in DMs wouldn’t display, or the overlay controls would overlap.
• Image Cropper: Zooming within the image cropper should now work as expected.
• Input Fields: Entering non-numeric values into certain input fields will no longer cause the description to overlap the input.
• Search: The search field will no longer exceed the container height on mobile devices.
• Tweets: Corrected instances where replying to a Tweet wouldn’t increase the reply count appropriately.
• Video: Video playback on Safari should no longer be interrupted or paused due to hovering elements like labels and popovers.
• Video: Addressed specific scenarios where multiple videos could playback simultaneously.

The web/Windows version of Twitter continues to update on a very regular basis. A recent update added support for Fleets while evidence of Twitter Spaces, the service’s voice rooms, being tested on the web has also been found.

Want more Windows app news? Follow us on Twitter.

In the court battle of Epic Games v. Apple over monopolistic App store practices, anti-gamer info regarding Sony’s position with Crossplay somehow surfaced.

While the industry’s eyes are peeled on how Epic Games’ lawsuit alleging Apple’s App Store of anticompetitive behavior shakes out, the early discovery portion of the trial is already fielding casualties of association.

As Epic Games builds its case against Apple, emails between itself and Sony were unmasked presumably as they relate to cross-platform gaming. Among the piles of communications, Epic Games had with partners, a particular correspondence between Epic and Sony has come to light. Several emails between Sony and Epic illuminate the rather anti-gamer/pro revenue position Sony maintained to keep Crossplay functionality from becoming a feature on its platform.

Despite Epic dangling in font of Sony, exclusive promotions, conference partnerships, and various other ties in with one of the most profitable and culturally relevant games in Fortnite, Epic was unable to sway Sony’s decision to enable Crossplay between gamers on different hardware at the time.

Instead, Sony held onto the position that, “many companies are exploring this idea and not a single one can explain how cross-console play improves the PlayStation business.”

When Sony finally did warm to the idea, it was only in the context of revenue sharing and truncating potential revenue loss and not encouraging broader gaming experiences between already contentious console fans.

Documents show that as late as 2019, Sony devised a compromise to participate in Crossplay by introducing a “Cross-Platform Revenue Share” which would force publishers to pay Sony a royalty when PS gamers contributed more to a certain percentage of total cross-platform game profit. In effect, Cross-Platform Revenue Share would be put into place to prevent Sony from taking any potential losses in revenue that otherwise would have been had through exclusive play solely on the PS Network.

In addition to forcing publishers to pay out of pocket for continued gameplay, Sony’s CPRS also required a kill switch be baked into the Crossplay functionality that would disable all cross-platform interactions.

While all of the above seems clearly anti-gamer on the part of Sony, it’s unclear at this point, what stipulations and concessions were made by publishers to get Microsoft and Nintendo on board the Crossplay train.

It’s early in the Epic Games v. Apple trial and we expect to see more confidential industry news surface that’ll give more insight into the complex business of gaming. For its part, Microsoft seems to be backing Epic Games position both in spirit and practice as it recently lowered its own percentage share with publishers in its game store.

Verizon has sold 90 percent of its stake in its Yahoo holdings for $5 billion to the private equity firm Apollo Global, just $39 billion shy of what Microsoft was once willing to pay for it.

The year was 2008, and amid the burgeoning search advertisement wars, a struggling Microsoft sought to bolster its presence with a $44.6 billion bid to Yahoo to incorporate its relatively substantial search engine market share into its own portfolio.

Yahoo countered with an asking price of $57 billion, presumably undervaluing its own shares in China-based Alibaba, then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer left the negotiating table defeated. At the time, some industry analysts called Microsoft’s failed acquisition of Yahoo a black spot in its portfolio as it continued to struggle against Google for mind and market share of advertising platforms.

Eight years later, Verizon eventually sweet-talked then Yahoo CEO Marissa Myer into selling Yahoo for just $4.83 billion. At the time, Microsoft and Yahoo had reworked a continuous contract that, “required use of Bing results in Yahoo searches from 100% to 51%, and to allow Yahoo to kill the deal altogether “at-will” any time after October 2015.” Myers seemed eager to relinquish the Microsoft contract and the Verizon acquisition was a quick way to cut ties in her opinion.

Myers never got to officially end Yahoo’s contract with Microsoft and in an interesting twist, Verizon tapped Microsoft to become the exclusive search advertising platform for the network.

Fast forward 12 years, a few dozen new platforms and some questionable executive decisions from Yahoo, and the company is now being passed around for 90 percent less than what it once asked Microsoft for.

According to Verizon News Center, “funds managed by affiliates of Apollo (the “Apollo Funds”) entered into an agreement to acquire Verizon Media for $5 billion. Verizon will retain a 10% stake in the company, which will be known as Yahoo at close of the transaction and continue to be led by CEO Guru Gowrappan.”

While Microsoft’s early $44 billion Yahoo bid was a play for search advertising market share, Verizon’s later acquisition was more of a data-based ad play. Unfortunately for Verizon, Yahoo had already begun making investments in content creation under Marissa Myers that also continued into replacement Tim Armstrong’s tenure, ultimately choking the aging advertisement platform of financial resources to compete.

Neither Verizon nor Microsoft were able to affect their advertising market share via Yahoo, but only one company is really paying for that failed dream today.

Microsoft is adding FPS support to over 70 Xbox One games running on Xbox Series X|S consoles today. Free to play games like Paladins, Smite, Reams Royale, and Hyperscape can now run at 120 FPS on both the Series X and the Series S when connected to a 120Hz monitor, while other AAA games such as Far Cry 5, Anthem, or Assassin’s Creed are making the jump from 30FPS to 60FPS.

Overall, there are now 97 Xbox One games supporting FPS Boost on Xbox Series X|S consoles, and the full list is available on this page. Alien Isolation, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Halo Wars 2, Mad Max, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Wasteland 3 are also getting FPS support today, though please note some of these games don’t support FPS Boost on the less powerful Series S.

Today, we're releasing our largest drop of games featuring FPS Boost to date, bringing the total titles boosted to 97, many of which are included in @XboxGamePass and @EAPlay (included with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription). https://t.co/eCyB8KgAbQ pic.twitter.com/DDjMbRB9TL

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) May 3, 2021

FPS Boost is a system-level feature on Xbox Series X|S consoles that can double or sometimes quadruple the framerate on backwards-compatible Xbox One games. Along with Auto HDR, FPS is a feature that can really breathe some new life into these old games, and it really benefits games that were locked to 30FPS.

On the Series X, FPS Boost won’t be enabled automatically when the feature requires the game’s resolution to be reduced to ensure smooth performance. For games that support it, FPS Boost can be turned on and off under the Compatibility Options in the Manage game and add-ons setting, as explained in the video below.

It’s great to see FPS Boost support making its way to an increasing number of Xbox One games, and it’s definitely a killer Series X|S feature that Sony’s PlayStation 5 can’t match for now. Microsoft really deserves credit for its work on backwards compatibility, and many of the games supporting FPS Boost are currently available in Xbox Game Pass and EA Play.

If Xbox remains a challenger at the beginning of the 9th console generation, Microsoft was apparently planning to shake up the console market by reducing its cut on digital games sales on the Xbox Store to just 12%. That’s according to a confidential document from January filed in the Epic Games vs Apple case (via The Verge), where a table about Microsoft Store Standard Fees mention that all PC and Xbox games will move from the standard 30% cut to 12% in 2021.

Microsoft made headlines last week when it announced that the Windows 10 Microsoft Store would reduce its cut on game sales to just 12 percent in August 2021, matching what the Epic Games Store has been offering since launch. Adopting this same 12 percent cut for Xbox games would have been truly unprecedented, especially since console makers are used to selling consoles at a loss or with razor-thin margins while making big profits on games sales.

However, Microsoft has now denied in two separate statements shared with The Verge that it’s planning to reduce its Xbox Store cut to 12%. Keep in mind that the aforementioned document was filed in January, and it’s not clear what happened since then.

A Microsoft spokesperson initially said “we have no plans to change the revenue share for console games at this time,” in a statement to The Verge on Saturday, before issuing a clearer statement on Sunday.

“We will not be updating the revenue split for console publishers,” says a Microsoft spokesperson. Microsoft still refuses to answer whether the document is inaccurate, or simply that plans changed.

If it makes sense for Microsoft to follow Epic Games’ lead with its PC games store and put more pressure on market leader Steam, the company probably didn’t have a real incentive to adopt a 12% revenue cut on its Xbox Store. The move may have put some real pressure on its competitors in the console market, though it’s possible the loss in revenue could have been too important for Microsoft, especially at a time when the company is spending a lot of money to acquire new studios and bring games to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

“Console makers such as Microsoft invest significantly in developing dedicated console hardware but sell them below cost or at very low margins to create a market that game developers and publishers can benefit from. Given these fundamental differences in the significance of the platform and the business model, we have more work to do to establish the right set of principles for game consoles,” said Rima Alailyk, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Microsoft last year.

Microsoft has just unveiled the first wave of new games coming to Xbox Game Pass this month. After Grand Theft Auto V came back to Xbox Game Pass for Console in April, Red Dead Online will follow up this month on May 13.

For those unfamiliar, Red Dead Online is the standalone multiplayer experience that also ships with Rockstar Games’ critically-acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2. While not as popular as GTA Online, Red Dead Online has some fun missions that can be played in co-op, and it remains one of the most beautiful open-world games released during the previous console generation. Just like GTA V, Red Dead Online will also be available via Xbox Cloud Gaming on Android, iOS, and PCs.

Red Dead Online will be joined by Just Cause 4: Reloaded, Dragon Quest Builders 2, Just Cause 4: Reloaded, and more this month. For Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass for PC members, FIFA 21 will also be available via EA Play starting Thursday, May 6 (EA Play isn’t included with the standard Xbox Game Pass subscription).

You can find the full list of new Xbox Game Pass games with their release dates below:

• Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Console and PC) – May 4
• FIFA 21 (Console and PC) EA Play – May 6
• Outlast 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – May 6
• Steep (Cloud and Console) – May 6
• Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (Console and PC) – May 13
• Just Cause 4: Reloaded (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 13
• Psychonauts (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 13
• Red Dead Online (Cloud and Console) – May 13
• Remnant: From the Ashes (PC) – May 13

If you have yet to subscribe to Spotify Premium, the new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks for May 2021 also include 4 months of Spotify Premium in select markets, in addition to a MyTEAM bundle for NBA 2K21 and a Star Wars-themed cosmetic item for Apex Legends. All these free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate perks will be available starting tomorrow, May 4.

Last but not least, Microsoft announced today that Alan Wake, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, Dungeon of the Endless, Final Fantasy IX, Hotline Miami, and Plebby Quest: The Crusades will leave the Xbox Game Pass catalog next week on May 15. That’s it for now, but stay tuned for the second wave of new Xbox Game Pass games coming later this month.

Microsoft Edge is getting a new search experience that’s designed to let users perform a reverse image search in a sidebar. As spotted by Reddit user Leopeva64-2, the company is currently testing the sidebar search option with select Insiders on the Dev channel, but we noticed that it’s available in Edge Canary, too.

With the sidebar search, Microsoft Edge users will be able to run reverse image searches in a side panel without leaving the current tab. The search functionality is performed with Bing, and currently, the web browser isn’t offering an option to change the search engine to Google. It is similar to the “Search in sidebar” feature which was introduced to Edge stable back in January this year, and it allows users to search for information on the web.

To try out this feature, Edge Insiders will need to right-click on an image and then select the “Search in sidebar for image” option from the context menu. Search results will immediately show up in a dedicated pane on the right side of the page, showing web results and a list of related content. The feature also extracts text from the image directly and provides an option to copy it.

The reverse image search capability is only available in the most recent Microsoft Edge Canary and Dev versions at the time of writing. It appears to be a controlled rollout, as the feature isn’t available for everyone yet. This search experience will need to go through different Edge Insider channels before it becomes generally available in the production version of the web browser.

Welcome back to our Windows 10 news recap, where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s flagship operating system.

Microsoft is finally solving one of Windows 10’s most annoying issues with external monitors

An issue with multi-monitor setups on Windows 10 where desktop windows may rearrange themselves each time you resume from sleep, could finally get resolved, as Microsoft has begun testing a tweak to fix the problem.

The Windows 10 Microsoft Store is reducing its cut on game sales to 12 percent

Developers will get a bigger slice of their game sales on the Microsoft Store in Windows 10, as Microsoft is reducing its sales fee to 12%. It is hoped that this will help encourage developers to publish their games on the store.

Instagram for Windows 10 goes full PWA in latest update

The latest update for Instagram on Windows 10 has converted it into a full Progressive Web App. The update is rolling out, and it is hoped that this change will mean more speedier feature releases for Instagram on Windows 10.

Microsoft announces more than 1.3 billion Windows 10 active devices

Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 now carries more than 1.3 billion monthly active devices.

That’s it for this week. We’ll be back next week with more Windows 10 news.

Microsoft news recap is a weekly feature highlighting the top Microsoft news stories of the past week. Sit back, grab some coffee, and enjoy the read!

Microsoft Acquires Flatcar maker Kinvolk

This week saw Microsoft formally announce its acquisition of Kinvolk, the Berlin-based creator of Flatcar Container Linux, an enterprise-grade open cloud native stack. The amount paid has not been disclosed.

Halo Infinite will support cross-play and cross-progression between Xbox and PC

It has been confirmed that the next instalment of Halo, Halo Infinite, will support both cross-play and cross-progression between Xbox and PC when it launches in Fall 2021.

Epic Games won’t bring Fortnite to Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service

Epic Games has dashed hopes of Fortnite coming to Microsoft’s game streaming service, Xbox Cloud Gaming, after their Vice President of business development hinted that Xbox Cloud Gaming competes with its Epic Games Store offering on PC, and therefore Fortnite would not be coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Microsoft’s Q3 FY21 earnings point to high demand for its products

Microsoft’s latest earnings figures show a 19% revenue increase year-over-year. Areas across the company showed growth, including Xbox revenue increasing 50%, whilst Windows OEM revenue grew 10%, followed by search advertising revenue growing 17%.

This week in Microsoft Teams

New Calling experience is coming to Microsoft Teams in May

The timeline in the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre has been updated to reflect that the new Calling experience for Microsoft Teams is expected to launch in May 2021. The update is aimed at providing a more streamlined calling experience across both Windows and macOS desktop apps.

Microsoft Teams now lets meetings organizers mute audio from individual attendees

Meetings organisers can now mute audio from individual attendees, preventing the individual from unmuting. This provides an ideal solution from the current workaround of having to mute all attendees.

GitHub app in Microsoft Teams gets new personal app experience, scheduled reminders, and more

The GitHub app in Microsoft Teams has received a bunch of new features. One of the main improvements is the new ‘personal app experience’, which allows users to follow their repositories and get notifications for key events, such as commits or issues, amongst other features and improvements.

Viva Learning is now available in preview in Microsoft Teams

Viva Learning has entered public preview in Microsoft Teams. Viva Learning is designed to make it easy to find training content from providers such as LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, as well as third-party providers.

That’s it for this week. We will be back next week with more Microsoft news.

Microsoft has released a new update for its PowerToys suite of tools, bringing version 0.37 to all users. This release includes a handful of fixes and a few improvements to features such as PowerToys Run and changes to keyboard shortcuts in FancyZones, and more.

In addition to this, the company has removed the legacy Settings app and converted the Keyboard Manager tool into a separate executable process. PowerRename now has some capitalization options, too.

One important feature that still isn’t included in this release is the much-awaited Video Conferencing Mute utility, which is still available in the experimental builds. The team noted that it needs more work before it can be released to the general public. “Our goals for v0.37 release cycle Video Conference Mute work so we can bring it into the stable branch,” said Clint Rutkas, Program manager lead on PowerToys.

Here’s the full list of improvements and fixes in PowerToys version 0.37:

• FancyZones editor default launching key is Win+Shift+`
  • Windows Terminal’s new Quake mode will use Win+`. We feel this is a far better use of the keystroke.
  • Current PowerToys users can update this in our settings in the FancyZone section.
• Removed our v1 HTML based settings system

New Spec – Feedback please!

• What is new in PowerToys (SCOOBE) – Pull Request

FancyZones

• Editor UX bug fixes. Thanks @niels9001
• Monitor resolution is added to the top to directly infer the boxes on top are your monitors
• Fix for editor crash when editing a custom layout

PowerRename

• Option added for capitalization.
• Improved loading responsiveness with large sums of files.

PowerToys Run

• Changed XAML to improve rendering. Thanks @niels9001
• Disabled plugins are no longer loaded
• VS Code plugin workspaces showing up now. Thanks @ricardosantos9521

Keyboard manager

• Now an independent exe. This now runs high priority in its own process. When your CPU is under load, this should allow the process to continue to be prioritized

Color Picker

• uses a centralized keyhook. This should improve activation
• Esc for closing will no longer bubble through. Thanks @DoctorNefario

Settings / Welcome to PowerToys

• Shortcuts will stand out more
• Few accessability bugs fixed. Thanks @niels9001

Shortcut Guide

• Excluded apps for Shortcut Guide. Thanks @davidegiacometti

Installer

• new arg for starting PT after silent install

Developer quality of life

• Ability to directly debug against Settings

It is worth noting that PowerToys version 0.35 is available for users running Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) or higher. This means that users on older versions of Windows will not be able to install the latest update. However, most users will probably already be running a newer version of the OS, so it shouldn’t make a difference. As always, those who are interested in installing the tool can head to the official GitHub page to download it.

Microsoft has published its monthly recap of new features and capabilities added to the Microsoft 365 suite of apps and services. This time around, the company has detailed a bunch of improvements made to Microsoft Teams, Word, Outlook, and Excel, along with some updates to other products. Here’s a look at everything you need to know.

Microsoft Teams

First off, Microsoft Teams picked up a slew of updates this month. The first of them is the ability to use live transcription with speaker attribution in Teams meetings. The AI-powered feature was first announced in July last year, and it allows organizers and presenters to transcribe everything that the participants speak in a scheduled meeting. It is available for English-speaking users in the United States.

Microsoft has also introduced a new Meeting recap feature in Teams, which allows participants to get a quick overview of important information once the meeting is over. The meeting recap includes a meeting recording, transcript, chat, attached files, and more. External presenter support is now available for Live Events in Teams, and the app now lets organizers manage a live event as a Producer in a separate window.

In addition, Microsoft Teams is rolling out a new Breakout room retention and participant reassignment functionality to desktop users. This means that participants will now remain assigned to their breakout rooms unless the meeting organizer chooses to change them. Furthermore, the organizers can set a time limit for all breakout rooms created in a meeting session. Some of the other features added to Teams in April can be seen below.

• Microsoft Teams native notifications support is now rolling out on Windows 10
• Improvements to audio permissions settings for attendees
• Microsoft Teams for iOS gets custom backgrounds support for meetings
• Microsoft Teams public preview adds over 800 emojis and new in-meeting sharing experience
• Microsoft Viva Connections is now available for the Teams desktop experience
• Microsoft Viva Learning is now available in preview for Teams users
• Microsoft Teams on the desktop now lets users merge calls

Rounding off the features for Teams, the new AI-based polling capabilities are now coming to mobile devices. The company is also launching intelligent poll suggestions, post-meeting insights, and two new poll types, including open text and multiple-choice questions. These updates will become generally available in a couple of weeks.

Lastly, the software gaint has recently unveiled a family of new Modern accessories certified for Teams, including a webcam, a USB-C speaker, and two headsets. There are also some new features for frontline workers and Government customers, which are detailed in the Microsoft Teams blog post.

Microsoft Word

Next up is Microsoft Word. Last month, Microsoft introduced a new capability in Word for the Web that enables users to automatically convert their Word documents to PowerPoint presentations. The feature leverages the power of AI to include rich content such as images, videos, and icons in the content. The “Export to PowerPoint presentation” feature is now available in Word for the web for all Microsoft 365 subscribers. However, it currently supports the English language only.

Microsoft Excel

Excel on the web is getting a much-anticipated feature that allows file owners to keep track of the changes made to their spreadsheets when collaborating with other colleagues. The “Show Changes” maintains a history of all the revisions made to a workbook for up to 60 days and includes details such as author name, changed values, and the exact location of the change. This update is currently rolling out now to all Microsoft 365 subscribers.

Microsoft Planner, Outlook on the Web, and other updates

To end the recap, we’ll look at some updates for Microsoft Planner, Outlook, and the other Microsoft 365 apps. Microsoft has increased the number of task labels in its task management tool. Users can now add up to 25 labels in different colors to tasks across all major platforms.

In addition, Outlook on the web is getting a bit of a refreshed design this month. The app is picking up a redesigned left pane that will provide quick access to all the important elements such as contacts, calendar, email, and shortcuts to launch other Microsoft 365 apps. This change should make it easier for users to navigate the app. The company also plans to bring this capability to Outlook for Windows later this year.

Moving on to features aimed at IT professionals. The software gaint has announced some new capabilities for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to help organizations protect unmanaged devices on their networks. Finally, the Remote Desktop client for macOS has recently received an update that brings native support for the M1 chip, and Microsoft also added support to draw AWS architecture in the Visio desktop app.