Teams features. New Teams features. The latest Teams features. Just-Announced Teams features. I can understand if you tell me that you are not paying attention to what is new in Teams. New features in any application or service represent change—either optional or mandatory. And change means work. Work that you did not budget for.

Nevertheless, I am going to share some of the just-announced Teams features from Microsoft’s Inspire conference. Unlike the Barbie movie, the conference was virtual. And not overly pink. (And that is all I “Ken” say about that. Get it? I know, a groaner!)

I am not going to review the just-announced Teams features centered on new devices. Just understand that there are new Teams device vendors, and new devices from long-time Teams device vendors. I am also going to skip over the just-announced Teams features associated with Teams capabilities most of you do not use (webinars, anyone?) What I do want to review are the new features that hint at new, more “natural” ways to work. (And I acknowledge that “natural” is in the eye of the beholder.)

If you do want to see all the just-announced Teams features, here is the place to go.

Alright. Let us dive in.

Teams Gets Its Copilots

We start where every tech article these days starts: AI. Generative AI, if you want to be more precise and impress your friends. Microsoft calls its generative AI helpers “Copilots,” which is more approachable than a paper clip. (Sorry, Clippy.) And Teams gets two of them. One for Teams Phone and another for Teams Chat.

I am sure you have been on a phone call with someone, trying to listen, ask questions, and take notes all at once. It is a stressful experience. Recording the call helps, as you can replay the call later, and you can stop and start the recording like you once did with a tape recorder. (Tell me you are older without telling me you are older.) However, you are still juggling the need to listen and the desire to take notes.

Copilot for Teams Phone can generate a call summary, capture action items, and after-the-fact answer questions about the call. Now I have no excuse for forgetting what you told me.

Copilot for Teams Chat performs a similar function. It can summarize a chat thread, help you find relevant content, and answer questions about the thread. If you have some (here it comes) chatty conversations, Copilot for Teams Chat can help you dig out the important stuff.

These just-announced Teams features are available now via Microsoft’s Early Access Program.

Freedom to Zoom

(No, not that Zoom. Did you hear, they must go back to the office?)

Perhaps you have experienced this pain. You are on a Teams call. Someone shares the Excel or Word file they are discussing. But they fail to consider whether you can see the words or numbers. Thanks to this just-announced Teams feature, you can zoom or shrink your view of the file. You could do this before with the pinch-and-release method, but now there are some controls on the screen for this. You no longer need to ask the presenter to zoom in or out of the file. (Please update your Teams bingo card as necessary.)

You can access this feature if your organization is part of Teams Public Preview and you are using a Windows or macOS app, or an Edge or Chrome web client.

Collaborate to Get Those Meeting Notes Out

You know your meetings are more effective when you publish meeting notes. But you cannot delegate the task to anyone. And your schedule does not include time to create and publish meeting notes.

How can we solve this problem?

As I have said before, use OneNote to generate notes while the meeting is underway. (Did you see the item where Microsoft said it would be making OneNote one of the default tabs in any Teams channel?) And enlist all the meeting attendees to participate in creating the meeting notes. (Do not worry, OneNote can handle it.)

With this just-announced Teams feature, you begin by choosing the Add an agenda everyone can edit button when you create the meeting invitation.

When you hold the meeting, you will see a Meeting Notes pane, where everyone can add meeting notes and assign tasks. When someone assigns a task to you, it will automatically create and send you an email about the task. And (geek alert!) it will automatically update Planner and To Do. No more app switching!

Because these Meeting Notes are Loop components (see Jackie’s article here about that), the tasks can be updated wherever someone finds them. That could be Outlook, a chat message, etc. And they will be automatically added to the meeting’s OneNote notebook. Meeting participants can update their tasks using whatever method they prefer. And you can see the updates in one place. No more hunting through different apps to find updates.

You can access this feature if your organization is part of Teams Public Preview and you are using a Windows or macOS app, or an Edge or Chrome web client.

If You Know, You Know

I hope I have motivated you to check out these just-announced Teams features. I am a big fan of working without switching contexts, which is what happens when you must switch apps. Do you want to measure out a teaspoon of spice while you are making a stir fry? Or would you rather go the mise en place route and have the spices ready to put in when the time comes?

Try these new Teams features out and let me know what you think.