New Microsoft Teams features to try this 2023

Teams ended 2022 by announcing new features and additional certified devices for its service.

Some of the biggest additions to try are the long-awaited Delete Chats option that allows the removal of entire threads and the @mention feature for easy addition of new participants to the conversation. The AI tech of Teams will also now offer recommendations of names when you start new conversations, while the Teams emoji selection just got expanded to over 800 choices. Teams also tapped the accessibility section by rolling out the Sign Language View and the ability for the captions to stay activated across all meetings. Microsoft also announced that the resource-specific consent permission model is now on its chat and channel scope, allowing users to request team owners to consent for a bot to receive user messages across standard group chats without being @mentioned.

Teams devices also received new touch-enabled features, such as chat bubbles, walk up and use Microsoft Whiteboard, bring Whiteboard into an ad hoc meeting, a redesigned share menu and Whiteboard support, and touch awareness and 4K display support. And speaking of devices, Microsoft just added new Teams-certified gadgets to its list, including Neat Bar Pro, Jabra Evolve Buds, Jabra Evolve 2 55 Headset, and EPOS EXPAND Vision 1.

Earlier in December, the integration of Adobe Acrobat into Teams made the news. Now, Microsoft made more features to help the PDF service complement Teams better. It includes the completed approval requests in the form of PDFs, allowing users to save, print, and transfer them. Additionally, users can now set Adobe Acrobat as their default PDF app in Teams.

Microsoft also prepared features for its specific customers like the US government and frontline workers. For the former using the government clouds, there will now be an option to view meeting transcripts on Android and iOS. Meanwhile, frontline workers using shared devices can now try Edge and Yammer apps on Android alongside Teams in a public preview.

Here is the full list of features recently added to different sections of Teams service:

Chat and collaboration

• Delete Chats
• Expanded reactions
• Add people to a group chat with @mention
• Recommended people when creating a new message
• Receive all group chat messages with resource-specific consent
• Sign Language View and always-on captions in meetings

Devices

• New touch and collaboration experiences for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android
• Walk up and use Microsoft Whiteboard
• Bring Microsoft Whiteboard into an ad hoc meeting via the “Start Meeting” option on the local Whiteboard screen
• Redesigned share menu and Microsoft Whiteboard support for resource accounts
• Touch awareness and 4K display support
• Chat bubbles during meetings
• Hardware occupancy sensor integration
• Newly certified devices: Neat Bar Pro, Jabra Evolve Buds, Jabra Evolve 2 55 Headset, and EPOS EXPAND Vision 1

Platform

• Approvals as PDFs can be saved, printed, and transferred
• Adobe Acrobat streamlines the PDF experience in Teams

Frontline workers

• Frontline workers using shared devices can use Edge and Yammer apps on Android alongside Teams.

Government

• View meeting transcripts on Microsoft Teams on Android and iOS for Government clouds