Microsoft Office 365 News 09-09-2020: New Teams Features Include Custom Meeting Logos, Spotlight Option and More

microsoft office 365 logo.This week’s Microsoft Office 365 round-up includes several new Teams features, including custom logos for meetings, support for up to 20,000 attendees for tenants with the Advanced Communications add-on, the ability to spotlight one video feed in meetings, and more.

New Features

    • Yammer reactions
      • What’s happening: Yammer end users will soon have the ability to react to comments and conversations. This feature is only included with the new Yammer.
      • Rollout start: Mid-September 2020
      • Rollout finish: End of September 2020
    • Custom images for Teams meetings
      • What’s happening: Teams admins will soon have the option to upload a customized logo for all meetings. Please note, however, that the logo will only show up in meetings where the organizer holds an Advanced Communication license.
      • Rollout start: The option to upload the image will show up in the admin center in early September 2020.
      • Rollout finish: The logo will show up in meetings by late September 2020.
    • Teams meeting support for up to 20,000 attendees
      • What’s happening: Teams will soon allow up to 20,000 attendees per meeting as view-only participants. This feature will be available to tenants with the Advanced Communications add-on.
      • Rollout date: End of September 2020
    • Teams meeting spotlight feature
      • What’s happening: Presenters in Teams meetings will soon be able to designate a specific video feed as the “spotlight” and make it the main video all participants see.
      • Rollout start: Mid-September 2020
      • Rollout finish: End of September 2020
    • Teams incoming video support for web meetings on Safari 13+
      • What’s happening: Teams meetings will soon support incoming video in web meetings on Safari 13 and later.
      • Rollout start: Early September 2020
      • Rollout finish: End of September 2020
    • Option to print a blank form in Microsoft Forms
      • What’s happening: Microsoft Forms owners will soon be able to print a blank form for people who can’t complete a form online.
      • Rollout start: End of August 2020
      • Rollout finish: Mid-September 2020
    • Mute Yammer communities for the weekly digest email and Home Feed
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is giving Yammer users the ability to mute communities from both the Home Feed and weekly digest email.
      • Rollout date: Early September 2020
    • Microsoft Calling Plans launch in European markets
      • What’s happening: Microsoft will soon launch Microsoft Calling Plans in the following European markets: Austria, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden.
      • Rollout date: Oct. 1, 2020
    • Public Preview: New individual user diagnostics in Power Platform admin center
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has released a new feature in public preview that allows admins to run diagnostics on end users via the Power Platform admin center. This capability can help with the investigation and resolution of user access issues. Please note that this feature is only available for environments with a Common Data Service database.

Updated Features

    • Enhanced visibility of Teams floating call controls on mobile devices
      • What’s happening: Microsoft plans to change the behavior of Teams meeting floating call controls so that they’re always visible on mobile devices (including tablets and Android and iOS phones).
      • Rollout start: Late September 2020
      • Rollout finish: End of October 2020
    • Updated OneDrive and SharePoint file comment notifications
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is updating OneDrive and SharePoint file comment notifications.
      • Rollout start: Early September 2020
      • Rollout finish: Mid-October 2020
    • Updated minimum iOS system requirements for Outlook for iOS and watchOS
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to change the minimum iOS system requirements for Outlook for iOS and watchOS. When iOS 14 becomes generally available, Outlook for iOS will add support for iOS 14, and the supplier will change the minimum system requirements for the Outlook for iOS app to iOS 13, removing support for iOS 12. Where watchOS is concerned, Microsoft plans to remove support for watchOS 4 and 5.
    • Updated name of Discover feed section in Outlook for iOS
      • What’s happening: Microsoft plans to update the name of the Discover feed section to Recommended on the Outlook for iOS Search home page. The feed will also soon include access to recorded Teams online meetings and SharePoint news. The supplier plans to update the feed for Android users at a later date.
    • Enhanced Teams meeting participant reports
      • What’s happening: Earlier this year, Microsoft implemented Teams meeting participant reports so that organizers could see join and leave times. The supplier plans to make improvements to these reports to include more data.
      • Rollout start: Mid-September 2020
      • Rollout finish: Mid-October 2020

Announcements

    • Delayed rollout of new Teams calling and meeting experience
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to give Teams users the ability to view meetings and calls in separate windows, along with some other updates and new features. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has decided to delay this deployment.
    • Delayed rollout of Power Platform features for Teams
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to add Power Platform capabilities to Teams to facilitate the creation, deployment and management of apps and chatbots. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has delayed the deployment of these features.
    • Delayed rollout of Call Merge feature for Teams
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced the implementation of a Call Merge feature for Teams, which would give end users the ability to merge an active 1:1 call with a group call or another 1:1 call. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has delayed this deployment.
    • Delayed rollout of new Teams file sharing experience
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to make the file sharing and access control experience in Teams similar to other Microsoft 365 apps. Based on learnings from early rings, the supplier has decided to make improvements to the code before continuing the rollout.
    • Delayed rollout of Teams multiple number dialing
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced the implementation of a new feature that supports dialing multiple numbers for a given user in Teams. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has delayed this deployment.
    • Delayed rollout of general availability for new Outlook on the web tasks experience
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced the implementation of a new tasks experience for Outlook on the web. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has delayed the transition of this feature from preview to general availability.
    • Delayed rollout of updated Office.com home page layout and navigation
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to update the app navigation and layout for the Office.com home page as well as the Office app in Windows 10. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has delayed the deployments of this update.
    • Retirement of some WebPartPagesWebService API methods
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has identified an issue with certain WebPartPagesWebService API methods that could affect data integrity. As a result, the supplier plans to retire these methods: AddWebPart, AddWebPartToZone, SaveWebPart, SaveWebPart2, and GetWebPartPageConnectionInfo.
      • Retirement date: Early October 2020 to mid-October 2020

For more information about Microsoft Office 365, please take a look at our blog series detailing the business value of the suite. Our expert techs also have extensive experience working with Office 365, as well as other IT solutions. To learn more, give us a call at 877-599-3999 or email sales@stratospherenetworks.com.

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