Microsoft Office 2024 is only a few days old and is available at a discounted price. However, the biggest advantage of Microsoft 365 over Office 2024 is that the former is always automatically updated with the newest features, providing users with the latest and greatest Office experience. Not only that, but it's also possible, albeit a bit tricky, to track what new features the company is currently working on for your productivity suite. With this in mind, we bring you the weekly updates of all the important Microsoft 365 features which have been added to the roadmap.
3 Microsoft Teams: New dashboard, brand impersonation protection, and more
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New dashboard, new way to insert hyperlinks, and bulk operations summary in the admin center
According to Feature ID: 421185, Microsoft is working on a "Best Practices dashboard" in the Teams admin center for monitoring and addressing when specific standards aren't met. General availability is this December. Also coming in December is a new way to insert hyperlinks to your text. Instead of using the traditional hyperlink dialogue box, you'll be able to select the text and easily paste the link you want to insert (Feature ID: 420942).
A month later, Microsoft is also planning to introduce a "Bulk operations summary" in the Teams admin center to help IT admins monitor and track the status of all the bulk operations on the Teams Devices (Feature ID: 420326).
Brand impersonation protection for Teams messaging
Microsoft has plans to introduce a ton of robust privacy and security measures in Teams over the upcoming months. We'll start to see a glimpse of those changes starting next month when the company will roll out "Brand Impersonation Protection." This will help users identify when an external user is impersonating a brand to attempt fraudulent activities (Feature ID: 421190).
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Improved people search and name pronunciation
Another noteworthy feature coming next month is the ability to be able to search for content related to specific people (Feature ID: 421189). The idea is simple. All you have to do is type the name of the person in the search bar and select the filter to narrow down which type of content you want Teams to display. In addition, as per Feature ID: 420329, you'll also be able to record and share the correct pronunciation of your name to make sure that your colleagues don't mispronounce your name.
Email verification for external attendees and updated hyperlink insertion
Microsoft is working towards introducing an additional step for external attendees who want to join a Teams meeting. From January next year, meeting organizers will be able to send a one-time passcode to an external attendee's email address. This one-time passcode, in turn, needs to be used during the verification step to join the meeting (Feature ID: 418125).
Give and take control during screensharing
If you're using Microsoft Teams on the web, the company has a major feature planned for you in December. Much like the desktop version of the application, Teams for the web will also allow the use of the give and take control function during screenshare (Feature ID: 420327), allowing meeting participants to remotely control each other's screens.
2 Microsoft Outlook: Delivery and read receipts for mobile
Last week, Microsoft also announced some exciting features for the Outlook mobile client. Starting this November, Outlook for Android and iOS will let users request both delivery and read receipts while composing emails (Feature ID: 421361). Not only will you be able to respond to those requests, but also be able to set preferences for future read receipts.
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1 Copilot for Microsoft 365: Copilot on OneNote Canvas, and to create charts in Business Chat
Source: mockup.photos
Microsoft introduces new Copilot features for Microsoft 365 users every month, and November will be no exception. One of the functionalities expected to arrive next is the ability to use simple prompts to create charts, graphs, and data analysis in Business Chat (Feature ID: 420363). What's more, from January next year, OneNote Canvas will allow users to invoke Copilot to "generate a summary, a to-do list, or help you rewrite the content on the page or based on your selection." However, this will be limited to desktop users (Feature ID: 417476).
Release timelines are subject to change
As is the case with every feature addition on the roadmap page, the release timelines of the above changes are tentative. In other words, Microsoft might delay some of them if need be. But even if it does delay some of them, we'll keep getting updates on upcoming Microsoft 365 features via the roadmap page every week.