Information on the latest updates from Microsoft that will affect your business.
Microsoft 365 Updates
1. Copilot Updates
NEW FEATURE
How this will affect your organisation:
- With over 150 new features, the next Windows 11 update is one of our most ambitious yet, bringing the power of Copilot and new AI powered experiences to apps like Paint, Photos, Clipchamp and more right to your Windows PC.
- Bing will add support for the latest DALL.E 3 model from OpenAI and deliver more personalized answers based on your search history, a new AI-powered shopping experience, and updates to Bing Chat Enterprise, making it more mobile and visual.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot will be generally available for enterprise customers on Nov. 1, 2023, along with Microsoft 365 Chat, a new AI assistant that will completely transform the way you work.
- Additionally, we introduced powerful new Surface devices that bring all these AI experiences to life for you, and they are available for pre-order beginning today.
- CSP offerings will start at the end of Q1 2024
- More info: Announcing Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion - The Official Microsoft Blog
Teams Updates
1. Generate unique join links for external presenters so they can easily join events
NEW FEATURE
How this will affect your organisation:
Organizers can set up events and effortlessly add external presenters, who will receive exclusive Teams join links. These links enable external presenters to directly enter the event, eliminating the need for organizers to manually admit them from the event lobby or modify their event role during the session. This creates a hassle-free event experience for organizers and presenters!
External Presenters are considered people outside of your organization, including guests (AAD/B2B/non-AAD), federated, unfederated, and anonymous users (non-AAD).
This feature is available for webinars only. This is not a Teams Premium feature.
When this will happen:
late October and expect to complete by early November.
2. Immersive spaces available soon for Public Preview
NEW FEATURE
How this will affect your organisation:
We are bringing the power of Microsoft Mesh right into the flow of work – making it easier for Teams users to transform their meetings into a 3D experience. With just one click, you can now easily have fun and connect with your team in an immersive space.
From your Teams meeting view menu, you will now see an immersive space option. Once you are in the space, choose from one of our 3D environments and experience Spatial Audio, which allows for multiple simultaneous conversations and effective communication without talking over each other. Play interactive games built for team-bonding and explore different ice breaker activities. Express yourself with live reactions to engage with others during discussions. Bring your team together, from any physical location, with a PC or Meta Quest VR devices.
This feature is available in Microsoft Teams on Windows PC and Meta Quest VR devices. Immersive spaces participants can connect with anyone in the Teams meeting, whether they are in the immersive space or not. This will be available to the following licenses: Teams Essentials, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft 365 E3/E5, and Office 365 E1/E3/E5.
More info: Multitask smarter with Microsoft 365 and Edge | Microsoft 365 Blog
When this will happen:
October 2023
3. Introducing Microsoft Teams Town hall
NEW FEATURE
How this will affect your organisation:
To simplify the virtual event experience on Teams, we are integrating our live event capabilities into our Teams meeting experience. This will create a unified experience for users whether they are hosting a small meeting, customer-facing webinar, or company-wide town hall. As a part of this integration, we are introducing Town halls in Microsoft Teams, a new experience to host and deliver large-scale, internal events to create connections across an organization. Town halls will provide a one-to-many format with advanced production capabilities and a structured approach for attendee engagement. With town halls, customers can host various types of internal as well as external events including company-wide town halls, all hands, global team meetings, internal broadcasts, fireside chats, and more.
After September 30, 2024, Teams Live Events will no longer be supported, and access will be discontinued.
When this will happen:
October 2023
4. Teams Meeting Add-in in Outlook Support for Multi-Tenant Multi-Account Scenarios
NEW FEATURE
How this will affect your organisation:
If Teams meeting scheduling is enabled in the tenant and if the user has the new Teams client installed, the user will have the ability to switch between their tenants or accounts to schedule a Teams meeting through add-in in Outlook.
When this will happen:
GA
5. Preview the new Microsoft Teams on Mac
NEW FEATURE
How this will affect your organisation:
We’re rolling out the preview of the new Microsoft Teams desktop app for Mac to our users in the Public preview and Targeted release programs. Read MC533687 that we announced in March 2023 to learn about the benefits of new Teams for Windows.
The new app is built on a foundation of speed, performance, and flexibility, saving you time and helping your organization work together more efficiently. The new Teams app enables users that manage multiple work or school accounts to collaborate more effectively across organizational boundaries. You can seamlessly engage with users across multiple accounts and organizations without having to drop out of a call or meeting, ensuring no disruption to your workflow. With multi-tenant organization (MTO), users in organizations that manage employees across multiple tenants will have the ability to search for coworkers in another tenant, have single chat thread with other users, receive real-time notifications, join meetings, and calls in another tenant, and multitask from their home tenant.
When this will happen:
Early September 2023.