What’s New in Microsoft Teams

by - 1 June 2021
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Microsoft has announced new features for Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams, here’s what you need to know about the latest Microsoft Teams updates.

Set an out of office reply Teams 

You can now set an out of office status in Microsoft Teams, just as you can in Microsoft Outlook, here’s how:

1. Click on your profile picture in the top right-hand corner 

2. Select Set Status Message

3. Select Schedule Out of Office 

or

1. Go to Settings

2. Go to General

3. Go to Out of Office

4. Select Schedule

You can personalise the response and choose how long it is active, just like you can in Microsoft Outlook.

Lobby settings for people you invite

Teams Meetings now has the option to make attendees go into a lobby before joining a meeting, you can set this to be all attendees or only selected attendees. 

These settings can be found within the Meeting options menu, in the dropdown menu next to ‘Who can bypass the lobby’ you will find all the available options.

Meeting attendee mic settings

The ability to unmute attendees, even if their hand isn’t raised, is now available. You can also prevent specific attendees from unmuting during a Teams Meeting. Here’s how:

1. Open the participant list within the Microsoft Teams meeting

2. Select the More options 3 dot menu next to the person’s name

3. Select Don’t allow to unmute 

Share an email to Teams from Outlook

In Microsoft Outlook you will see a ‘Share to Teams’ button available in the ribbon menu.

Clicking this button will share the selected email to a new chat in Microsoft Teams, it will populate the chat participants based on whom the email was sent to, in a draft format so you can add/remove people as needed.

Add your own features through Apps 

Have you checked out the Microsoft Teams app store? There are thousands of apps and integrations available, here are a few of our favourites:

1. Polly – create quick surveys for your team to vote on options. 

2. Microsoft Forms – create detailed quizzes and polls for gathering detailed information.

3. Microsoft Channel Calendar – create a calendar for a channel and allow all members to add events and view the calendar

4. Microsoft Approvals – a hub for approvals across all systems. Create flows for things like leave requests or expense claims

How Powernet Can Help?

If you have questions about how you can use these features, and others, in Microsoft Teams, reach out to our IT Support teams across MelbourneSydney and Brisbane. We are Microsoft Certified and can help you get started, get in touch to learn more.