New offline experience for Teams, Video Conferencing Monitors etc, here is everything that was added to Teams in January 2021 »OnMSFT.com

Microsoft released a summary of all the updates to its Teams communications platform in January 2021. Some of the detailed features have already been announced, including the new Approvals app, offline experience, and more. Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know.

Chat and collaboration features

The first key area for improvement is chat and collaboration. In January 2021, the company rolled out several enhancements to Teams, including a new tool for managing approval requests. The Approvals app gives users the ability to create, manage, and share approvals directly in Microsoft Teams. It is compatible with all supported platforms including Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Automate, and SharePoint.

Additionally, there’s a new offline experience with support for queuing messages to chats and channels in Teams. The auto-send offline option will queue all messages when a device goes offline to send them later when the internet connection is restored. IT administrators can now include up to 10,000 users in an organization-wide team. You will find all the details here.

Meetings and calls functions

Moving on to meetings, the collaboration platform gained the ability to add a shared calendar to a Teams channel. The shared calendar provides quick access to all scheduled meetings and automatically sends notifications to the channel when a member creates a new meeting.

Microsoft Teams also got support for meeting chat moderation settings, allowing meeting organizers to manage participants’ ability to chat before, during, and after a meeting. The firm has increased the offer of free audio conferencing until June 30, 2021.

For calling experiences in Teams, Microsoft noted that Cataleya, ULTATEL, Atos and Patton have joined the list of certified SBCs. This integration will make it easier for Teams users to make and receive calls over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in scenarios when linked to Microsoft Phone System. To get started, be sure to check out this page.

Microsoft Teams devices and more

Teams devices also have a lot of news, and the company has detailed all the new phones, devices, and displays designed for the collaboration service. The list includes Logitech Rally Bar, Crestron Flex Mercury Mini, Yealink A30, AudioCodes RXV80, and three video conferencing monitors from Dell. These monitors come with a dedicated Microsoft Teams button that allows users to instantly join Microsoft Teams meetings. The newly announced Dell monitors will be available in February 2021.

Finally, there are also security updates and many new features for Teams for Education, frontline workers, and government customers. Microsoft Teams announced a handful of features for Power Platform and Custom Development, which can be found in the blog post.

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