Can you believe it's been two years since Microsoft Teams launched?
A collaboration app set to change the workplace as we know it, Microsoft Teams has had a massive impact on the communication marketplace. In 2 years, it's stormed ahead of countless competitors, to claim its place as one of the most popular and appealing apps on the market.
To celebrate two fantastic years, Microsoft recently announced some thrilling news and shared a host of new features that will be coming to Teams in the weeks ahead. The news, first of all, is that Teams has seen an enormous growth in customer usage. More than 500,000 organisations, including 91 of the Fortune 100 are using Teams for collaboration across multiple time-zones, locations, and languages. That's over double the number of corporate entities using Teams a year ago (200,000).
Microsoft also announced that their entire network has now moved from Skype for Business to Teams, after a four-month migration of 180,000 vendors and employees. Microsoft now relies on Teams for everything from calling, to meetings and chat.
Updating the Collaboration Experience
Alongside the good news, Microsoft's latest update also comes with an introduction to eight brand-new features for Teams users. According to a press release by Microsoft, the company is focused on improving collaboration by helping businesses to move away from the age of disconnected and siloed apps, into a single and reliable hub for work.
To pursue this goal, Microsoft will be adding new features into the Microsoft Teams experience, following on from their recent introduction of the custom mobile Teams experience in January. The eight new capabilities are intended to make meetings more effective and inclusive while providing high-level compliance and security.
New Microsoft Teams Features Available Today
With so many Team Collaboration features to sort through, let's start by looking at the ones you can find on your Teams application today:
- Data Loss Prevention in conversations and chats: Customers can now automatically detect, protect, and test for sensitive information in every discussion. Through advanced data loss protection policies, administrators will have the opportunity to protect their private data more aggressively and stop it from being leaked outside of the organisation. The service is now available in all Microsoft and Office 365 plans that include Advanced Compliance
- Microsoft 365 Live Events: Users in Microsoft 365 can now create on-demand and live events that offer exciting communication solutions to partners, customers, and employees. Live events use interactive discussions and videos across Yammer, Teams, and Stream, and can support up to 10,000 attendees. Artificial intelligence features also included, such as automatic transcription
- Microsoft Whiteboard for Teams: Make your Teams meeting experiences even more immersive with the Whiteboard canvas. With upcoming support for Microsoft Teams Rooms whiteboards, anyone can get involved with multi-level collaboration experiences. Whiteboard in Teams keeps everyone involved in the conversation
Previews Coming Soon
Among their Microsoft Teams new feature announcements, Microsoft also revealed two upcoming features that are "coming soon" as previews for users. These features include:
